kilo6_one

iTrader: (2)

521.00 down, 521 a month 4 years 15k miles per year.........
Options were the premium package and that was it, my OTD was 38k or something to that effect, i really do not remember

Smoky350

iTrader: (6)

I'm financing my car for $731 a month for 72 months with $0 our of pocket. I could have leased one for $670 for 36 months with $900 out of pocket but I never keep my cars longer than a year and if you lease you have to keep untill the end of the lease. Also if you lease your payments shouldn't be close to a finance payments, that's the whole point of the lease. You can lease a $70k Range Rover Sport Supercharged for under $1000 a month. So if you guys are saying that leases are better, then you're right but they're only better on cars like BMW, Mercedes, Range, Honda, Porche. Also if you come to any financial problems you can get rid of a Financed vehicle at any time, with you lease you can use www.swapalease.com but it's very hard to get rid of it. I work in car business and I have customers coming back all the time trying to trade their lease early for a bigger or just newer vehicle but 70% of time they can't. You also have to take into consideration how much you drive because you don't want to be charged for excessive milage and damage to the car.

Soda

Lol, I'm in the car business too...almost 8yrs. What is it you do?? Because you can get out of a lease at ANY time. Dunno who's lied to you. If you keep your cars for only a year, why in the HELL did you pay sales tax on the WHOLE thing?? So what's your difference than a BMW and a Lexus? And YES, you could sell or trade your lease AT ANY TIME!!! I bet you ANYTHING you're just as buried in your car as you would be if it was a lease or a purchase. You should read a contract...You made a bad decision IMO. EVEN if you do drive 20k miles a year, sell the car. I bet you have almost 10k neg equity in your car. You financed probably 44k and it books for 33k and you'll be lucky to get 31500 if you trade it. And your payments to be close to a lease vs purchase. 72mos vs 36?? I hope you have gap! Lol, you coulda saved 50 bucks a month and had a FOUR year shorter term. Bottom line, a lease is more beneficial than a purchase if you're gonna keep your car for only a year or two.

kilo6_one

iTrader: (2)

LOL, thanks^^^^^^^^^^ i needed that one.

You can sell a leased car just as easy as you can a financed car...
leases are so nice, you can just dump the car at the end of the lease instead of trying to sell it private party, or get raped at the dealer on the trade.

The convience factor is worth every penny i have spend.........

Peacefrog

Yikes, I think you took it in the teeth.

IS_Mine

I wish I could lease.. alas my long drives don't allow me to do.

But, once I move closer to work.. I am CERTAINLY going to lease for now on!!!

Smoky350

iTrader: (6)

For your information I'm a Sales Manager for a Jeep/Chrysler dealership selling over 300 cars a month. I'm financing 41,500 with no money down because I didn't trade the CL600 I had if I traded that car I would be financing less because if you trade a car in you only pay tax on what the difference is between what you get for your car and what you pay for the new car. So if you're trading a car worth $20k and pay $38k for the new one you only pay tax on $18k. Also if you lease you can sell the car or give it back early but you still have to pay the payments that you owe plust early termination penalty fee. Also if you decide to sell the car you have to pay tax on the amount that you didn't pay tax for when you originally leased. Also if you're in car business you should never pay retail for the car unless you're dumb I always pay invoice or little over. I got my $44k sticker car for $38,500 so I'm not really burried. Probably less than most people are on the forum. I'll bet I can get out of my car without loosing more that $3k right now and get into a new car with paying only a little tax. So if you look at it you were completly wrong in your previous post. Like I said before leasing is great for people that lease expensive cars(german cars) and for people with businesses so that they can write them off in their taxes and that's it.

Smoky350

iTrader: (6)

Another thing with leases is that you can't customize a car and can't have any damage when you return it. You have to have no tints, rims, custom interiors, sound systems, springs, s/c, turbos. It has to be like it came when you originally bought it. A lot of people on this forum modify their cars and that's why they bought the IS' because it's a sport sedan and is meant to be modified, so what's the point of doing anything to your car, then take it off, and not use it on your new car. If you get a payment under $600 a month with no more than $2k down on a brand new IS350 then lease it, but anything more than that it's just not worth it. You can get a german car worth $10k or $15k more than the IS, get free maintaince, have cheaper insureance (insurance on CL600 was cheaper than IS350) and pay less than you would for a IS.

Nicelex13

i gunna have to disagree with the post above me...only because my last car, an IS300 had about $5000 of mods on it (bodykit, tints, intake, dropped 2in, exhaust, full system, etc) and was able to take all the stuff off of it before giving the car back to the leasing company. I was not charged a dime. (and pretty much got back the full amount on the mods too by reselling them ) soo no offence but from personal experience what you said above was incorrect.

