Lease or Buy? Whats everyone doing

May not make sense in your situation,

I have a Co car, i only put around 4k mileage a year on the tacoma.

Sticker price was almost $38k, i put $2k down which covered first payment and ttl. Final price 32kish. After 3 years to buy the truck is $27,6. I can either buy a practical new truck for $27,6k plus tax for a 4x4 with 12k miles or sell it and make atleast $4k. Plus i know the truck, its not like im buying a used vehicle i dont know anything about.

It works for some, even if you dont get it.

 

That is what I plan on doing. Lease my next one and drive a new truck every 3 years.

 

On my 3rd Taco lease - use my truck for work and get a vehicle allowance. Modding this one more than the others but being careful in my selections so I can "undo" at the end of the lease if needed. Might end up purchasing this one of course that's what I've said about the previous two also . The Tacoma holds value so well never have had to put any money down.

I think the main reason I lease is because after "awhile" I always find some things wrong that I hope will be corrected next time - maybe that's why I'm on marriage #3

 

I don't have a company car and I won't have 4,000 miles on my truck after the 1st year. I'm considering leasing my next truck.

 

I've posted on this elsewhere but to throw in another factor in favor of a lease: less tax exposure and less up-front costs. NE has very high vehicle taxes. The tax/title on a new vehicle is about 8.5%, which means having to come up with $3000 or so out of pocket plus the downpayment on day 1. On a lease you amortize the tax and only pay on the amount you finance.

When I got my Tacoma, I was not trading in--giving my prior vehicle to my son. So I was able to pay just the first month's lease plus $800 or so in tax/title, vs a significant downpayment (let's say $3500) plus ~$3000 for tax/title. I should be able to write off part of lease as a business expense.

I don't know that it necessarily works out better to lease than finance, but lately I have traded vehicles every 2-3 years. It is very painful to pay so much money up front and take a long time to have any equity in the vehicle.

 

maybe if you could make mods to all of them haha that would be unreal to have a full arsenal of cars

 

It makes sense to lease vehicles that (1) depreciate a lot, (2) you don't plan to modify, (3) are difficult to resell, (4) are known to be problematic and/or expensive to repair after the warranty expires. Tacoma doesn't really fit any of these scenarios.

Your payments may be lower but the interest rate you pay is likely going to be higher than financing.

I wouldn't lease.

 

I mean I guess possibly an appeal to authority?? But thats only a fallacy if you're misappropriating their authority... like if I cite an auto mechanic about auto financing... or an auto finance guy about working on cars.

Asking and auto finance guy about auto finance seems completely logical, hence "the people who understand it best". Wealthy people do have their own reasons for leasing but their calculus for doing so still takes into the account the advantages that poor people get from leasing too, mainly tax and financial exposure. Rich people don't have special access to this information, for the most part they just understand money better and how to make it work for them. Obviously there's still financially dumb rich people and financially smart poor people, but in general I'm confident saying millionaires tend to know more about financial intricacies than working class guys like me . So when I see them all generally doing the same thing with a certain financial instrument, I think I can logically take it as an indicator that there must be a financial advantage to doing so (due diligence still required of course).

 

Best decision I have ever made was to lease my 2018 OR. No way in hell I am keeping this truck after the lease.

Love every aspect of the truck. But the transmission is a total deal breaker for me.

Yeah, I test drove it. I was overly excited to get the truck and didn’t drive it long enough to really see the shifting issues.

Lesson learned.

At turn in, I will put the factory grill back in and swap back to factory wheels. Done. Then I will walk my happy ass right next door and BUY a F150.

 

In Honor of World Cup..

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Actually its the exact opposite, the less depreciation you have the less taxes you end up being on the hook for (most states). High resale makes leasing a BETTER idea.

Modification is only a worry if you plan on giving the vehicle back to the mfg at the end of the lease, if thats the plan from the beginning the car wasn't worth buying in the first place rather it was a lease or a finance... like say a Nissan or Kia.

You actually want to lease a vehicle thats EASY to sell which usually correlates with resale value anyways... high resale + easy to sell = $equity$ for you at the end of lease.

Rather financed or leased I think its generally smarter to just avoid a known problematic vehicle all together

 

Leasing makes sense for some. Not for me. I put way too many miles on my vehicles and use them too hard. I prefer to buy and keep them a long time. Use them like a rented mule along the way.

 

Totally agree my son leased a F150 but had 30,000 miles after 14 months. He had to go negative and buy a car that had 1/2 the retail of the truck. Otherwise with Ford Motor Credit he would owe $.25/mile when he turned it in. He would have owed over $7,500 at the end of 36 months.

 

My interest rate was lower to lease than to finance.

I guess you can say your credit score also plays a factor in this.

 

My credit score is perfect. But that’s besides the point.

Given anyone’s credit score, leasing rates are normally higher than financing. If you found the opposite, the interest rate must have been subsidized as part of a promotion to entice buyers to lease.

 

Til that F150 shows you why Ford has turned to shit....

 

Automakers are known to inflate residuals in order to make lease payments more attractive. It has little to do with actual resale values.

And at the end of the term leasing allows you to simply walk away from a vehicle you would have a tough time selling yourself, like a German coupe, a Jaguar or an EV.

To me leasing means to be on the hook making payments indefinitely, which is precisely what automakers want.

 

I bought my ‘18 taco. Put down a decent chunk-o-change, and $525/mo for the next 3 years to pay it off.

After that, I’ll continue driving this truck for the next 15-18 years while putting that same $525 in a savings account. The day I hit retirement, I’ll go pay cash for a brand new one to take me off into the sunset...at least that’s the plan on paper.

 

Given that:
A. Tacomas have some of the highest resale values among all vehicles - car, truck, motorcycle, carrier pigeon
and B. You can get a crazy-low APR on a loan,

...i dont know why anyone would lease.

All things being equal, anyway. I understand everyone has their own financial situation.

 

How long before you get your money back that you put down. Not till then will it be worth it.