Do You Lease Or Buy Your Vehicles?

[Howard 538]

Roads up there are well groomed.  Put on snow tires and FWD is fine.  My parents have lived in Vermont for years.  The AWD Sienna is only available in 7 Passenger and they wanted the 8 passenger, so they got the FWD version.
It's all about proper tires.

EXACTLY. Check out the recent thread on the board about winter tires.

[fishnut 2,358]

55 minutes ago, Krdshrk said:

Roads up there are well groomed.  Put on snow tires and FWD is fine.  My parents have lived in Vermont for years.  The AWD Sienna is only available in 7 Passenger and they wanted the 8 passenger, so they got the FWD version.

It's all about proper tires.

I agree FWD can be good but your parents know how to drive in the snow. My wife.........not so much.

 It's one of her requirements to move to NH. She gets a minivan I get a house in a free state. Everyone is happy.  AWD and snow tires it is. 

[SJG 253]

If you can't write off your lease payments or have your employer voluntarily reduce your salary because the employer pays your lease payments as part of your compensation package, it makes no sense to lease

[Ray Ray 3,566]

There is one guy I work with who only leases.  Why?  Because he wants chicks to think he has lots of money.  But in fact he lives in his parents 2 family house and mommy hasn't cut the umbilical cord yet.  Eyetalians

[GramGun79 226]

12 hours ago, 45Doll said:

I used to think leasing was a crock too. Then five years ago I did the math.

The last car I owned was an Olds Intrigue loaded. I owned it for 13 years and 160,000 miles. After I sold it I added up the cost of the car, maintenance and repairs and divided by the number of months. Answer: $285/month.

So now for an extra $25 to $50 per month I can drive a brand new car and have no unexpected repair bills. Everything's always under warranty. (Of course the insurance on a new vehicle is more than it was the last 9 years on my Intrigue.)

One other thing. If the car you own is seriously damaged in an accident, that fact will greatly reduce the resale price when they run the CarFax report. You have to eat the loss. In the case of the lease, you hand in the key and walk away. (This assumes in both cases you have the car repaired under insurance.)

Of course getting a good price on a lease is a whole other post.

i too have done the math and its exactly what 45 said. When you really do the math it roughly cost the same to lease vs own if your not driving the same car for 10+ years 

[AVB-AMG 530]

It is one thing to drive on frozen snow covered roads in VT and NH in the winter, but an entirely different situation come early spring time and the freeze thaw.  Then it is a real mud fest up there for several weeks...

So if it were me moving up there, I would pick up (buy), a used Land Rover Defender 90 as my all-season daily driver:

[voyager9 3,434]

In Spring the black flies can easily carry off a RR Defender. Then what are you City folk gonna do?

[gleninjersey 2,141]

I own.  Long term.  Going on eleventh year with current vehicle.  Other than tires, brakes and normal wear and tear I think I've paid  mechanics about $1200 for repairs.  Replace brake line which rusted and replace harmonic balancer.  Last one I should have done myself but was pressed for time.  Only other repair I've done is replace coolant elbows and belt.  Helps that I don't drive for work (take train).

Purchased wife gently pre-owned Buick Enclave a few years ago.  Very good price.  We had to drive two hours but we saved about $3k from what any dealer near us wanted for similar vehicle.

Almost all of my family (including inlaws) own.  One of my single friends owns three cars.  A used Honda Accord.  It's his daily driver.  An older Mazada Miata for summer driving.  And the 1965 Buick Riviera (Road House movie car) that is his project car.  The 65 Riviera is driveable, just not show car restored.  

 

[AVB-AMG 530]

7 minutes ago, voyager9 said:

In Spring the black flies can easily carry off a RR Defender. Then what are you City folk gonna do?

Damn... your right....   I was wondering where my Land Rover Defender had disappeared to on our last VT road trip...  Those damn black flies in NY State, VT and NH are carnivorous for about two weeks in late May.

[AVB-AMG 530]

I have almost always leased our daily driver vehicles for a term of three years and 15,000 miles per year.
With commuting to Manhattan, and driving on the roads in NJ that seem to always be in a relatively poor state of repair and the odds for having fender bender accidents, it really does not pay to own in this state for us.  We also enjoy getting a new car with all the new updated/upgraded safety and communication features, as well as of course the latest body style tweaks.  Mechanically, other than the electrics, not much has dramatically changed in the past 20 years.  Of course, all of this will dramatically change over the next five years with hybrids, electrics and autonomous driving vehicles about to take over the marketplace.

The only cars I own outright are the older, special interest ones that I want to keep for a very long time since they are fun to drive in the appropriate season and weather.

Good luck with whatever choice you make after crunching the cost, mileage, depreciation, maintenance cost figures...

AVB-AMG

[fishnut 2,358]

10 hours ago, AVB-AMG said:

 

Aaaaannnnnndddddddd that's why public trails get shut down. Tread lightly!

