I would never lease a car for any reason! Theyre may be some examples of why its good but I have never heard of one.
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Ok maybe I'm not tuned in to how other people live but how many people actually buy or lease a Lexus for a gift??? I have watched that commercial come on several times already and I'm thinking......what????? Really????
I would never lease a car for any reason! Theyre may be some examples of why its good but I have never heard of one.
Leasing a car is like renting an apartment.....
If you understand the fact that you own nothing, and you get a decent lease deal, I think there are times I'd lease instead of buy.
If you like driving something new every few years, then a lease is a great idea.......just UNDERSTAND you're throwing your money away.
If you've had the types of car problems I've had and you like to drive them into the ground, you have to weigh the cost and headaches of repairs versus the peace of mind of NOT having those issues.
Personally, I've never leased, but I was really close when we purchased a new vehicle for my wife a couple months ago.
Leases have their place, but if you are doing it to save money, forget it.......you NEVER save money and you actually end up throwing money away because you actually don't own anything.
Again, if you UNDERSTAND that you're throwing money away and you realize you're renting a car, it is nothing more than renting an apartment or a house. In those cases, you're also throwing money away, yet folks do it every day and don't think about it.
Later,
Geo
I've always envisioned folks, like our hero Hugh Hefner, standing in a driveway in a robe and slippers smokin' a pipe on Christmas morning while he joyfully watches his wife, girl friend or daughter walking around a new Corvette, or Cadillac with a red ribbon and bow on top...but for me...no I'd never lease a vehicle...for me it doesn't make sense.
Geo - I know of a guy who's dad never in his life owned his own home until he retired. He worked at G.E. for 30/40 years and rented the same house and raised three or four kids in it. The way he saw things was he didn't have to pay for repairs except for any cosmetics the wife decided she wanted. His way of thinkin' was the expenditures associated with home ownership such as taxes, insurance and interest on a home loan could be saved...so that's what he did. He rented until he retired and he saved the dollars he would have been paying on taxes, insurance and interest. Then what he did is he moved the heck out of Louisville down to Glennsfork, Ky. got him a nice 5 acre little piece of ground and paid cash for it. He's now in his early 80's and just yesterday I was made aware that he recently sold the only house he ever owned because it was getting to be to much for him to take care of...he down sized, bought a small little bitty house on a small little bitty lot in the big city of Columbia, Ky.
I realize that taking the route this gentlemen did is a long shot in todays world...or so it seems to me anyway.
I guess I listen to too much Dave Ramsey to lease a vehicle. I like the one payment kind of car. It usually means I drive an older junker truck but that is life.
Yeah, I love those commercials. Ever notice that the Lexus in this new commercial is sitting in their living room? Unless they live at the dealership, just how did that happen? LOL
No, never bought a Lexus for a Christmas present. Imagine if you're the one that shows up to that Christmas party with a neatly wrapped package of tube socks....talk about getting 1-upped! LMAO
There are actually reasons for leasing....I know of people who have "high end" jobs that are required to travel a lot...put a ton of miles on a vehicle and don't want to drive a vehicle for more than a year or two....they lease this vehicle, put a ton of miles on it, and turn it back in....say they leased it for 8,000 over 2 years....If you buy a 50,000 Lexus, put 100,000 miles on it and drive it for 2 years....you could probably sell it for 30,000 or so....It would make more sense for a person living that lifestyle to lease as opposed to buy....Makes monitary sense and they get to drive their new vehicle every couple years
I have not checked into leasing for a while now, but at one point in time when you leased you were limited to driving say 12,000-15,000 miles per year in addition to paying the monthly lease fee. Any extra milage over that set amount, you had to pay a fee for each additional mile that was stipulated in the contract. Some people that did not carefully read the contract got a big time surprise from the extra milage in addition to normal maintance they had to pay for.
Then buy a Honda or a Ford if you are destroying a car that much.There are actually reasons for leasing....I know of people who have "high end" jobs that are required to travel a lot...put a ton of miles on a vehicle and don't want to drive a vehicle for more than a year or two....they lease this vehicle, put a ton of miles on it, and turn it back in....say they leased it for 8,000 over 2 years....If you buy a 50,000 Lexus, put 100,000 miles on it and drive it for 2 years....you could probably sell it for 30,000 or so....It would make more sense for a person living that lifestyle to lease as opposed to buy....Makes monitary sense and they get to drive their new vehicle every couple years
Most leases have mileage restrictions.........and when you exceed those restrictions, the terms are CRAZY.......There are actually reasons for leasing....I know of people who have "high end" jobs that are required to travel a lot...put a ton of miles on a vehicle and don't want to drive a vehicle for more than a year or two....they lease this vehicle, put a ton of miles on it, and turn it back in....say they leased it for 8,000 over 2 years....If you buy a 50,000 Lexus, put 100,000 miles on it and drive it for 2 years....you could probably sell it for 30,000 or so....It would make more sense for a person living that lifestyle to lease as opposed to buy....Makes monitary sense and they get to drive their new vehicle every couple years
But like I said earlier, I think there are reasons to lease, and this sounds like one of them.
Later,
Geo
I don't listen to Ramsey, but I do the same as you Ryan. I have a total of $1800 in two vehicles. I drive a 1989 F 150 and my wife drives a 1998 Mercury Mystique. Paid cash for both and a little upkeep has them both serviceable.
I don't cheat on my wife, do drugs, drink to excess, or club baby seals....so I guess the good Lord decided that my vice would be spending too much money on vehicles. Everybody's got to have at least one vice, right?
I'm guilty as sin in that department, and I know it.
Buying new vehicles makes absolutely zero economic sense. It's quite stupid really, whether you purchase a brand new one or lease a brand new one. The second you drive a new one off the lot, you take a beating. Never the less, I'm one of those "every two or three years" folks that car dealerships love. The sad part is that I've turned my poor little wife into one too. When we met, she was driving a 12 year old beat up Geo Prizm and had no aspirations for anything different than that until the end of it's existence. Fast forward 12 years later, after being married to Big Dummie for 10 years, she's had 3 different cars...and now there's a 4th parked out in the garage that she's in love with. (Yuppie-ass Lexus. No, I didn't buy it for her as a Christmas present. LOL She makes her own payments, by way of her nursing job.) But, it's all my fault.
Leasing, odd as it sounds, really isn't that bad. Geo is spot on, in my opinion. We have done it once, and it turned out fine. If you are someone that doesn't drive a ton, wants to drive a new model car every couple of years, and aren't someone who plans to keep one until it's paid off and drive it until the wheels fall off...you can drive a little nicer car than your budget will allow. (Notice I said a "little" not a lot.) There is a payoff figure on a lease just like a purchase...and you can trade them in just like a purchase. The lease part doesn't really get that interesting until you keep one to term and go turn it in and walk away. Otherwise, it's not vastly different than a purchase. We leased one for 3 years...and when you totaled up the payments we made, plus what we could have bought out the car for at the end of the lease term, it wasn't too much more than what we would have paid for it outright from the get-go. A little, but not drastic. The benefit is that we were able to turn it in and walk away if we didn't want to keep it, versus trying to sell it or trade it in, where the dealer would be able to hose you a little more. (ie: "We're giving you $10K for your trade" when in reality they are giving you $8K.) My wife drives a whopping 4 miles a day, round trip, to work and back. But it's still hard to write that check knowing that you don't technically own it...like Geo said, kinda like renting versus buying a house really...
I just love new cars and trucks! I love the way they look, feel, smell. We spend a lot of time in them. It's like crack to me.