Own Or Lease

[Piranha]

what do u prefer to do. own or lease ur vehicle. my family owns all of our vehicles. my dad averages 35,000 miles per year so we cant lease. and this is just my parents opinion but they think you should only have what you can afford. so id like to see other peoples opinions on this. lease or buy

[amf1932]

As far As I'm concerned, I buy! It has proven in the long run the cheapest way of buying a car. Naturally you have to have the $ to do this. If you don't, the next best thing is to take a loan from a bank that'll give you the lowest interest rate. Leasing a car is the most expensive way of purchasing a car. If you can write off this lease as a business deduction all the better. The only thing about a lease or a loan that I don't like is the car really doesn't belong to you until it's paid off. Finally, you have to weigh these alternatives and see what works for you.

[ticman]

I have leased 5 ES300 since 1993 and for me, the lease is the best deal.

Paying cash for a car and keeping it until it falls apart is the cheapest way to buy a car.

Financing a car purchase is the next least expensive way to own a car.

Leasing is expensive car ownership, but you have to tie up the least amount of your cash in order to get into a new car.

I have convinced myself that I will always have a "car" payment. BUT I get a new car every 3 years and do not have any maintenance expense other than oil changes and the like.

For me it works and I love it.

[H8R Proof]

I have never leased and I don't anticipate that I ever will.

To me, at leased car would seem like an expensive rental. It's never really going to be mine, unless I opt to buy it at the end of the lease, and don't you lose money that way?

Also, I don't think I'd want to constantly have to remind myself to stay within the mileage limit. (Ironically, I only average about 8K a year)

I had to convince myself too, that I'll probably always have a car payment. This was a bitter pill to swallow, since I literally had 3 payments left on my 92 ES300 before I'd own it free and clear, but it needed work that I wasn't willing to pursue, so I had to bite the bullet and start over again with the 98 that I have now. Mind you, I love my car, but I was really trying not to have a car payment! I just realized that it's a necessary evil for life in the big city.

And with leases, don't you have to fork over a huge amount of cash at signing?

On the other hand, I would *love* to have a new car every three years. That would be sweet. That's the one thing about leasing that definitely appeals to me, in addition to not having to worry about major maintenance.

I don't feel bad about financing, especially knowing how well Lexus holds it's value. I'd be majorly hesitant to finance anything else. You can almost feel that depreciation slap you on the back of the head the minute you drive off from the dealerships' lot!

[amf1932]

Paying cash for a car and keeping it until it falls apart is the cheapest way to buy a car.

I had always taken extremely good care of my '94ES until I traded it in on an '03ES and that's why I got top dollar for this trade in. People couldn't understand why I wanted to trade it in 'cause it looked and ran like new......and it had only 53K miles on it. I just wanted a new car. I would never let any car that I've owned, "fall apart".

Weighing the pros and cons of leasing or buying, dollar for dollar I'm way ahead of the game by buying it outright.

[SW03ES]

Mine is leased, for now.

Leasing in all honesty really gets a bad rap. My dad drives about 30k per year, and he STILL leases because the tax writeoff is good enough to outweigh the costs. There's the deduction which is great, never having to worry about maintenance as the car will always be under warranty, never having to worry about trade in values or selling the car, never having to worry about being upside down on payments etc.

Leasing is the future of the automotive buying process. Cars are getting more and more expensive, and lasting longer and longer meaning the resales stay high. Since a lease is effectively paying for the depreciation on the car only, then that makes leases very attractive. Any businessman will tell you, buy things that go up in value, lease things that go down in value. Yes a car is property, but its property that depreciates VERY heavily, very quickly.

For a lot of people leasing is an answer and they don't even know it. As for not feeling that they own it, I dont feel that way at all. Its my car. Its not like I leased it because I couldn't afford to buy it, I leased it because being a small business owner it was the smarter decision.

That said, I'm heavily considering cashing in some sadly floundering investments and buying the car outright. New tax laws make it possible for small business people like me to write off much of the depreciation of a cash aquired asset like a vehicle in the first year, and it may wind up saving me more than continuing to lease it.

Other than that, I'm 100% satisfied with leasing.

[steviej]

leasing in my lifestyle/nature would be like renting, in the end I won't own it. I would have a hard time giving it back at the end of the lease after paying so much up front and monthly. I would much rather have title in hand at the end of the payments/contract.

I like to mod things, too. I have never leased, so to all those that do, can you mod a leased vehicle or is it in the contract that you cannot change the initial condition of the car? Also, what maintanence items are not covered under a lease?

I would not be able to take advantage of the tax rightoff cause I don't itemize (not enough deductions to make it worth it).

but it comes down to different plans for different budgets and people.

steviej

[SW03ES]

Also most leases nowadays are 0 down, you give them the first months payment, a security deposit and you're on your way.

You can mod the car, but you have to be prepared to turn it back the way it was when you turn it in. With leasing maintaining the car is just like an owned car, you pay for all maintenance less warranty work. Not so attractive through Lexus since we still pay our maintenance, but really attractive on a BMW or something where BMW pays for all the scheduled service.

