Lease or Buy? What do you do?

[Exon]

Do you lease or buy your vehicles? What term do you usually shoot for?

I was considering my options for my next vehicle, and leasing is tempting, but I do like to drive so I would probably go over the 15k mile limit - at which point I would be better off to buy.

 

[InnovativeHost]

IMHO Leasing is a waste of money. Personally I like to buy my vehicles new, get them paid off and have a vehicle without a payment. It is nice not to be in debt. Now I know that there isn’t much equity to be gained in a car with their value dropping faster than Britney Spears but the less money that I pay to bills that give me a privilege to use something and not to own something the better.....if that makes sense.

Just my $0.02

 

[kris1351]

Just about to pay off my vehicle then we will concentrate on paying off the other one. Making payments on leases and paying interest is money that can be invested elsewhere.

 

[Exon]

Kris,
While yes, the monthly fee associated with making payments could be invested somewhere else, generally the price you pay in a lease is less than that of a car loan. Simply because you are paying for the value of the car at the end of a lease. In turn you could take the monthly savings and invest that - which would yield an even greater savings than making payments on a car loan.

InnovativeHost,
Yes, it is nice to have something paid off, but at the same time - as you mentioned - the resell value is almost nonexistant when you are done with your car.

Both our cars are paid off, no loans on them, titles in my name, so we've got no leasers so far?

 

[Blue]

I prefer to lease.
Lower monthly payments and no hassle. New car every 3-4 years.

By the time a lease is up you are starting to get into the repair stage for most vehicles. When you factor in the maintanance and the fact that an older car is not as fuel efficient I go with the lease.

 

[country-tyme]

We've leased 3 vehicles. The first, an Audi, that should have brought us ahead of the game. Had unlimited kms. But it was in the year of the runaway car. So value wasn't what we expected. Traded it in on lease for Maxima SE. At the end of the lease, I just returned it and ran. Again, unlikited kms. It went back after 4 years with 396000km. The only one we made money on was husbands MB 5-ton truck. Buy out after 5 years was $6000. Sold it for $15000. That was one vehicle that held its value.