You can trade your leased car in at anytime - or sell it at anytime, just like a purchased vehicle. There is a loan to pay off, and typically, the leased vehicle needs to be kept about 6 months longer than the purchased one to break even on the over/under value. Also, it depends on the car - these G's hold value really well.

Making the decision to lease is good for many reasons, already mentioned here. If your looking to capitalize on cash flow and have the car, and have the opportunity to buy/lease again in a few years - the lease is the way to go. The write off works well too.

You can always tell a good lease from a bad one simply. If the buyout at the end is within $1k - $2K of the same deal for a purchase, then you basically got the same deal, considering you usually put nothing down on the lease to begin with, and you'd pay that money at the beginning of the purchase anyways.

Good luck and enjoy your new G!

 

Well you could buy it, I could just say to Infiniti I want to buy the car now and finance 21k over 3 years then turn around and sell it to someone. Or if you already have a buyer then I could sell it and then just pay off the Leasing company. Basically at the end of the lease Infiniti either wants the car back, or their 21k that they say its worth.

 

You can also trade it in at another dealer/manufacturer if you decide to go a different route in the end or during. Just remember, Infiniti will give you a much better deal on a lease trade-in than another dealer.

Also, if you trade-up in class and value, most any dealer will make good on a few dollars short on the lease. Until you have equity in the car, your screwed for the difference in either a lease or purchase. So if the high BB value is $26k, and they give you the standard, 20% under low bluebook - hope you have about $5k or so in equity, or enough down payment in the beginning to offset it, or a more expensive car that you got discounted enough to cover the under - or just pay the money and move on.

 

MAN...Where were you at, when I needed ya? Just read the thread couple below of this one, could've use your help with my "squabble" with certain someone ...I just could not articulate my thought as well as you

 

The way i see it, heres all the ways your lease can end.

1) full term, turning in you car at the end of the lease back to dealer.
2) Totalled, stolen.
3) Lease trade, having someone else take over the lease.
4) Purchase car from finance company, this includes private sale of the car on yer own, you are still buying the car from the finance company.
5) Getting a new lease from same car company before lease term is over.

In case number 1 and 4, down payment helps you. If you take it full term, down payment reduces your capitalized cost which would have been subject to interest.
In the realworld though, the savings could be truly trivial. With these IFS subsdized leases and their super low money factors, the interest rate equivalents is so low, if you pocket the money, you could prob do better even in a simple savings account.

Let me address this lease as long term loan idea. If you want to look at it that way fine, except theres this little problem with the LAW.
As far as everyone is concerned, even if you see it as a "loan", in the eyes of the law, the insurance company and everyone else involved, it is not a loan.

The owner of the car is still the finance company, and in the event of number 2, i dont think you will even see the actual check from the insurance, it flows straight to the real owner of the car.
Look im not a pessimist, i never buy extended warranties from best buy, i dont think the sky is falling, but if theres a risk to losing the down payment, why do it?
Even in case of number 5, my bros in law got a sign and drive lease and he had no problems getting into a new lease with over a year left on his old VW. So i really dont know what role his payoff amount factored into getting a new lease, but i honestly dont think it mattered whether he paid his fees up front or residulaized it.

Which brings us to 4.. look i dont want to judge, if you have sold your lease cars fine, if you leased as a means to buy, sure. Except i really dont think leasing is the most efficient way to purchase a car.
Another big reason most ppl lease is so they dont have the hassle of selling their car.
With case 3, if im going to trade the lease, why pay fees/taxes for portion of the car im not gonna use?

The way i see it, im gonna be in either case 1, 3 or 5. With the risk of 2, i still dont see the logic of money down.

Look, im just a cheap bastard, i want the best possible deal with the lowest risk. If putting money down really makes sense, i'll do it.(this is my first lease) Im not looking to have the lease company make money on my back with a higher cap cost, but the money factors IFS has offered lately is in many ways an incentive to move cars, and not such a huge money maker on their own. (When i was shopping, acura, bmw, audi and subarau's MF on 05's were not lower than my 06 numbers from IFS, and no one other mfg could touch the 59% resiudual)

Reducing the amount you are charged interest on makes sense to me in theory, but im just not sure how well it works in light of all of the mitigating factors. (Sorry for the long a$$ post)

 

Oops! Ignore.

 

a lot of people have chosen to lease the car for a low payment and buy it out especially 6mt's which mechee is correct..... i straight up told a few of my customers to do that and they listened and got a lot of their money back. i don't have a say what the rates will be on a lease or a finance but it does seem to work out better lately and 90% of people are leasing now

 

WOW, just WOW.
Hey im just a schmuck, like i said, im on my first lease.
What you guys are saying is completely 180 degrees absolutely contrary to everything ive read/heard online and off.
Whoever said they were gonna write a FAQ, please do, cuz im all kinds of confused.
This is a direct quote from edmunds, straight from their lease guide.
I have never heard of the lease company refunding anything, if you guys say so, im sure they must.
But i think i would still have problems with the finance company making many of those decisions.

 

Upon reading the fine print of the lease agreement it is in fact true that amounts used to reduce the capitalized cost (down payment) are NOT refunded in the event of a total loss from Infiniti! I was a bit confused by this, so I called my insurance company (21st Century) and talked to a manager in their total loss department. They assured me that for a lease we are continually gaining equity from the lease payments and down payment. In the event of a total loss the current market value of the car would be assessed. The residual would be paid to Infiniti, plus the remaining value of the lease agreement (remaining monthly payments), and the difference would be paid to me. They said these policies vary from state to state, but they assured me that this was the case for California. I then spoke with Infiniti directly and they said that due to their specific contract terms, no money will EVER be refunded to the customer in the event of a total loss. They said other car companies' leases sometimes differ in this respect. So in the end it seems that it is in fact risky to put down large down payments on a lease!

 

I was able to lease an 05 G35 Sedan automatic with Premium, Aero, and Sport packages for $460 a month in may of 05. This was a zero money down, no bank fees, taxes included in the $460 lease. I paid $460 and the lease is for 39 months 15K per year. These $500+ payments I hear sound very steep to me.

 

There's nothing magical about lease payments. Given the price of the car, the money down, the APR (or money factor), and the residual percentage, the lease payments are fixed! Since the residual isn't negotialbe and the best APR offered by Infiniti is fixed, all you can negotiate is the price of the car. Once that's set, you get to pick your monthly payment as a function of your money down.

 

leasing is a smart way mostly if you make a lot of money cuz it'll be tax deductible. it's kinda like driving for free rather than giving your money to the government.