Buy or lease a new vehicle?

[glenn bradley]

At a point in my life where a vehicle was just a monthly expense like water and electricity, a lease really worked out. I always had a better car than I wanted to pay for, it was always under warranty and was always pretty new. Not sure of the rule of thumb today but, at the time if you wanted to keep the car more than a two or three years and drove the average expected mileage, buying made more sense. I actually came out ahead on leased vehicles because I would return them with such low mileage.

[Brian Elfert]

At a point in my life where a vehicle was just a monthly expense like water and electricity, a lease really worked out. I always had a better car than I wanted to pay for, it was always under warranty and was always pretty new. Not sure of the rule of thumb today but, at the time if you wanted to keep the car more than a two or three years and drove the average expected mileage, buying made more sense. I actually came out ahead on leased vehicles because I would return them with such low mileage.

Isn't the only way you come out ahead on a lease with low miles is if you buy the car and then sell it yourself?

I had a leased car once and I rented a car for a cross country trip to keep the miles off. The rental car was cheap enough I think it cost me less than driving my car.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I had a leased car once and I rented a car for a cross country trip to keep the miles off. The rental car was cheap enough I think it cost me less than driving my car.

W/out a doubt!
We had a trip to Florida planned a few weeks ago to celebrate my uncle Bob's 100th birthday.
The cheapest transportation down and back was for us to rent a compact car for a week and drive.
Just the difference in gas mileage between my van and the rental car would have paid for the week's rent.

[glenn bradley]

Isn't the only way you come out ahead on a lease with low miles is if you buy the car and then sell it yourself?

It may depend on the lease and I'm sure things have changed in the last 20 years but, I got a 15 cents per mile credit for everything under 15k per year.

[David Weaver]

it's good if you can get that (credit).

Last car I inadvertently sold early (due to marriage), I bought for 27.5k, drove it 25k miles in 4 years (started to take the bus which cut back the mileage) and got 13.5k in trade in on it, which was the mannheim price at the time, or roughly, less a small adjustment for minor body work and tires (which it needed). In four years, it cost me 14K, and edmunds valued the mileage below expected for average market value to be worth a $500 adjustment. It was a little more than 20K under middle of the road estimate, so it was only worth between 2 and 3 cents per mile to not drive it much according to their estimate.

I'd have been better off leasing.

Maybe someone who wanted to sell private party could recover a little more than that, but for what I did with the two cars I sold early, I'd have been money ahead to lease. Finally with the last two cars, that hasn't been the case.