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Hi Everyone, I'm about ready to retire (aka hand down to my son) my 99 RX300 and thinking about a new one. I understand that investing in a depreciating item isn't advisable. I like the idea of lower monthly payments as compared to financing, but at least my finance payments would ultimately result in me owning something whereas years of paying on a lease and all I get is a receipt. Is there a simple answer to this? I appreciate your input, Thanks!

If you could write the lease payment off you may be better off to lease. I have leased one car and honestly didn't like it much. Just something about being locked into the miles and length of time I had to keep the car that I didn't like. But I keep my cars like new and like to get new cars often so leasing is something I still consider.

Thanks, Dark Helmet. Sound advice. You're right, my degree is in Communication and we didn't cover dollars and cents much at all. In fact my alternate handle is USCTrojaninDebt. ;) The new RXs are just so shiny and pretty. I went to a dealership and was shocked at the numbers they threw at me, so in my due diligence I contacted an online leasing broker, some www.theleaseoutlet.com and the numbers were a lot better. I don't know if I'm sold on the concept of leasing, yet it seems like that's what everyone is doing.

Why am I speculating that your Magna !Removed! Laude was not associated with a business degree? There are plenty of "Buy vs. Lease" articles on websites like Yahoo Finance and Kiplinger that you can review. DO NOT trust the buy vs. lease calculators at car dealerships - they are sometimes (always?) rigged to make the most profit for the dealership. Personally I can't imagine financing or leasing a vehicle unless the outlay could be charged off as a business expense. The only way my CPA wife and I have bought cars for the past few decades is to save the money up, buy our vehicles with cold hard cash and then keep the vehicles 10 to 15 years. Well that's not exactly correct. My wife did charge something like $25,000 of her Prius purchase last year on credit cards to get frequent flyer miles and then she paid off the $25,000 the next month without paying any interest. I have assumed that there were undisclosed incentives from Toyota that allowed the dealership to do that and still make a profit since we paid substantially under invoice for the car. I suppose I might "finance" a vehicle if I got a super good deal on the purchase and a zero interest loan. But that doesn't happen since I would have to pay more or forgo rebates/incentives to get a zero interest loan. I really don't like the idea of any monthly payments other than utility bills.