Leasing a car tips

[leelee9878]

I want to start off by saying I do not think leasing is the best idea. However my fiancé really wants to lease and his job is less than 10 miles from home so I finally gave in. My question is are you able to negotiate when leasing? I've never leased before so not sure how that works.

 

[epsmith921]

Make sure the state you're in doesn't charge tax on the entire sticker price of the car, but rather on the payment itself.

Also, be sure to check what mileage requirements they're quoting. Most leases now start with a base price with 10k miles per year. You can have the dealer run it for more and see what that does to the payment. The miles are much less expensive up front than if you go over them at the end of the term.

Also, most leases have a turn in fee if you're not getting another vehicle through the same company. This is usually in the neighborhood of $500 so just something to think about.

Remember that the insurance coverage must meet the finance company's requirements as well, so that can be an expense over what some are used to.

 

[bumbershoot]

I leased for 12 years. I was happy for 10.


Know your mileage. It's nice that his work is 10 miles from home, but what about going out for lunch? What about when you meet up for dinner after work? What if you want to take the car? What if his is the "better" car and you take it for road trips? How fast will that mileage add up then?

Know that you will be paying insurance on a brand new car. And you will be paying premiums for a brand new car the WHOLE time you have that car.

Know that if you get a flat and have to replace the tire, you'll be paying for that tire, and when you turn the car in, the tire is theirs now. (super fun when the tires on the car are stupidly expensive and you get to pay for that tire so they match!)

You'll have to baby the car. You don't want any scratches or dents.

When you go to turn it in and you get a new lease on another car, they will almost certainly SAY that they won't charge the turn-in cost, but if you look carefully in your paperwork, it'll be there (under a slightly different name). Hiding. And having interested charged on it.


He really needs to explore why he wants a lease and if it actually makes any sort of sense. For me, I was a young single female and I wanted a SAFE car. I didn't have the money for a down payment and got in on a no-down-payment lease. I didn't have the money for the monthly payment on a loan, but the lease monthly payment amount worked for me. Those were my reasons. They made sense. For 10 years. And then they didn't.

Worst decision I made while leasing was to turn in my first car and get a new one. Bad decision based solely on emotional reasons (sad things had happened while I owned the car...told you, bad decision/reasons). I was the only one who had had that car. It had never been smoked in, I knew the accidents it had been in rolleyes1), I knew everything about it. I should have paid the highway robbery (that I agreed to when I signed the papers!) to buy it because it's rare to find a car with a single owner that you know personally.


He's got to really think about this. And this will be your money, too, once you are married, or maybe even now. This is a financial decision and should STAY a financial decision. If he's talking you into it, it sounds like emotions are coming into it, and they should not. I tell you from personal experience and the experience of friends of mine...if you're being talked into large financial outlays (whether it's right now or in 4 years when the lease is done, or monthly as you pay the full insurance on that car that isn't even yours) and you're not OK with it, it's not going to get better. Pay attention to what's going on, and when you talk to him again, pay attention to how he deals with that. It's not JUST leasing a car; it's how decisions are made between the two of you.

Best of luck!

 

[leelee9878]

Thanks for the replies they are good things to think of. Basically he and I have had car problems over and over again, I just bought a new car in November because mine was shot and I couldn't see dumping money back into it. I was hoping his car would last until after the wedding but his is 12 years old and shuts off while he is driving now so I think it's time for a new car for him. The lease would be nice because it would be less than a car payment so it would help that we don't have 2 new car payments. He likes the idea of potentially a new car every 3 years especially after all the car trouble he and I had endured the past couple of years. I can see pros and cons with both situations.

 

[Disneychick75]

You can negotiate the price.

These are a couple of examples from different company's Wear and Use Guides:

https://owners.nissanusa.com/content/techpub/EndOfLease/Wear_and_Use_Guide.pdf

http://credit.ford.com/doc/wear_use_evaluator_card.pdf

 

[supersnoop]

With a lease, you're financing the depreciation for the time you own the car. This means that a car that holds its value will be a better deal, and a more expensive car will be an even better deal. For example, one car that costs $50k and is worth $35k after three years and another car that costs $30k but is worth $15k after three years. Both will cost you the same, because they lose the same value.

Keep in mind that you're essentially buying a car, using it for three years, and selling it back at a pre-negotiated price. The leasing company is guessing what the value of the car will be in the future, and they've got a lot of data help make that guess. But you're still paying them to take on the risk of of the car's future value. You're paying a middleman to broker the deal, so a lease will almost always be a worse financial decision than just buying.

It sounds like you're interested in leasing because it's a lower payment. That's a terrible reason to lease. I recommend you find a car that you can afford to buy instead of lease, and, if it's unreliable when the warranty is up, you can make the decision to sell it.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I would look into a cheaper model to buy, or even a used car. He only drives 10 miles to work and you have a nice new car you two can use together. All he needs is reliability, and IMO there are cheaper ways to go about that.