Leasing a car

Leasing can work out for you depending upon your situation. A coworker's boyfriend just leased a $30,000+ truck which I am positive is going to end up being a terrible deal for him, given his history with cars (significant damage to every one of them), financial situation, and driving massive miles over the allotment. Add that to the fact that I'm certain he'll be tired of it and want to give it up/trade it in at the end of the lease, he's going to get fucked.

I leased my current car 11 years ago, with the express intent of keeping it after the lease period ended. I wanted the car long-term, and I wanted the security of a new car warranty, but my financial situation put me in a position of not wanting to pay double the amount per month for a new car payment. Now, I clearly could have just bought a used car, and I looked high and low for something reliable for around the same monthly payment. I'll admit, I found a few that would have worked, assuming that they were reliable (no way to really know that for certain ahead of time). But the warranty kept me coming back to the lease, because I'm not a mechanic and I don't know any that I trust. If I did, I'd be telling a completely different story I'm sure.

So I leased it, knowing that I wanted to buy it afterward. It definitely cost me more in insurance since you have to have certain levels of insurance to lease and I didn't need them for my old car, but not enough difference to change my decision. When the time came for the lease to renew, I just got a new loan for the residual, and continued paying around the same amount per month. They never looked at it, never checked the mileage, nothing. I could have been 100,000 miles over the limit and beat the car to shit, but since I was buying it anyway, it didn't matter. It ended up being a 4-year lease and a 4-year purchase, and paying 8 years on a car that is nothing special is a long fucking time, and I know that I paid thousands of dollars more in total...but I was ok with that. I knew my situation, had a plan, and was ok with spending more spread out over a longer time to have some extra security. As well as some time to get my finances back on track. Keeping it even longer has certainly helped too.

Would I do it now? Of course not, but my situation is different. If you're really struggling, but can't afford to worry about extra repair bills popping up randomly, it is at least something to consider and not discard immediately because of the stigma. Even if you don't buy it at the end like I did, and want to keep leasing a new one, there are benefits to it. To me, it is entirely different than buying something like a TV that you don't really need on credit, and paying the minimum every month, racking up interest charges and paying double the price in the end. Aside from the "need" for one over the other, there is (usually) no unexpected maintenance with a TV like there is with a car. Buying a used car is always at least a little bit of a risk, and if you absolutely can't afford that risk, leasing might be the right answer even if it ends up costing you more in the long run. It isn't the right answer for everyone (the guy I mentioned above for example), but it isn't the huge mistake everyone used to think it was either.

I do want to stress that if you can do your own repairs or know someone that can be trusted not to screw you to do them, if you are in the situation I was in, a used car should be your first choice, always. Also, many used cars still have a warranty left on them, but typically you are going to end up paying a lot for those still and it probably doesn't fit into the "limited budget" I'm describing. If I could have afforded a 2-year old used car with 4 or so years left on the warranty, I would have. But if you can afford that, you aren't leasing for the reasons I did anyway, you're just leasing to have a new car every few years.

I'm not a fan of leasing, but I've helped my mom lease a couple of cars. I only think leasing is a good idea if you're the type of person who must have a new car every few years. I'm not that type, I still drive a 2001 with 400k miles that I bought new, and I plan to keep driving it till at least a million miles because I wanna see what the odometer does. It's electronic so I can't tell if it's got room for another digit.

Anyway, my experience is that they are not willing to deal on the price at all once you tell them its a lease. Maybe that's just a buick thing, because that's what my mom likes to drive. I see at least one of you was able to wheel and deal (the person who had a brother in law at the dealership doesn't count).

Building equity is not bullshit, I don't get why anyone would think that. When you take equity into account, you're paying a little more to buy a typical car in 3 years compared to leasing. Take the loan/lease term out to 5 years though, and you're paying quite a bit more for the lease.

When you're negotiating, be sure to get numbers for a buy too. In my experience, you don't save enough on the payments when you do a lease. You'd think that since you're 'only paying for half the car', the payments would be half, but it doesn't work out that way because with a lease, you're paying the interest on the full note the entire time.

Also, the commercials for the leasing companies really piss me off. They say, "You're paying for half the car, why not pay for the new half". And when I'm in a bad mood, I start screaming "because the fucking car is going to last more than 6 years you stupid fucking cunt"

Sorry, back to the topic at hand. The miles should not be a problem unless you're clueless. There's always an option to buy the miles up front for a much discounted rate. I can see it being tough for younger drivers to figure that out, but for me, I could tell you in probably 15 minutes how many miles i'd driven over the past few years, because I get reimbursed periodically and have to write them down. Plus, it's not hard to keep track of your miles and park the car for a while if you're going over. I know, I know WAH WAH my commute got longer. Some things we can't control, but even in that case you might be able to car pool with someone.

So, bottom line. I recommend a used car. If you wanna lease anyway, get the facts and haggle just as if you were buying a new car (there's a new car thread here that probably has good info). If they won't give you a good price, tell them to fuck off and leave (this is actually a lot of fun and my favorite part of buying a car). Sit down and figure out how much you actually drive, add 20% to that number and buy mileage ahead of time (note I don't mean sit down with google maps and a calculator, write down your fucking mileage every once in a while and see how far you actually went). And finally, be sure to at least look into the cost of buying the same car. You might be surprised at how much money you're not saving with that lease.

no offense, but it sounds like you might be a terrible judge of the soundness of a car. Possibly also a terrible judge of the character of the person you're dealing with. Out of curiosity, do you get carFax reports and have a good mechanic check a car out before buying? If you do buy used again, maybe you should go to the extra trouble and do those things.