Morrissey

My drive off was $3000. The sticker price was around $41K...they wouldn't really budge from it. My monthly payments are $560/mo.

This is the first time I'm leasing a car. I'm trying to follow the "Buy what appreciates and lease what depreciates" mentality. We'll see if I'm better off financially by leasing the IS350.

xknowonex

iTrader: (2)

Man you switch off cars like how a sneakerhead switches his sneakers.

DallasLex

iTrader: (1)

Here is an example:

$522 for 36 month, after 3200 down. 23644 Buy out. Residuals on an IS350 with Navigation also stay the same at 62% for a 36 month 12K miles/year lease and 59% for a 39 month 12K miles/year lease(Total selling price: $41500.00).

Your credit score will vary the above to a certain extent.

lexusboi

Same here, especially given the high residual value the IS will still have after 3-5 years. If I'm making such high monthly payments, I want to have an actual investment at the end.

diablo1

Just to play devil's advocate: why invest in something that you *know* will go down in price? When you "invest" in a stock, it may go up or down. You hope it goes up. Same with real estate. But, when you buy a brand new mass-produced automobile, you are *guaranteed* to lose about 30% of the value that you paid for it within three years, sometimes much more. I'd be happy to let you "invest" in this $100 bill I have here. Three years from now I'll give you $70.

But seriously, buying a car is like buying a house in a downward real estate market. If you know your house is going to be worth less in 3 years than right now, wouldn't you rather lease your house for those 3 years?

Morrissey

Exactly why I decided to lease this time around

It's all a matter of preference and your financial situation, but I've taken the "buy what appreciates, lease what depreciates" saying to heart as of late.

lexusboi

Everyone knows that a modern car will never go up in value, that's obvious. In this instance, I am referring to "investing" your hard earned cash into an asset to be used in the future. Just like profitable shares of stocks are your assets, owning a car, especially one with a good residual value like the IS, will be an asset for a future trade-in, etc. It may be a personal preference, but I would never want to invest that much money into something and be turned away empty handed at the payments/lease's fulfillment. What is there to show in the end for the thousands of dollars I forked over for 3 years? The answer is nothing, if you lease. Then again, if you can't afford this car, and need lower payments, you may have no choice.....

diablo1

I definitely disagree with this reasoning. What you have to show for paying for three years is three years of driving the car. Plenty of people choose leasing even though they could "afford" to buy the car. What do you have to show at the end of paying rent for three years? Nothing, according to your logic, but it's definitely still better than being homeless for three years! So it's not like you threw the money away.

lexusboi

And that's why this everlasting debate goes on.........which is fine, at least I can say I'm a proud owner...

izzyracer

You guys got a definite better deal than myself. I had to put 7k down from my trade to get the 528 payment and the car will cost 25k to buy after 3 years. oh my! I feel fooled.

2ndGenIS

What dealer did that to you?? Looks like a place to avoid!

Sam Khoury

I seriously doubt you'll be able to get an IS350 with zero down for $550/month especially if you put the sales tax in the payment even with the high residuals they have now.

BTW, to those people who put money down on a lease or paid the taxes up front, that's not really a good idea (no offense). If your car is stolen or totalled during the lease, you'll never get any of that money back. The insurance company writes a check to the owner of the car which is the leasing company. Gap insurance in the lease covers anything that the insurance company doesn't cover. Yes you'll pay interest on all that extra money in the lease but if the money factor is low, don't worry about especially when you factor in inflation. If you were buying the car it would be different because if anything happens, you'd get the check from the insurance company. Let's put it this way. How would you feel is you put $4K or $5K down to lease the car and the car was stolen the first week you had it and you didn't get the money back?

izzyracer

Westminister Lexus.

OLD Travis

So if you buy out the lease the car's total cost ends up being 51008. (plus of course the opportunity cost on the $7K down payment).

Just out of curiousity, what was the sticker price on the car (plus TT)?

izzyracer

40,784 plus a 1300 ISP wheel plus tax and license. What is TT?