Any and all opinions welcomed. Benefits vs disadvantages also welcomed. Flames and negative posts prohibited.......Lets begin.

 

Well, I lease because I like to change cars a lot. Leasing allows you to "buy" without the down payment. To get the same payment you have to put a big down payment. I have leased my last 7 cars.

 

finance is the better way to go, but if you like making payments for a car that you dont even own then lease.

 

No offense but I question a little of your opinion since you -"Perf tire & wheel with 18's - those 19's have to go"

 

I'm leasing...for me since i don't travel much to work/home i'm a perfect lease candidate...not to mention cars get old.....look at everyone anxious to want/install the new 06 model/parts when they just got their 05 or 04...not saying a i blame anyone....but that's just it...i like to change cars...sure it's not something i "own" but when it's time to give it up for a the GT-R...i'm all for it....now will i buy or lease that...i dunno....I think my deal was pretty good I dropped $1000 and pay $475/month....I had $12K to drop and could've "owned" it and have $0 but instead i have $11K still in my pocket...hmm...To me that was a better deal....cash for a rainy day or broke...hmmm....

 

You own the car after 5 years, it's worth next to nothing.way to go mate.

 

typically cars are worth roughly 1/2 their original value after 5 years. depending on the car of course, some cars retain better values than others. To say it's worth next to nothing is a hyperbole.

if you plan to keep your vehicle for a long period of time, i.e. run it to the ground, then owning a vehicle makes more sense because you get more mileage out of your investment (no pun intended).

if you like to turn your cars around every 3 or so years, then leasing makes sense but only on certain cars. remember that a car depreciates most heavily in the first few years. After a while, the precipitous decline will slow down dramatically. Thus when you lease, you should also realize that you are playing at the most steep point in a car's value curve.

 

You are right on target, end of story.

I considered a lease on my 996. I shopped around for the best lease price and the best I could get for a 996 equipped the way I wanted was $1275 a month for a 36 month/30K mile lease. So I bought the car for $78K; it had a sticker of almost $84K. I sold it three years later for $54K. So the 996 cost me $24K or $8K a year or less than $700 a month. Yes, I know I'm not calculating the Present Value of money, and yes I know I didn't consider the lost opportunity for the money I had tied up in the 996, but it's comparing a cost of $24K for a purchase vs nearly $46K for a lease.

The only benefit of a lease is that it enables you to drive a car that you couldn't otherwise couldn't afford to drive. Salesmen love leases because it plays right into the hands of their age old question: how much can you afford to pay per month? And man do I have a deal for you, but you must buy today. It's so unbelievably lame, but it still works.

 

In general, this is exactly true. However, there is a delta function notching down the value of a used model when the company puts out the "Newly redesigned" model. Typical car lifecycle is 5-6 years. I'm not saying you'll necessarily like the new one better, but Kelley BB will administer the hit to your value curve nonetheless. I prefer to let the bank take that gamble. If they assumed too high of a residual, your payments are lower, and often they will "Make you an offer" to cut the price at turn-in. If they assumed too low, your payments were still less than buying and you could finance itat that point and sell it yourself. Your "Lease charge" at that point is comparable to ~5% APR had you financed it, so as long as you do your homework and pay attention to the numbers, lease end is just an optional break point. If you like it, keep it. If you can profit, pay the ballon off and sell it. If you're ready for the next one, hand over the keys.

House re-fi and buy outright is off topic.

Lease if:
You like having new cars when they come out.
Your monthly payment is critical.
Your down-payment is limited.
Your commute is not excessive (i.e. High mileage, wear & tear, etc...).
No plans to heavily modify (There are exceptions).

Finance if:
You plan to keep the car after it's paid off.
You think this car is "The One."
You plan to heavily modify (If not de-modded, it will typically hurt resale).
You can get 0% APR

I leased mine and have no regrets. After 37 more payments, this baby's all there's .

