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Has anyone ever leased a car?
I've always been kind of against it, but I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a better option for us right now. (The only fairly new used cars we can find/are interested in make us nervous right now.)
I can only see for sure that Honda is leasing.
I've always been told leasing is bad because of the miles restrictions, once your lease is up you end up with nothing (or have to actually buy the car).
I think now actually is a better time for us to lease - the payment is more what we'd like to spend/month, we don't require THAT many miles on a car, and we'd get a new car. In 2-3 years when the lease is up, the terms state the price we'll have to pay to buy the car outright and its actually comparable to what we're looking at paying right now for a 2-3 year old used vehicle.
Re: Has anyone ever leased a car?
I've leased my last 4 cars, I LOVE it. The miles aren't a big deal, I get 15,000 a year, you can afford a nicer car for less money a month, even if we bought a car I would still trade every 3 years, that's just me so leasing is perfect for us.
Honda is leasing and they have some great deals these days (we just went and looked at the Pilot), Nissan is leasing, I have an 08 Altima that I love, we just need more room hence us looking at the Pilot. My Altima is loaded and we pay less than $400 a month.
DON'T put any money down, that's where you're throwing it away, make sure you get the 15,000 miles it makes your payments a little more but less than you would pay for overage, sometimes the more expensive models have better lease rates. If you have any questions, let me know, I'm a pro at leasing cars :-)
My parents leased a car once and it turned out HORRIBLE. ?It was a Jeep. ?They leased it for three years and when they went to buy it at the end of the lease, it ended up costing more than it would have if they had bought it up front (they paid around $300 a month for three years - so $10,800 and were told to buy it they would have to pay $21,000 - so $31,800 total...the cost of the car if they had bought it new? ?$23,000).
BUT it's always worth looking in to to make sure that wouldn't happen!?
I've never leased a car but would think if you lease a car that would hold it's value pretty well it would be a good deal.
For instance I bought an '06 Honda Civic and had it for 3 years and it only depreciated $3000. It would have made more sense for me to lease the car instead of take out a loan because my payments would have been much lower!
I'm just not into any of the vehicles out there right now except the Avenger, so it's really tough for me. But the lease terms on one of the Hondas (I can't remember) stated in them "Payments $X,XXX. End of lease purchase price $XX,XXX." We'd be paying the end of lease purchase price for a used Avenger right now... and Avengers hold NO value as compared to a Honda/Toyota, etc.
We would never use 15,000 miles. LOL We used to go through a TON of miles, but now that Greg uses his work truck for work purposes (he doesn't travel all over the state anymore) for HIS route, we maybe put on 10,000 miles/year. If that. My 2001 has >70,000 on it. LOL
What is it about the Avenger that you like so much? It wouldn't hurt to go test drive some cars to see what's out that that you like.
Kristin, I love the styling... it would offer us more room than what we have now, but not make me feel like I'm driving a "mommy mobile". LOL I have yet to find another vehicle that doesn't make me feel kind of "mommy".
ETA: We are going to go test drive some, but I keep finding things I CANNOT stand about cars. (The Impala... I can't stand the woodgrain paneling on the interior, for example.)
I think you should check out the Civic or Accord. I don't consider them to be "mommy" mobiles. That's what SUV's are for
I LOVED my Civic (it was a coupe) and my parents have the new Accord and it's a lot of fun to drive.
I'm just not ga-ga about the Accord or Civic. EVERYONE has one, which I hate.
I actually would prefer an SUV over a sedan, but it's the $$ difference... and the gas mileage.
I told Greg from the very beginning if he ever tried to stick me in a minivan, it was over. LOL Even if I had 6 kids, I am not a minivan type.
Yes everyone does have an Accord or Civic...but that's because they're great cars (at least I think so!).
What about a CRV? That's what I drive now and get around 25 MPG city driving. The Toyota RAV4 is basically the same thing.
My car is leased and Blair's we own. The reason being, when I am in my home office I am 12 miles from home/work each way. Blair is 25 miles to the bus. If I have to travel to an office far away I rent a car. I always do 15,000 miles. The most common lease term is 39 months. In the contract, the buyout price will be listed. I never put any money down, because, in my opinion, that is throwing money away. I pay the taxes, tags, and registration, that's it. It usually works out that leases are less than financing a car. And there are better rates right now on new cars. Pre-owned rates are always more.
Some other things to keep in mind. Each leasing company is different, however definitely find out how many dings/scratches/little knicks per panel they allow and find out up front if there is a turn in fee once the lease is over and other terms of the turn in. My parents lease all of their cars and they just leased a Honda Civic for my sister. Couldn't be happier. And I know my Dad was pleased with the terms of the lease termination.
I'm curious about the CRVs and RAV4s. Although I'm not too fond of the new styling with the 2009-2010 models.
It's just a shitty market right now for us to have to make a move in the next couple months.
ETA: and for the payment/month, and money due at signing... it's not an option. I refuse to pay $3000 down and then $240/month for it. For that, I'll BUY my car.
My SIL has a CRV. I'm not crazy for it, but she loves it. We looked at some of the toyotas and I was mehhh on them. The Highlander was nice but I thought overpriced. I don't know anything about them, but Ford and Chevy have some crossover SUVs.
I also told Blair that I will never be in a minivan.