Teach me about Leasing please

[SteveBrickNJ]

This summer IF I leased a car....which probably after this thread I won't.....but IF I did I will be 58. By the time that lease was up I'd be 61. I will certainly have $2,999 due at signing....I'm not a 25 year old still paying back college loans. Yet I have taken to heart all the things that were kindly shared with me....things that were said to be helpful. I am not likely to lease an Acura after all. Yet I don't want to "Buy" a car that is $43,000 and make payments on a $30,000 loan because I will only have $13,000 down.

So either I will "enjoy" my 2016 Mazda CX-5 after it is paid for....
........or I'll trade it in for a more affordable used car.
Not gonna decide now.
My current car still has 6 payments remaining.

 

[Master Yoda]

This summer IF I leased a car....which probably after this thread I won't.....but IF I did I will be 58. By the time that lease was up I'd be 61. I will certainly have $2,999 due at signing....I'm not a 25 year old still paying back college loans. Yet I have taken to heart all the things that were kindly shared with me....things that were said to be helpful. I am not likely to lease an Acura after all. Yet I don't want to "Buy" a car that is $43,000 and make payments on a $30,000 loan because I will only have $13,000 down.

I believe Acura has year end financing down to .9% on new models. At that rate you are darn near paying cash for the car.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

That is the only way to truly get the value out of a car.

I got roughly 12 years and 300k miles out of our mini-van before it started burning too much oil. My current car it a 98 Pathfinder with 208k on it and I want to try and squeeze about 4 more years out of it.

My main goal before starting this thread was not to get the most value out of my car.
My main goal was to avoid spending the next year going to each oil change and having the service tech say: You need this done....you need that done....your out the door cost will be $289.
I wanted a new car.
Oh well.
You don't always get what you want in life.
If you have your health.....you have everything.
I thank the good Lord that I am healthy and about to celebrate my 20th Wedding Anniversary next week.
I don't NEED a new car

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

I believe Acura has year end financing down to .9% on new models. At that rate you are darn near paying cash for the car.

I don't want to pay off a $30,000 loan.....even if it is at 0.9% financing.
That would be selfish of me.
My wife and daughter have needs too.

 

[Master Yoda]

I don't want to pay off a $30,000 loan.....even if it is at 0.9% financing.
That would be selfish of me.
My wife and daughter have needs too.

I feel your pain. I have been wanting to get a sports car since I went from a Firebird into a mini-van in 2002. That was supposed to happen last year, but the wife got the new car, my daughter got my wife's 2008 Vue and I am still in a 98 Pathfinder.

If all goes as planned, my time will come when we pay off the wife's car in August of 2023. While I would like and can afford a Corvette, I just don't see me being able to stroke a $70k check for a car.

 

[WWWD]

Everything in life doesn’t always make financial sense, if it did I wouldn’t have DVC, take Disney cruises or eat at a nice steak house when I can throw one on the grill myself. So if you want to enjoy a new car every few years then a lease might be for you. However, I will add, if you’re concerned about $300 oil changes, those are cheaper than $300 monthly payment. Life is a ride and we all have to figure out how we want to take that ride. Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Everything in life doesn’t always make financial sense, if it did I wouldn’t have DVC, take Disney cruises or eat at a nice steak house when I can throw one on the grill myself. So if you want to enjoy a new car every few years then a lease might be for you. However, I will add, if you’re concerned about $300 oil changes, those are cheaper than $300 monthly payment. Life is a ride and we all have to figure out how we want to take that ride. Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide.

My feeling is that a $300 payment for a new car feels good
A $300 payment to the Oil Change place doesn't
Ya know?

 

[Master Yoda]

My feeling is that a $300 payment for a new car feels good
A $300 payment to the Oil Change place doesn't
Ya know?

I can relate.

When I have to put some money into my Pathfinder comparing the payments to my wife's car over the length of time I have not had to make payments on my SUV takes out a good bit of the sting.

I had a year gap between my last and second to the last repair. In that time we paid a little over $6k in payments to my wife's car. The repair was just south of $400.

$6k is a whole lot more than $400.

 

[RobWDW1971]

I believe Acura has year end financing down to .9% on new models. At that rate you are darn near paying cash for the car.

Yup, if you can get 0% or <1% financing take it and use someone else’s money for free. Now if you can get that AND get a late model used with the depreciation hit already taken, that’s a real win.

Remember on leases, the game is to make it so convoluted that it is not easy to see what you are really paying, hence why they advertise “Only $300/month!!!”. Car dealerships, like Vegas, don’t sit around trying to think of ways to save you money, they are trying to be creative in tricking you.

Also, if it hasn’t been mentioned already, if you can get the loan outside of the dealer (credit union, etc) it is even better as then you can negotiate with the dealer as a cash buyer. Bid them against each other to get the lowest price ALWAYS before discussing financing as they will try to get you with a great financing deal on a more expensive price.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

I can relate.

When I have to put some money into my Pathfinder comparing the payments to my wife's car over the length of time I have not had to make payments on my SUV takes out a good bit of the sting.

I had a year gap between my last and second to the last repair. In that time we paid a little over $6k in payments to my wife's car. The repair was just south of $400.

$6k is a whole lot more than $400.

Yes. Over my lifetime with various cars, it usually is not my luck to be limited to $400 in repairs over the timeframe it took you to spend 6K in new-ish car payments.

