Ok so honestly dont know that much about how leases work but just started thinking about something last night that made me think leasing a car and then buying it in two years might be better option... but at the same time what im thinking seems to simple so i assume im wrong! Anyways here goes:

So if i decided to lease an 06 G35 from what i understand my monthly payments is basically amount the car will depreciate over the term of the lease plus some finance fees and the pro rated tax. Before signing the lease the lease buyout is set to be the projected depreciated value of the car in X years ( where X years is the length of the lease). If at the end of the lease you decide you want to keep the car you can finance or buy the car outright for the residual value plus tax. So from what i can tell if you planned on buying the vehicle outright from the get go all you are really paying is the extra intrest since you are financing the car for 7 years ( 2 year lease plus 5 year finance) instead of just financing the car for 5 years from the get go.

So for example lets say the car i wanted was 30k and if i were to buy it and have affordable monthly payments i planned on putting down 10k which works out to being around 4k in interest over the 5 years of financing. Now say i lease and ideally put no money down and in two years the buy out is 22k. I then go ahead and finance the car putting down the 10k i saved two years back so im financing 12 k over 5 years which is 2.5k in interest. So in the end im paying the finance amount for the lease plus 2.5k in interest on the remaning 5 year loan. Obviously im ignoring sale tax and what not here but i think for the sake of argument we can included that in the car cost. Now what im trying to wrap my head around is say the additonal interest i pay for leasing then financing is 2k.. then overall im paying 4.5k for the lease+finance instead of the 4k for the finance only.... so if this is the case isnt it a question of opportunity cost? if i keep my 10k and lease the car and invest the 10k somewhere else and make more than 500 bucks in two years wouldnt it be a good idea to lease then buy? Or in the least if im ok with the additional interst i pay over 7 years because i have more money in my pocket monthly but less longer term? Are there site out there where i can figure this out? Again i dont know much about all this ... im just trying to figure if i want to put down 10k+ right now and buy the car or lease and use that money for something that can actually appreciate in value.... thanks in advance guys

It looks like you want to keep the car by reading your thread. I would just down as much as you can and buy (finance) the car. I am currently leasing my car for 4 years and am paying $480.00 including tax. 0 down, 0 out the door and paying only 47 months. My res. is $18,990.00 after the lease with 12k miles annually.

Good luck.

I lost my focus in middle of third pargraph(sorry)...let me say this tho, you WILL end up paying more if you keep your leased car after the term is up, cause you are paying interest(M/F) on whole amount of the purchase price not just the depreciating amount, so you were right about paying interest for 7 years rather than just 5.

If you invest that 10K during the lease? why cant you invest it when you purchase(finance) it? you dont have to put 10k down, you just pay extra 180~190 a month.

You will usually pay more if you're not using the car as a tax write-off by buying it at the end. The 36 month term is usually the sweet spot for most leases. If you're not going to keep your car for more than 36 months you should lease. If you plan on keeping the car longer term then you should purchase the car outright.

Isnt it what I said in essence? not sure if you're agreeing with me or not

I was agreeing with you. Just added more.