Are You Wasting Money on Your Car Lease?

[@sandramccoy491]

Thank you for helping lots of people. You give great advice.

[@Gadfly2025]

Lease through a commercial lease co and arrange final ballon payment , down pay , interest rate etc

[@TheAutomotiveReview]

Excellent Advice - Great Information - A True Consumer Advocate! Thank you.

[@CarCoachReports]

Thank you

[@bobdavis3357]

Like the fact that that you pay for the free vehicle maintenance EVERY month.

[@MR3DDev]

Buying a leased vehicle is good way to lose the most money. If you lease is because you want to switch every 3 years, otherwise you are now financing a used vehicle after financing depreciation. I am not against leasing, but on paper buying out the lease is no way to save money.

[@CarCoachReports]

I totally agree! Leasing is only for people who want to be in a new car every few years.

[@charlesluck8921]

Hello Lauren, I don't like leasing because there is always a $3500-$5000 cash down up front. When you divide it by the number of months in the lease term, and add that to the monthly lease payment, you'll find that the monthly money isn't all that cheap. I have found that the lease payment are most reasonably negotiable for cars that retain their value, or have a greater residual value projection at the end of the lease term. I'd rather just buy an off lease car, rather than lease one myself. Where can I find the largest selection of off-lease cars for sale?

[@CarCoachReports]

@@charlesluck8921 I agree - makes the most sense sense

[@remyd8767]

You don't have to pay any money up front. In fact never do that. Just calculate it and add it to the lease and do a $0 down lease. If you can afford it do it, if you can't then don't. But leasing is just like purchasing. You negotiate. If the car is $400 per month with 0 down, then call up 10 dealers and ask all them to go down in price say $300 per month instead. And let the dealers work against each other. You negotiate a lease like buying. In fact you should be negotiating the selling price of the vehicle on the lease before you even talk anything else. Then use a lease calculator like edmunds and determine what a typical monthly payment is based on that selling price.

[@willj487]

I'm a financial planner and have worked for a bank for 20 years. This is rediculous complicated. Purchase it, fixed rate fixed term. Maybe it costs you an extra 1000 bucks, who cares? 😊

[@remyd8767]

I'll simplify it for you. Always do $0 due at signing leases. Negotiate everything into the lease. Then you can clear see total least payment. Say car costs $30k. If you finance it for 60 months, you will likely have paid total of $34k by the of loan ( give a take a thousand depending on down payment). By the end of 5 years you will have that same car but paid off. Now if you leased you can get potentially $250 per month for 3 years. That's a total lease payment of $9000. Let's say you lease 5 times in a row for 15 years for about the same level of lease payment. Total cost of it is $45k. So at the end of 15 years, if you purchased the car, you will be stuck the same car the whole time and it will cost you $34k + additional $5-8k in big maintenance costs been year 4 and year 15. If you leased it instead over an over, total cost is $45k , but you get a brand new car every 3 years with practically 0 maintenance costs because you're always within warranty or reasonable wear and tear before you get another vehicle. You say then well at the end of 15 years i still have my vehicle if I purchased it, where leasing i dont. Realistically more people are looking at replace their car at 10 years or suffer more maintenance costs , some very costly. Selling that old 15 year car probably gets you couple grand at most at carmax. So again if you buy a $30k car and keep it for 15 years it will cost you total about $40k -$43k in total ( loan, maintenance) . You're stuck with one car the whole time. Or lease 5 times in 15 years for $45k and get a brand new car every 3 years with everything running smoothly and stress free. Of course YMMV, but you get the gist