Toys4RJill

From the other posters I read of yours. It seemed like you were completely closed off to buying. I don't look at leasing vs buying from a simply total dollars and sense cost. Buying a car with cash (and having no ongoing liability)) vs leasing a car with interest and having a never ending cycle of payments is what i am referring to. The average person (99 percent of the population) is always in a better situation from the standpoint of liability. The only time i would ever say take financing vs paying cash would be if the carmaker is offering 0%.

mmarshall

I didn't say that leasing wouldn't work at all under those conditions....only that, for a number of persons, it might not be the best way to go (and I think, in general, that Jill makes some good points). One of my colleagues, for example, who I regularly swim with, recently had to put his leased ES350 in the body shop for a new front bumper when his wife drove it into a pole, despite the ES350's obstacle-proximity-warning beepers (the shop did an excellent job, BTW). Obviously, anything can happen to a car, at any time, on the road...leased or bought. But, most of the time, he has the advantage of a covered garage at home.

Did they treat the leather on your Sedona's seats with the preservative/protectant when you leased it? (That, of course, often one of the dealer add-ons they often ask you with in the business office). Of course, you can also apply your own if desired.

Och

iTrader: (3)

When I bought my X5, I paid for it in full, and my salesman actually told me that in that case I'm losing $2k discount from BMW FS. They actually wrote a check back to me for 12k, and I financed that at 0% to get the $2k discount. So, sometimes it makes sense to finance.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Don't forget that when leasing you are also only paying a portion of sales tax from the total cost of lease, not full vehicle value. When buying you're paying sales tax on full vehicle value.

Also, you can always pay the whole lease upfront and usually receive substantial discount for doing so.

SW17LS

Of course not. I would never pay for any paint protectants or leather sealants, they're just a cash grab. It's not necessary, the leather seats just wipe clean.

Any body damage on a car of mine I'm going to have fixed whether I'm leasing or buying. I'm not going to drive a damaged car. I also have only once ever turned a car in at the end of the lease. Usually I trade them in which makes any charges for damage or mileage a moot point.

I'm not saying leasing is a good fit for everybody, my issue is people like Jill that try and say "leasing is always a poor decision" and that's just not true.

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

For an expensive luxury car, I would say 80k or up, with good lease deal, that the lease payments in 3 years will most likely less than the depreciation of the car. I learned my hard lesson on buying my first 750LI. So for us who changes cars less than 3 years, it's cheaper to lease. And I can write off on my tax as well.
Another wonderful thing I just found out, since I wrote it off on my tax as company expense, I was able to exempt my car expenses from my income when I finance my new home. With the payments considered, I can only qualify for less than half of what I can get without the payments on cars. So if I financed the cars, I won't even buy a nice house that I want.

SW17LS

Yeah most people don't realize that. As long as you pay the lease payments out of a business account that doesn't commingle with your personal funds then they don't have to use the payment as a liability to qualify you.

mmarshall

Sales taxes are (sometimes) deductible on your Federal tax return's Schedule A. If you do deduct sales taxes, though, you can't also deduct your real-estate, income, and (if applicable) personal-property taxes ......you have to choose between one or the other, and the sales-tax-deduction formula (if you didn't actually save all your receipts LOL) can be rather difficult and complex.

I know someone who did that on his 27-month ES350 lease. Still was pretty expensive, though...over 17K total.

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

Don't do one payment lease, if your car is totaled before lease ends, good luck getting the remaining payments back.

Toys4RJill

Please don't take offence to what I am about to say. So if you financed your cars, you wouldn't be able to finance the house you have? you would not able to able to finance both?

mmarshall

OK, I'll agree with that part of it. Leasing is what keeps a lot of classic and upper-level luxury-vehicle sales going (the Range Rover you were recently looking at is a good example), simply because many potential buyers can't afford the monthly payments on an out-and-out purchase. The flip side, of course, is continual, never-ending debt, whether the lease is paid off step by step, every month, or in full, up front, every couple of years, to get that discount that Och mentioned.

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

Yes, it will make qualification of the loan harder, I'm buying a much more expensive home than the one I own, it's not that I can't afford the payment, the mortgage company just look at it differently. Have you see many times that when one trying to finance a home, they have to pay off their car notes and all credit cards first?

Och

iTrader: (3)

Thats not how it works. You are responsible for full lease regardless, even if the car is totaled. This is where your insurance steps in, it is very important to have good coverage that includes gap insurance. You can even come out on top in certain cases .- for instance I leased a 2010 335 coupe in December of 2009, and it was totaled by storm Sandy in November 2012. The lease would be up the following month, and if I returned the car that would be the end of that. But since it was totaled, my insurance stepped in, and they appraised the car was worth more than the lease buyout price + remaining lease payment - they paid off BMW and gave the difference to me... I received $5k from my insurance.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Here's another personal example of why leasing is often cheaper. In November 2012 I bought a brand new Suzuki Grand Vitara for my daughter, it came out to about 22.5k after taxes and all the fees. She totaled it November 2014 (wasn't her fault), and insurance appraised its value at 11k, minus deductible, I collected $10k. Thats 12.5 over 2 years, or $520 a month for a very basic, cheap car. You can lease an SUV in its class for maybe $250? With Suzuki gone, we lease a BMW X1 ultimate for her, which is $400 per month and first 2 month were waived. So now she's is basically driving a much better car for less.

Toys4RJill

I am trying to see the logic of how and why you are so impressed by this?

2012-2014 cost $12.5K (CAR was owned)
2014-2017 cost $14.400 (Car was leased) $400x36

In the above scenario you have driven for 5 years and it has cost you $26,900, but you still have no car. No asset (although yes a car asset that is depreciating)...