Which would have the better (least expensive) lease ? I am open to either GS even though I might prefer the 450H for the gas savings. Most likely I will have to order either car. What has anyone found when shopping for the two ? How much are you paying for a lease for either car ?

You might be able to get special leasing offers for the HYBRID. But if youre leasing it go with whatever one you want more, unless youre going to buy it in the end. If thats the case just purchase it.

I wouldn't purchase off of a lease, would loose too much.

have you tried the payment estimator on lexus.com?

http://www.lexusfinancial.com/consum...ymentEstimator

will give you an idea on how much each lease will cost and you can go negotiate from there

totally wrong concepts. if done right, lease for 3 yrs then buyout can come out cheaper than finance the car

If so please advise......I am here to learn. But more importantly I will probably never buy as I am generally tired of a car after 2-2 1/2 years, which is why I lease. On a loan of 60 months or more I would only be even or upside down by then, without a substantial down payment.

it's all number games. so a start would be to look at the lease money factor, and also the finance rates. depending on the time of the year sometimes they have special on leases, and sometimes financial apr

then do the math and see what your monthly payment is. for sure financing the car for 3 yrs will have a much higher monthly payment than lease.

at the same time, look for doing MSD (multiple security deposit) on lease. basically you put multiple of monthly payments as deposit (fully refundable at the end of lease) which in turns lower your money factor by quite a bit. this is the kicker. a lot of times the "rate" becomes more favorable than financing the car

at the same time, your payment is less each month, meaning you can put them into better use (investment). assume a reasonable return, that's still better than paying for the car now (you pay off the car 3 yrs later)

at the end of the lease term, you pay off the car. and the good thing is, if there is anything you don't like about the car within the first 3 yrs, you give them back the keys and walk. at least here in cali, you only pay tax on the portion of the car you own, that could be big

case in point, yrs ago we wanted to get the sc430. 60k car. after doing all the math, by doing a 3 yr lease, and assume i buy out the car afterwards, we ended up paying ONLY 2k of "interest" on the car. however if we financed it for 3 yrs, we had to pay close to 3k. moreover, monthly payment on lease was much lower on the lease, so we had more cash flow. and ironically, at the end of the lease we decided the car won't be that practical down the road, so we just returned it. what a great deal.

so bottom line, you have to do all the math to see what's the best option. it's going to be a lot of calculations, but if that can save money, why not

just want to stress that i am not trying to say lease is ALWAYS better. but instead, different methods have different pros and cons, and depending on the time, etc... one should do all the projection and see what's the best option.

but after yrs of buying / leasing cars, i start to see the pros in leasing, even if one wants to buy eventually. especially on euro cars where they play with the numbers so much to lower the monthly payment, it becomes a buyer/leaser market

one important note is, never "think" about leasing a car for 3 yrs, and THEN finance the residual to own the car. that's a terrible mistake, and you will almost always come out negative. one of those you need to know what you are doing thing so you can "save up" the money for 3 yrs laterq

Thanks for the run through ! When I said that buying a car after the lease was not good I should have specified that financing it would not be good, just as you mentioned.

My Vette was probably the last car I will buy as I only keep a car for a short period of time before I want another. Also, I want to get rid of it before the warranty runs out.....generally in 3-4 yrs.

yup, for people who like to change cars every 3-4 yrs, lease is a brilliant idea. no need to deal with selling the car, in some states less tax, etc...

overall in your case, i think just go ahead and get the rates and money factor for both and see what you come up with. remember to ask about MSD. also, if you can wait, lexus summer event in around the corner (late june to aug? forgot), usually they have better rates by then