Smoky350

iTrader: (6)

I'm not sure how much you paid for your parts or if you bought them new but I'm sure that you and everyone on this forum knows that if you buy performance parts once you sell them used they're only worth about half or even less that what you paid for them. Plust the money you spent on installing and removal. The idea of this was not to prove if you loose money once you customise a car because everyone knows that you always do but to prove that lexus doesn't have a good leasing program on the IS. It's not because of the car but because the car depreciates more than other luxury cars and that's why it costs more to lease than it would a more expensive mercedes or BMW. A lot of the people on these forums are comparing the 335I to the IS350 and are saying that it's a much more expensive car but they never went to the dealership to find out how much it costs to lease that car. The payments would almost be the same on both cars. Since I'm financing it's a lot cheaper to finance the IS350 but if I was leasing I would have leased the 335I.

mrweaver7

48 mo./12k miles, $525/mo., $750 total down payment (including tag, title, inception, etc.), original sticker 35,957, gross cap cost (out the door price) 34,740.50 with payoff of 2005 Scion tc (owed 15,197 even though Kelly Blue Book had value in "good" trade-in condition value at 14,600). Residual $17,618.93. X-Package includes front lip spoiler, 18-in wheels (the sportier ones), sport suspension. HIDs with AFS, premium package with ventilated seats and some other stuff. I used to work at the Lexus dealership there.

John

AsianGirl007

iTrader: (1)

My last IS was a lease and I had exhaust, springs, tint and wheels. I happened to sell it, but I could've left it all on and turned in to dealer no problem.

I plan on doing the same mods to the '07 IS I just leased as well.

I don't care if mods are worth less during resale, I can't drive stock!

Khiladi

iTrader: (1)

Good discussion. I'm gonna have to agree with Smoky350 though. Leasing a car is most advantageous for those who file a 1099 and/or are self-employed. I honestly am pretty shocked at the monthly payments most here are paying for an IS. Upwards of $600/month? Come on... unless you're in it for the tax advantage, save some money for a down payment and own the car. Then sell it when you're done with it. The "convienence" of a lease by dumping a car after 3 years is up is not worth it IMHO rather than selling it outright to a private party. (never trade-in to a stealership). You come ahead by thousands $$$ in most scenarios. Not to mention here in SoCal, keeping mileage under 12K or 15K miles a year can be pretty challenging. Leasing wouldn't work for me.
But hearing both sides is good for the mind, keep posting.

Evitzee

This has been a good thread. But there seems to be lots of misconceptions about the 'benefits' of leasing. The whole concept of leasing is based on the premise that you only pay for the portion of the cars depreciated value for the time you lease it. But that means if you lease it for say, 3 years, you will be paying the highest rates of depreciation since we all know cars take the maxium dump in value the first few years of it's life. And if you lease you pay high monthly rates FOREVER as you transition from one new car to another. To those that absolutely have to have the latest and greatest I suppose that is just the cost of doing business. But very costly indeed over the course of one's life. But I only drive 8 to 10,000 miles a year. I was fortunate to be able to put a 60% down payment on my IS350 (mainly because I haven't had any monthly payments for the last 3 years on my other cars) and have only a 36 month loan. At that time I will own my IS free and clear and will then have five years or so of NO CAR PAYMENTS WHATSOEVER. I don't need a new car every couple of years, and if you choose your car well (performance, optioned correctly and a reliable car) you can enjoy it for many years before you need to trade up. So amortized over my expected ownership of eight years or so it will be relatively cheap. And certainly cheaper than the frankly exorbitant lease conditions posted on this thread.

Fortunately for the car manufacturers the customers have been conditioned to believe they must have a new car every three years or so, so voila, the product called leasing was introduced to the mass market. Leasing can have benefits if you can take a tax deduction for a business purpose, but most leases today are financially a bad deal for most casual users over the long term. It is the cost of being able to drive the most up to date car on the market. But it is an expensive option. The thought of having to spend up to a grand a month FOREVER on a car payment is depressing, but that is what most lessees are facing.

Folks are either in one camp or the other, but the sheer structure of a lease deal means you will be paying more for a transportation experience over the LONG TERM. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.

We, as a nation, have become 'payment minimizers' (such as leasing) vs 'wealth maximizers' (like ownership). We see this everyday, not only in cars, but in houses as well. It is all based on short term enjoyment before we move on to the next experience. We have become a nation of 'renters', and we all know intuitively that renting is always the most expensive way to go through life on a long term basis.

AsianGirl007

iTrader: (1)

I don't agree and I've leased AND owned before.

I do not want to drive the same car for 5, 6, 7, 8 years - I want the new car smell and a car under warranty. I want new technology, latest safety features, and better gas mileage.

I do not want to own a depreciating asset. Rule of thumb is own appreciating asset and rent/lease depreciating ones.

If the car I own is in accident, it's worth less and I don't want to lose value. If it's leased, I get it fixed via insurance and it's bank's responsibility. If it's "totaled" GAP will automatically cover me and the lease is cancelled so I walk away free and clear. On a lease I have option of keeping it, selling it, or returning it.

I leased my last 5 cars and up until last year I filed with W2 with write offs. I think tax breaks apply if you make certain amount and you have reason to use car for work? Not neccesarily because you own a business.

I have never been charged for any damages on my lease returns either.

On a LFS lease you can go up to 30k miles per year but at that point I'd recommend just buying the car unless you get reimbursed from your job.
(I once did a 20k lease as it's cheaper to pay up front than to get penalized after.)