 

That's a load of crap. I could've paid cash for my G35 Coupe but I leased it instead with $0 down. A vehicle DEPRECIATES. Why should I put my money into something that loses value when I can use it elsewhere and make more money? When you lease, you only pay for the part of the car that you "use". Absolutely nothing wrong with that and if you change cars every 2-3 years like I do, it works out great.

 

^^ I agree with AV...Hence my post up above....

 

i dont get some of you. You guys make assumption that one way is better then the other. Some of you not taking into consideration the life style or preferences that some poeple have.

As far as it being cost effective. Its only better to buy if you keeping it for more then 5yrs or you are able to pay the car off in 5 or 3yrs. But that also means less money in your pocket. I'm trying to live a life where i want to do different things not spend most of my paycheck paying the car off.
Plus if you want to get rid of the car say in 3yrs and you have a loan on it for 5, you better hope you put a large down payment on it or you will wind up with little to no money in a trade in.

Leasing works great if you want to keep the payment down, plus like to switch cars around. Most people mod their cars... keep them for 3-4 yrs and get rid of them. So might as well lease... mod then ...sell mods of and go for another car. Yes there is such thing as milage restrictions, but then again.... you can get a lease that suits your driving style.

I always hate where people think one sided when it comes to saying lease is better or buying is better... think from both side of the spectrum.

 

I love it when people make pronouncements without having any clue as to what they are talking about. Whether it is better to lease or buy depends on circumstances, finances, what you plan to do with the car, etc. You lose money on depreciation whether you buy or lease. A car is not an investment, it is always a money losing proposition, so that is one thing you have to keep in mind. So what if I "have something" at the end of financing a car? If someone paid $40,000 to have a car worth $15,000 at the end of five years or I paid $20,000 and at the end of five years I have nothing, who came out ahead?

People always forget that there's a real cash value to use of money--it is called opportunity costs. So, if I am leasing with a $1,000 down and $400 a month I am getting use of money I would not have if I put the same down on a purchase and was paying $600-$700 a month. If I own my own business and am buying a car instead of leasing, I'm likely not making a good financial decision since a lease is a write-off. If there's a great deal on leases and I get extremely low financing (the car I leased for my wife has a money factor approximately equal to 0.75% APR) it is certainly better to lease, since you're essentially getting a loan for free.

There is no right answer to the question. Do some research and decide what is right for you. Anyone telling you one way or the other is correct is talking out their ***.

 

The big differance for me in making the decision between buying and leasing is residual value. Since I always sell my cars privately and I always buy cars that historically retain a high resale value, I lose less money on depreciation by buying vs leasing. Leasing companies are in the business of making money on leases and they are quite good at their jobs. Hence, the residual values that they list for their leased cars is very, very conservative. Some cars like BMWs in general, do much better with their residuals than the average car. But even with BMWs, the residuals aren't that great.

Again, I'll provide a real world example. I looked into leasing my '02 M3 before I purchased it. Naturally the stealer was pushing the leasing option real hard. Now for those of you who aren't familar with the M3, it retains its value extremely well. The residual value for an M3 for a 3 year/36K lease was 60% in 2002. I checked several sources and the residual was always the same for that term. Now since the discounted price for my M3 was a tad over $54K, that means that the residual value was $32,400.

If you want to make a BMW stealer go into convulsive laughter, tell him that you would like to buy an '02 M3 with 36K miles for $32K. Ain't gonna happen. BTW a little over two and a half years after purchase, I sold my M3 privately for $44,500. Granted that my car was in perfect condition and it had only 19K miles on the odometer, but you get the picture.

OK, maybe buying isn't the best option for everyone, but it certainly is for me. There are those who don't like to sell cars privately and don't want to worry about what their cars will be worth after a few years. But for the buyer who selects his cars very carefully with respect to future value, who fights very hard for the lowest possible purchase price, and doesn't mind selling cars privately, it's hard to argue against purchasing.