try http://www.autoleasedirect.com as another resource - the payments it gave were pretty close to my actual IFS payment

 

For myself, I tend to keep cars for a longer time, liking the period between cars where I don't have to make payments. My last car, I kept for 7 1/2 years. I was therefore able to put $10,000 on my G35 (of which $1800 came from selling my previous car first).

And I probably would have put more down, but with only 3.4 percent on the loan, it didn't seem to make too much sense. I can put extra money down on my house and come out ahead, and keep an emergency fund in savings.

2004 Sedan/DVD Navigation/Desert Platinum/Willow

 

I agree with you, putting that much down is the only way to go, and I like the option of keeping the car longer if I decide to, without having to buy it at the end of the lease!


Brilliant Silver/Graphite '04 Sedan/5AT

 

No, I don't know where you got that idea. I never had two cars. I had a lease on a 1998 Q45 for 5 years. I bought the car at the end of the lease last summer because my FICO score was so low, I could not lease another vehicle. Even though I had never missed a lease payment on the car, there was this parking ticket had refused to pay which ended up on my credit, so even though I paid $660 a month religiously for the Q and all of my other bills were paid on time, ONE single $75 parking ticket (which was paid in full over a year ago) dropped my score 100 points (around 570), which is horrible.

Once my score returned to a semi-normal state (for me), then I was able to do this lease on the G35.

The lease is a better tax write off for me. Last year, the Q was a $10,000 write off. When you lease, you can deduct the entire amount of the lease payment as an expense when you use your car for work as I do. On a purchase, you can only deduct the interest you are paying on the payments. Or, you can attempt to depreciate the vehicle, but you have to "recapture" the depreciation at the time of sale.



--don

Full speed ahead, Mr. Sulu!

 

Im getting my 04 Sedan with premium package (5AT) for 5k drive off (first and last month payment, liscense, tax, etc..) on a 39 month lease, and my monthly payments are $295. I got the car for a couple hunred below invoice, so thats helping.