Also, the common fallacy is that leasing is for people who can't afford to buy the car, not true. Its much harder to get a lease than straight financing. Much more strict about credit and debt to income ratios.

[GalletGun]

Leasing is only really good if you have the money to put down at most half of what the car is worth. My IS300 I put down half of wat the car is worth and I pay only 85 dollars a month. :P :D

[SW03ES]

Leasing with 0 down saved me almost $100 a month vs a downpayment on a finance.

LOL, great deal you've got there. Unfortunately most leasing companies have a limit to what you can put down. Usually its like 20%.

Another issue there is if the car is totalled in a lease, the gap insurance pays the lending institution the difference between what is owed on the car and what your standard insurance pays, if there is a gap. There's not supposed to be any payment to you, the lessor. You may get really screwed out of your downpayment, I've seen it happen many times. People put a lot of money into the lease, then the car is totalled, and they have nothing. Zero, zilch. If they'd bought it would even out because they'd get a check from the insurance company that would recoup the downpayment. In a lease, you get no such check.

Usually the best thing to do when leasing and you have a big down is to put that money in a savings account, and just make payments out of it for a while until it depletes. Thats what I did, and I wont have to make any payments out of pocket until January. That way the down is also safe if the car is totalled.

[piggyncsu]

my family leased a car and in the end, we could either lease another one, buy that one, or get some sort of credit on a new one.....we opted for a new car and have liked it ever since...minus the spray paint touch ups my dad did, the electric taped trunk siding, and the other ghetto fixes. now they want to sell that car and get an older model...wonder how much it's worth now with all that crap he did to it....

i vote own, at least i can feel proud that it's MY car and not the bank's or the dealership's car.... and even if i got a 03 car, id have the warrenty and wouldnt have to worry about ANYTHINg on it for a couple years...under the warrenty right now, we've had tons of work done on the car without any issue about the coverage... thank goodness too, stupid window motors are expensive... the only thing is, with that darn warrenty, if we take the car anywhere else for an oil change, we lose the warrenty and we're on our own....

buying all the way, unless you are the type who wants a new car every 3 years (workmate likes a new car every YEAR..not 3....crazyness)

[SW03ES]

I know some people who lease and get a new one every year lol. See, thats just the thing. Very few people can afford to pay cash for a car outright, so if you buy a car and finance it, its still not your car. Its not going to be your carfor 4, 5, even 6 years. Might as well lease it, save some cash and get something new in 3 years. Owning a car is outdated ;) Leased cars are always under warranty, and they're typically gone before you need tires or brakes etc.

[ticman]

Steve,

You and I are on the same wavelength regarding leasing vs purchase. From reading many of the posts I don't think the others truly understand the leasing process. More likely it's the rent vs own obstacle. The time value of money (albeit the stock market has not been very kind to me)and the fact that cars are depreciating assets made the decision to lease an easy one for me. As I mentioned before I am on my 5th ES300 lease since 1993. I am glad there was a bodystyle change as I was getting a tad tired of the same style more or less. I need front wheel drive where I live and the other models didn't have it. I looked at Mercedes and BMW's and still came back to Lexus all things considered.

I had a 2001 ES300 with the lease expiring in December of this year. Lexus came out with a "deal" of allowing me to turn in my car up to six months early without penalty if I leased or purchased another Lexus. Because money rates are so low right now, I was able to get a new car 5 months early and actually reduce my monthly lease payment. Out of pocket cost was re-registering my license plates.

Mike

[SW03ES]

Most people don't truly understand the process. Which is understandable because it is rediculously complicated. People tend to get hung up in the feeling of "owning" something, which unless you pay cash is just an illusion anyways.

I leased mine for $503, 51 months (4 years and 5 months, common in leasing because it brings the payment down, but it also stretches out the miles you get in the last year) With $0 out of pocket, I gave them $503 for the first months payment and I left. All taxes and tags rolled in.

If I'd bought it and financed it for 60 months (the standard today) I'd have had payments of like $680 with $0 down, thats if I could find someone to finance it with nothing down. With 10% down ($3750) it'd still be $620, still $120 more per month! With 20% down ($7500) the payments would STILL have been $550, still $48 more and I'd be out $7500 cash!! By the time it was paid for, and really mine in 5 years I'd be ready to get out of it and into something new. Having paid more for it than I would have if I leased.

[steviej]

you guys are exactly right, it is a owned vs. rent thing in my head. Steve, what is your annual mileage allowance? and how much $ or ¢ per mile after that. This is where I would get hit in extra costs in that I put close to 20k on in a years time.

steviej

[SW03ES]

Its 15k per year, 15 cents per mile over.

Actually you can roll more miles into the lease at inception and save. The extra 5k per year would only be anputher $15 a month or so. My dad leases cars with 30k per year. You can set the mileage anywhere you want.