That's why I don't lease. I'll probably end up buying the car anyway afterwards. If it was a car that I know wasn't going to last a long time, then I'd lease it. But since it's a Lexus, I can probably drive this thing into the ground well past 200,000 if I wanted to (but I seriously doubt I'd keep it that long).

I'm still really deciding on this one. I can afford either, but I don't know which would be more cost effective for me. I have an ES300 paid off in absolutely perfect condition that's a CPO with 55k on it, so...

 

06 GS430 MSRP $58K.
after 3 years and 36K miles, its value is ~$31K. Now, that is a good buy. The dealer is going to add a few grands on top of it, but it's still a good price regardless.

I have a question to those who lease their cars. Do you drive the **** out of it because it's a leased car? or you treat it like it's your car eventhough you have no intention of keeping it when the lease ends.? Thanks

 

your garage?...snob, show off.

 

GOOD QUESTION!

 

we don't treat leased vs. own vs. finance any differently from one another. i suppose you could as long as it was within the bounds of excess wear and tear, but we like the cars looking and running like new (hence why we lease over and over). maintenance is no different under lease vs. finance, so there's not much sense running a leased car into the ground and having to pay $$$ to get it fixed.

if you are prone to accidents or something, leasing definitely won't make sense b/c they will ding you hard if you have any body work done (even if it looks 100% new and work was performed by Lex/Toyota collision).

also, if you are big on modding your car, leasing may not be right for you in certain circumstances (not allowed in all cases). in addition, putting any extra money in the car without taking it back at lease-end is money lost.

sorry, that's the best i can do with my 2mp camera and absolutely no photoshop skills.

 

oh, btw, the 54% resid was for 45k miles, not sure what it would have been for 36k. last time i leased, 12k vs. 15k annual mileage made no difference in residual value. that was Lexus Financial Services.

 

Unfortunately, I've noticed that this is the leaser's attitude. "Oh it's a lease, oh well." I hate that. "It doesn't need premium; it's a lease!" That's why I'm reluctant to buy a used car that "just came back from a lease". I treat every car I drive (except my friend's Mustang, but that's because its 3.8L V6 only makes 150 horsepower and it has a 38 ft turning circle, therefore you HAVE to get on it to do anything. Very... "sporty." ) as if it were my own.

 

sounds pretty good if its 15k per year.

 

...especially for such an expensive car, with not a lot down either. My thing is to give them as little money up front as possible - and get a comfortable payment from there.

 

....as I dont want to damage the car and have them charge me for damage at lease end. If you are referring to driving it a liitle rough, I don't think most people want to abuse a car just because they know they are going to get rid of it in a couple of years. I don't want my car to be in the shop after I thrash it up - and brakes arent covered on the lease! That is the one drawback of leasing - if you screw the car up, you gotta get it fixed before lease end - but on the same note, I don't want to drive around a jacked up looking lexus!

 

Unfortunately, I've come to notice quite a few instances where that's not true. A lot of leasee's get in the mindset that they're just going to get rid of it. If it's nothing cosmetic and still runs and drives, chances are they won't charge the person at the end of the lease.

 

....those same people probably would drive the car into the ground regardless of whether they lease or own. Those are just BAD drivers! I would assume a Lexus Certified PreOwned car would be safe to buy, right? Do they NOT certify some cars because they were abused?

 

I think it has to do with the service history of the vehicle. It's either the one that shows the lowest maintenance, or most regular service history, something along those lines. It's not really a big thing to have a CPO, but it's definitely a selling point as I still have 45,000 miles of warranty left that I don't plan on using.

 

That residual sounds a little low. I would have expected it to be more like 56 or 57%. I'm trying to remember but the lease on 2002 GS300 SportDesign with 12K miles per year was 58 or 59%. I've been reading on the edmunds.com forums that the residuals have been low on the new GS. Just to give you an idea of why I think that's low, I asked Car_man on the edmunds.com forum about the 2006 Infiniti G35 Sport and he told me the residual would be 59% on 12K miles/year and 60% on 10K miles/year. Also the money factor on the Infiniti is .00180 which is excellent.

I don't want to put up a ridiculously long post about why I think leasing is better than buying. A lot of people have already put up a lot of the arguments. The only argument I'll make against leasing would be if you plan on customizing your car a lot. Regardless, when I leased my 2002 GS300, I only a little over $700 to drive off the lot with the car. It was the first months payment of $600.05 and some registration fees. I didn't have to leave a security deposit because this was my second lease with LFS and I put the taxes in the payment. It was a car with a $47K sticker price that I got for $42K. If I had bought that car (with no money down), my monthly payment would be a lot more even if I took out a 6 year loan.

Also, to the people who are considering leasing....I believe in putting down as little money as possible since you're not keeping the car at the end anyway. Yes your payments will be higher because you're borrowing more money but if the money factor is low, who cares. It's better to invest that money elsewhere. What I mean is that I would put the taxes, etc into the payment. Yes I know you end up paying interest on the taxes but if you pay the taxes up front and the car is stolen or totalled (god forbid), you lose all that tax money you paid up front. If you put the tax in the paymant and if you have gap insurance (which is included in most lease contracts), it covers any additional money you owe after your insurance company pays off.

And again for those who are leasing, you should never focus on the monthly payment like the ones you see in newspaper ads. Those usually require a down payment and (i.e. cap cost reduction) and also require that you pay the taxes up front to get that monthly payment amount. If you read the leasing guide on edmunds.com, it will give some great advice. There are really only 2 pieces of information you need to know when you're calculating the lease, the money factor and the residual percentage. Those 2 pieces of information are based on the term and the miles/year that you want and what the leasing company offers (of course). Most of the other information that goes into the lease calculation is fixed such as the tax rate, title and registration cost, acquisition fee, etc. You still need to negotiate the purchase price because that's used in the lease payment calculation. The residual value is the sticker price (not the negotiated price) times the residual percentage. Here's edmunds.com page with their lease calculator. You can play around with the numbers to see what a lease might cost you.

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/calc/Cal...ion=lease_calc

 

How does this sound for a lease package on an IS350:

It has the luxury package, navigation system, mark levinson sound system, park assist and rain sensing wipers. It is the most loaded IS350 in our region which has a sticker price of 44,929.

36 month lease / 12,000 miles per year, with 1,525.00 due at start which includes your first payment, tile and plate transfer. Your monthly payment would be 697.00 which includes tax. Payments quoted are based on a credit score of 730 or higher through Lexus financial services. Please let me know your opinions on this lease package. Thank you.