VIBEELEVEN

iTrader: (2)

Anyone have any opinions on leasing a vehicle? My wife wants to lease an audi a4 for $340 mo. for 24 months. She basically just drives to and from work and is the type who get's sick of cars fast. We pay $388 a mo. for her jetta we bought last year. Do you guys think it would be worth it?

Thanks

STi deede

I say yes as long as she keeps it under miles. Especially if she get sick of cars quickly. Either way your throwing money away, but that seems like it'll end up costing you less in the long run.

RussB

iTrader: (2)

i've leased all my cars. i historically get rid of a car in 3 years or less. it's worked out pretty good for me so far. the only mistake i've ever made was buying out the lease on my wrx and then getting rid of it in less than 3 years anyway.

IF you pay attention when negotiating the lease, you can get a good deal. there are more ways to get screwed in a lease; more variables that affect the payment. interest rate is expressed in points and is difficult to compare to the actual rate. residual value is a factor, as is the "purchase" price of the vehicle. you can still negotiate the purchase price, since the car is still being sold, just not to you, try to do this first. act like you're there to buy at first then when they start throwing #'s around after the purchase price is agreed on, ask about leasing.

do some math, which will cost you less money, leasing the car and returning it at the set time, or purchasing the car and selling after the same ammount of time?

pj21086

iTrader: (24)

If you own a business or make a lot of money a lease is real good. My cousin is a dentist with his own office. He leased a g35 for like 400 a month but he really only pays like 2 something because the rest of its gets cut from his taxes.

VIBEELEVEN

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the replies.

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

I'm not big on leasing. Sure it's a good way to step in to a car for less money that making the monthly payments from a purchase, but you effectively end up spending your money on nothing. You pay on the depreciation, so at the end of your lease you have no car and you've pissed a bunch of money down the drain on it. Sure you have the option to purchase the car for the remaining amount, but now you're looking at either making a big balloon payment or financing the amount for another term. You could end up paying on one car for 8-9 years when you could have just bought it outright in 5 or so.

I guess if you're just looking to switch cars a bunch (which would be cool - always trading for the new hotness) and you don't really want to mod the car, leasing is good. If you figured out what your payments would be on a purchase and then took the difference between that and your lease payments and actually used that money for something good like investing or saving religiously leasing might not be a bad deal. All really depends on the person I suppose.

VIBEELEVEN

iTrader: (2)

That would be my wife

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

heh, I hear ya. Mine is sort of turning out to be the same way. In the future, leasing her something pretty nice might be the way to go.

RussB

iTrader: (2)

done with the RS already?

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

No. Just, she expresses interest in modding the car, then when the time comes to do it she's like "eh" so I'm not sure what to make of it. We'll have to see what she wants to do when time comes to replace this car.