 

[RobWDW1971]

My feeling is that a $300 payment for a new car feels good
A $300 payment to the Oil Change place doesn't
Ya know?

Uh....OK. So $3,600 guaranteed out the door every year feels better than maybe $300 every once in a while?

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Uh....OK. So $3,600 guaranteed out the door every year feels better than maybe $300 every once in a while?

You frame it in such a way as to make your point. Everyone does that. I am saying if I buy a new car in August of 2020, I will not mind a year later that each month I have to pay for it. Yet if I keep my car and have no payments....I just want to get an oil change and a tire rotation....it would hurt to have multiple things needing attention. Yet either I will buy a Toyota Rav 4 or another Mazda or I will just drive around my current car when it is paid off. I am not wealthy enough to buy a $43,000 Acura but I wrongly thought I could play a game and lease it for just under $300...early in this thread I explained that. Not gonna work. No Acura. Final decision.

 

[Lilofan]

Uh....OK. So $3,600 guaranteed out the door every year feels better than maybe $300 every once in a while?

How I live my life. Drive until it can't be driven anymore. The $3K guaranteed lease payments I would have made I put into 401K and mutual funds, pay down mortgage faster.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

How I live my life. Drive until it can't be driven anymore. The $3K guaranteed lease payments I would have made I put into 401K and mutual funds, pay down mortgage faster.

Smart. I recognize that is smart. Sometimes my eye for the 2020's outweighs the wisdom of what you and others are telling me

 

[Master Yoda]

Also, if it hasn’t been mentioned already, if you can get the loan outside of the dealer (credit union, etc) it is even better as then you can negotiate with the dealer as a cash buyer. Bid them against each other to get the lowest price ALWAYS before discussing financing as they will try to get you with a great financing deal on a more expensive price.

This is generally good advice, but it is not always the case anymore. The real money made these days from selling new cars is financing. Even if you have the cash, you can often get a better deal when you finance. As long as there are no pre-payment penalties, you simply pay off the loan on your first payment.

As to interest rates, the end of the year manufacturer rates are hard to beat. When we purchased my wife's Civic in 2017 my credit union, as well as many others, returned with offers in the 3%-4% range. Honda came in at 1.9%.

The same was true with the extended warranty we wanted. Third part companies wanted about $2-$3k for a 100k mile warranty with a deductible and little choice on the mechanic or parts manufacturer. Honda came through again with a zero deductable 100k warranty using genuine Honda parts at any Honda dealer nationwide and Honda Care to boot (free roadside, free loaner, etc). The price was $1300.

The bottom line when it comes to cars...shop everyone; trust no one.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

How disappointing.

Steve, if you want to try a lease type thing and have no maintenance with 15k a year, look into the Volvo Subscription plan. No money down, maintence covered(sorta), and Insurance!. They raised the price, but it used to be 600 plus fees now its 700 plus fees for the Volvo XC40. A nice smaller SUV. We did this, but are now looking to just buy a used Caddy or Lexus in the mid 20s..

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Steve, if you want to try a lease type thing and have no maintenance with 15k a year, look into the Volvo Subscription plan. No money down, maintence covered(sorta), and Insurance!. They raised the price, but it used to be 600 plus fees now its 700 plus fees for the Volvo XC40. A nice smaller SUV. We did this, but are now looking to just buy a used Caddy or Lexus in the mid 20s..

Very kind of you to pass this along.
I'm gonna pass though.
I've had 2 months of driving my current 2016 Mazda since I paid it off. I've got the title and I've currently shifted that former monthly payment into a fund for my daughter's college.
Month after month in the future of no car payments has my wife feeling joyful.
So.....no new car for me in the foreseeable future.

 

[CaptainA]

It's not a It's not a complicated thing but it can cost you much money than you are expecting. You pay a deposit – usually equivalent to three to six times the monthly payments you'd make for that make and model of car – and then you pay an agreed amount monthly. It's a good deal if you have a good income per year and you are willing to take some mone from here so it fits better into a budget. But, if you don't want to worry about the value of your car depreciation so you can sign a personal contract purchase. I pay 300 monthly, it's a fixed repayment and at the end of the contract I will pay a sum for owning my car. It's a good deal if you don't have right now enough money but you need a certain car. Check the link below for more information about this.

Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) - Car Finance Solutions Arranged by Money Expert

Pay for your car in monthly instalments, with the option to buy it outright at the end. Set up a Personal Contract Purchase through Money Expert today.

www.moneyexpert.com

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Just bought out my lease. I know, I know, it's something you shouldn't do. But my circumstances warranted it. Got a $7500 loyalty credit, just wrote a check so no financing. I post this for those in similar situations, the automakers are in a position to deal.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Steve, if you want to try a lease type thing and have no maintenance with 15k a year, look into the Volvo Subscription plan. No money down, maintence covered(sorta), and Insurance!. They raised the price, but it used to be 600 plus fees now its 700 plus fees for the Volvo XC40. A nice smaller SUV. We did this, but are now looking to just buy a used Caddy or Lexus in the mid 20s..

I actually like the concept of those subscription alternatives. Shame it hasn't taken off more. Maybe the timing wasn't quite right. I also think the price point is a bit much. Hopefully they'll adjust.