Jeep owners would know better lol

[1LtCAP 4,264]

10 hours ago, AVB-AMG said:

I have almost always leased our daily driver vehicles for a term of three years and 15,000 miles per year.
With commuting to Manhattan, and driving on the roads in NJ that seem to always be in a relatively poor state of repair and the odds for having fender bender accidents, it really does not pay to own in this state for us.  We also enjoy getting a new car with all the new updated/upgraded safety and communication features, as well as of course the latest body style tweaks.  Mechanically, other than the electrics, not much has dramatically changed in the past 20 years.  Of course, all of this will dramatically change over the next five years with hybrids, electrics and autonomous driving vehicles about to take over the marketplace.

The only cars I own outright are the older, special interest ones that I want to keep for a very long time since they are fun to drive in the appropriate season and weather.

Good luck with whatever choice you make after crunching the cost, mileage, depreciation, maintenance cost figures...

AVB-AMG

never fear!! the gas tax increase that was bestowed upon us by our saviors(bbaaahahahaahaha) will fix that problem!!

4 minutes ago, fishnut said:

Aaaaannnnnndddddddd that's why public trails get shut down. Tread lightly!

Jeep owners would know better lol

jeep owners never worry 'bout getting stuck.

 

'least my buddy doesn't with his grand cherokee. dash is lit up like a christmas tree, 'cause he's had it under water more times than he can count....but rarely gets stuck.

[45Doll 5,877]

11 hours ago, GramGun79 said:

i too have done the math and its exactly what 45 said. When you really do the math it roughly cost the same to lease vs own if your not driving the same car for 10+ years 

Believe me it was a big shock when I did the math. I had all my costs in Quicken down to the penny. My Intrigue was $30K to buy outright. Spread that cost over 156 months and my starting baseline was $192/month. The average of maintenance and service was $92/month.

Here's the kicker. During the 11th year I had to replace the transmission for about $4K, by far the biggest repair on the car. When I was doing the math two years later I thought 'Damn, I should have sold the car at the 10 year mark and avoided that repair. Then my cost per month would have been much better."

Then I ran the numbers for the 10 year period. Guess what it came out to: $285/month!!! Exactly the same. Yes, I know that's coincidence to some degree, but certainly representative +/- $10/month.

Why was that the case? Because the original $30K cost spread over 120 months bumped the baseline to $250/month, more than making up for less repairs.

I should also add that I deducted out the money I got back when I sold the car. All my final numbers were net.

[GRIZ 3,369]

Major repairs are something that may or may not happen depending on how you maintain the car and maybe some luck.

I had a 92 Mustang i bought slightly used and owned it over 20 years.  Other than regular maintenance and wear items (belts, hoses, brakes, etc) the only parts I replaced were a water pump, windshield wiper motor, radiator, and a cat back exhaust system.  Body had no rust.

I liked it so much I gave it away as I probably would have dumped money into it for an engine and trans.  

 

[Malsua 1,422]

 

I buy simply because I drive 21k miles a year.   I can't imagine what that lease would cost.  I tend to replace at about 120k miles as the cars start to burn you on repairs after that.  I may keep my current Acura a bit longer, we'll see.  I've got about 3 years before I hit 120k.

I buy for my wife because her car is currently 10 years old with 35k miles and has been paid off for 9 years.  Half down, and paid off the remainder in about 10 months.   Her last car was 16 years old when I sold it, it had 38k miles on it.

[1LtCAP 4,264]

1 hour ago, 45Doll said:

Believe me it was a big shock when I did the math. I had all my costs in Quicken down to the penny. My Intrigue was $30K to buy outright. Spread that cost over 156 months and my starting baseline was $192/month. The average of maintenance and service was $92/month.

Here's the kicker. During the 11th year I had to replace the transmission for about $4K, by far the biggest repair on the car. When I was doing the math two years later I thought 'Damn, I should have sold the car at the 10 year mark and avoided that repair. Then my cost per month would have been much better."

Then I ran the numbers for the 10 year period. Guess what it came out to: $285/month!!! Exactly the same. Yes, I know that's coincidence to some degree, but certainly representative +/- $10/month.

Why was that the case? Because the original $30K cost spread over 120 months bumped the baseline to $250/month, more than making up for less repairs.

I should also add that I deducted out the money I got back when I sold the car. All my final numbers were net.

IF YOU paid 4k for a transmission rebuild you paid a little over double what you should've paid.

[45Doll 5,877]

It was not a rebuild.

[1LtCAP 4,264]

this is what it takes to get a jeep stuck.

 

4 minutes ago, 45Doll said:

It was not a rebuild.

ok....so you went full reman from jasper or atk. while they're great units......for about 1500 to 18oo bucks you can get your tranny rebuilt and it'll be just as good.

oh yea.....he wasn't stuck either, lololol