Leasing a Tacoma w/ intentions of buying

Leashackr.com is your friend. Check the forum.

I just leased mine today. Personally, didn't have the down payment needed to get the monthly I wanted if purchased. The goal for me is save enough in 3 yrs time, put the payment down, and get my monthly purchase comfortable.

Another thing to note. Never put money down on a lease. You will lose it if the car gets totalled. Insurance and gap coverage will make it so that the vehicle gets paid off, but you won't see any down payment back. Same rule applies for paying ahead on the lease. Only pay what's due that month.

 

You can do a lot with 15k investing or saving if you choose to do a 3 year lease. All this talk that you are locked into purchase price after 3 years isn’t true. THEY are locked into sales price. If it’s worth less than the buy price in your paperwork, you can walk away or negotiate. If it’s worth more, you get it for the lower number or you can use the equity to trade in. After 3 years, that will be 26-29k depending on the mileage of your lease. If at that point you want to buy it, you’d have your 15k that was earning you a little interest over the 3 years, plus your savings of 100-300 a month in monthly payments over 3 years, and you can buy it with a very small loan if you choose.

No, you won’t come out ahead leasing and then buying vs. buying from the start, but it isn’t the difference people like to make it out to be. And there is value having a lower monthly payment AND keeping your 15k down payment. And if 2 years in there is some financial downturn or something crazy happens where Tacomas lose value because everyone buys an EV or cyber truck, you can walk away at the end of lease.