Have you ever leased a car?
 

How did it go? Are you glad you did it or did you feel like you got screwed in the end?

I want to lease instead of buy and a friend is telling me that people will always lose money in leasing, but I want to do it anyways.

Lease = waist of money

After 3 years when lease is up you will not have the car and @ $300/month will loose almost $11,000

if you can afford it pay cash trust me..

only lease if you cant afford regular payments on the car. in that case i would look at something cheaper.

I did a lease.....don't do it.

if you want a new car after 3 years - how much money do you think you will lose on the sale vs. the price you paid for the car.. ?

In certain states there are tax/business advantages for leasing company or business vehicle. I usually have a leased car and a purchased car at the same time. It also depends on the amount of miles you will be burning. For the average person leasing is probably a mistake.

Leases are good in two cases, if its being run through a corporation or if you want to get in and out of new cars all the time. If you plan on keeping it its better to buy.

You can also find lease takeovers if you want really short periods in a car, where someone might have 6 months left on a left and they want to get out of it.

Im taking my lease back in ... 17 hours now.

Horrible mistake. If you run a company it is okay. If you are leasing on personal basis:::

DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!! :BangBang:

thanks for the feedback all :winkwink:

KRL I'll ask about the take over leases because that exactly what I'm looking for, very short term. I didn't know they did that.

my friends mom leased a car for 3 years and it was just a pain in the ass. there are milage requirements that you have to stay under, if anything is fucked up like a burn, or a tear, or ascratch, etc... you gotta pay for it. and you have no equity in that car at the end of the lease terms. :2 cents:

um.. what about the tax advantages? payments, depreciation, interest writeoffs etc.. i assume anyone working for themselves can find a way to claim it's for business.

When you turn it back in you'll regret it. You'll have no car, and no money.

I did a 4 year lease starting in 97... it was nice car (Brand New 1998 4Runner Limited, all options)...

But 2 years later when I was making way more cash, I wished I wasnt stuck with that lease.

But I got my lexus now so i'm happy :)

maybe you should try a hire or asset purchase instead of a lease.

If your going for a short term lease look into Renting cars. Negotiate a good monthly price from Enterprise or Hertz or any rental company.
Use the competition to drive your negotialted price down. Put vehicle rental as a rider on your insurance. Will be Very cheap and be the same "walk away" coverage the rental company insurance provides also less cost than having a seperate auto policy. Rental agengies tend to take good care of you, if anything goes wrong, even a flat tire, you get a new car, oil changes everything is taken care of by them. They will even wash and detail the car whenever you want to bring it in. You can even trade cars just for shits and grins. The Rental should be 100% business deductable. No long term contracts. Take it back whenever you want and get your monthly cost prorated.

The so called advantage in leasing for companies and corporations never existed; its a figment of somebody's imagination.

I have several corporations and all vehicles are financed and purchased and written off as business expenses.

Even if you are not a corporation, you can write off a car you buy if you keep records.

In certain cases you can get a higher write-off with leasing on the current year, but over the life of the car you get to depreciate the whole thing eventually if you buy it, so in the end the tax advantage is moot.

Consider this: If you want to lease a car you first have to find somebody smart enough to have purchased it the old fashioned way (the leasing company) and then look for a sucker like you.

I leased my Durango and have gone over the allotted mileage, the truck is 3rd year into a 5 year lease. I have kept it in excellent condition since I am a total nut about maintence.

I know that I'll have to buy it out at the end of the lease, otherwise the costs that I would get whacked with will be totally insane since there is wear on it.

This truck I will keep forever and just have the engine rebuilt / new trans dropped in and axles done as it gets older to keep it all working for the next 20+ years, but that is a truck.

Cars today I wont buy, they are made to just rot apart every 24 months. No wonder most people get into SUV's. They got tired of the tiny cars that just dont last more than 80k miles.

a lease is will limit your tax exposure if you're set up that way - check with your accountant - otherwise it's a bad thing

It depends what car you are leasing.

If for example you lease a new Camry or Honda Accord.

Lease would be about $200-225 a month with $3500 down for a total of 36 months.

At the end of the 36months they will give you the option to buy the car for around $10,000. You could easily sell the car for $13-14k on the open market and pay them the $10k and then use your 3-4k to get another lease.

Most people have don't know how to work a lease or lease the wrong cars.

Go Luck!

They only last 80k miles if they are a piece of shit Dodge, Ford or other American car.

Get something Honda or Toyota and it will last double that atleast if you change the oil every 3000-3500 miles.

I have leased a GM truck or SUV for my mainstream company for the past 3 vehicles and I like. You can deduct the full amount and don't have to worry about depreciating it over time tax wise.

A lease payment is based on the residual (amount the vehicle will be worth at the end of the lease). The amount you lease for is the NEW price minus the RESIDUAL price. Sometimes GM will run special lease deals to up quota by raising the residual. I leased a $46,000 Tahoe for $700 a month for 3 years. That's gonna cost $8400 a year or $25,200 total.

So GM thinks that the Tahoe will be worth 21,000 after 3 years and 45,000 miles.
So I turn it in or buy it for that.

The first lease I did with them was on a S-10 extended cab pickup back in 95 or so. $150 bucks a month for 3 years. Couldn't beat that.

My personal vehicle now I did not lease because I plan to keep it a long while. (50th Anniversary Z06 Vette) GM is giving away money for free (0%) on everything for 5 years. That's and industry first. Better to take that deal even if you had all of the money. Take your $50,000 and invest it in a CD or something safe.

Cheers,
BV

Leasing anything is not a good idea imo. It usually leads to problems and ends up damaging your good *if it is good* credit.
:2 cents:

I leased my vehicle as I found it worked out better in the long run for my taxes. Simple as that!

DH

P.S. For anyone considering a lease make sure you do a DOUBLE check on all restrictions on your lease. Everyone is different so make sure the lease is prevelant to YOUR needs not the leasing company's.

Same here. :)