Niwa565

I'm thinking of getting an IS 250. I should be able to put 12k down for the car and right now debating if I should finance the rest or save the 12k and lease the car :/

The thing that holding me back with leasing is the feeling that I don't "own" it but just renting. Why getting an expensive car when u can't even afford it and gave to rent it :/

mrtriad

Already sounds like you want to finance it.

SCSurf

Take a look at your financial situation and make a decision off that. Can you afford the financial commitment for 5 years? Do you want a new car in a couple years?

Like mrtriad said, sounds like you already want to finance it by putting a significant down payment on it and that you don't want to rent it.

gm4life

Sounds like you should finance to me... Never put 12K down on a lease... At least I wouldn't.

wednesday

My first Lexus, we purchased and put $10,000 down and 4 months later some punk takes the whole side side off of the car and we lost all of that equity. We now lease, not because we can't afford to buy but because if it gets damaged you fix it under insurance and turn it in at the end of the lease, not to mention I get a new car every few years.

Only you can decide what works best for your situation.

unowned

I wouldn't put down 12k on a finance either if you can afford the payments. I can easily make more than the overall interest difference keeping it invested in the stock market over the term of the finance term.

SCSurf

This too. I've been advised that a 15-20% down is acceptable. That's how much I put down anyways.

Noeh

iTrader: (3)

Put down the max amount on your credit card for free cash back, then pay the balance in full =)

Lost808

I prefer to lease for a few simple reasons. I always like to get a different car every two or three years, I always have a car under warranty, payments are usually cheaper (I can afford to buy tho), and as said above, if gets damaged, insurance pays and I just give it back.

UncleSpud

I financed my 350 F and already have had second thoughts. Why? Because the '15 3IS has features I would have loved on my car, such as a memory driver's seat, enhanced enform, etc. Had I the opportunity to do the purchase over, I would have gone for the ML stereo, variable ratio steering, and pre-collision braking. Hindsight is always 20-20, but my point is this: unless you want to keep your car forever, leasing is great. You can take advantage to improvements in car performance and safety every three years. I'm sorry I didn't.

TheBatman

Its not just about not "owning", you lose a lot of money on a lease. You have to do an apples to apples comparison to see this. You need to compare how much it will cost you to finance the total price of the car versus how much it will cost you in a lease for the total price of the car over the same time period in both scenarios. That last italicized part is where all the skeletons in the leasing closet are buried. In other words, do a comparison on a finance (how much you will put down, amount financed, interest rates, etc) versus a lease (how much cap cost reduction if any, money factor, residual, etc) and you will see that you will lose thousands of dollars on a lease.

The reason for this is a simple concept that people seldom grasp. Think of the car as a pie. When you lease you're paying only for a portion of that pie (hence why leasing seems deceptively like you're spending less money versus financing) however and this is key, you're paying more for that portion of the pie than if you were to buy the whole pie outright which you would do with a finance. So in the end, yes you end up paying more for the whole pie than a portion of the pie but you're getting much more in value for the amount you spend. With leasing you will always lose financially which is why any accountant worth his weight in salt will tell you never to lease a vehicle unless its a business expense.

dstopsie

I lease my cars and I write off my payment for business use

TheBatman

Right, which is the only reason one should ever lease. I pointed this out at the end of my comments.

If you can finance a car, you're wasting money on leasing it. If you can't finance it then you can't truly afford it. It gets even worse over time. The more leases you accumulate over the years, the more thousands of dollars you're throwing away. That's why dealerships love leases so much. They make money hand and fist with a lease and they get back a car with plenty of resale value left in it at the end of the lease that they can resell at a profit.

dstopsie

Yes exactly. I can finance a car but I prefer to lease because I write off the payment and turn the car in every couple of years. When I retire from my job then I will purchase a car. I have been selling my end of term cars to carmax who gives me more than dealer and that way I am not rolling any other payments/negative equity into my new lease. My leases are all minimum drive off as I don't believe in putting money down on the leased car.

TheBatman

Yeah. I have a friend who's an attorney and he leases his $114K Porsche b/c he writes off the payment. His office is a few miles from his house and he has an ML550 as a daily driver so the 5K miles/year cap on his lease doesn't phase him. Leasing is good for these scenarios, otherwise its a waste of money.