Buy or lease a car?

dotnetnewbie

Hi,

I'm looking at either buying or leasing a fairly expensive car(25 to 30k). The salesman keeps telling me that leasing is the better option, but maybe I'm so guarded about it b/c I feel like he's really trying to sell me on it. Any advice on it would be great...

Also - what happens when you get into an accident w/ a leased vehicle when you are mid-lease? Is there anything different to what would happen if you actually owned the car?

Thx

plane_boy2000

Depends on lots of factors - like how long you plan to keep it etc. How are you paying for the car?

Take a look on line for quotes and see what deals on leasing it you can get - some cars work better on lease, others not.

If it gets damaged it gets fixed by your insurer just the same

epatolles

would depend how you are paying for the car really.

bare in mind how much you'd pay on the lease and that you'd either have to pay a lump at the end to keep it or hand it back in my experience!

dotnetnewbie

thanks for your reply.

payment wise -- i can pay all cash upfront

length keeping -- can't say, maybe 3 to 6 years?

if the car gets damaged, does that affect the value of the vehicle at the end of the lease? does this result in you paying more?

LandyAndy

dotnetnewbie wrote: »

thanks for your reply.

payment wise -- i can pay all cash upfront

length keeping -- can't say, maybe 3 to 6 years?

if the car gets damaged, does that affect the value of the vehicle at the end of the lease? does this result in you paying more?

? At the end of a lease you give the car back so it has no value to you. If it is damaged you will have to pay to have the damage repaired (excluding fair wear and tear).

Pincher

The monthly payment depends a lot on the depreciation over the typical three year lease (manufacturer's guarantee period minimises the leasing company's costs), and the discount the leasing compnay got when buying the car (which you are not able to get).

An old company car gripe is it's cheaper to lease a Mercedes C-Class than a Mondeo, because of the smaller depreciation, but reps are not allowed to have the Mercedes, because it will upstage the executives.
This is now warped by the tax system, because the rep gets taxed on the benefit based on the list price. If you are a private leasee, the tax is irrelevant, so it's worth checking out Mercedes and BMWs with low depreciation.

A draw back with private lease is the high milage penalty.
High business miles is good for the rep, because he gets a milage allowance.

plane_boy2000

OP - tell us what you are looking at so we can give an idea if it makes sence to lease or not - as mentioned before some cars work well, others dont.

I lease my car - its big and french so I know it's only going to be worth 2p in a few years time, but the lease prices to me make it no more expensive than anything else to run - I couldny buy and run the car for three years as cheeply as I can lease it. I like to change every 2 - 3 years so a lease makes it easy for me to just hand back and start again - if you plan to keep beyond that time frame then it's probably not the best way forward.

Unless something changes I will be doing it again (for the third time) in 2 years time when current car gets returned (unless they offer it to me really cheap..!!)

jack705

Leasing a car is the best option for you in my openion.I also advice you to insure your car after leasing it.

TAKE CARE.