is it smarter to lease or to buy a car?

Answer 1

unless you plan to get a new car every 2-3 years, buying is USUALLY much smarter

Answer 2

Leasing a car is simply another form of vehicle financing and it doesn’t have to be confusing. In fact, for a buyer that only keeps vehicles 3-4 years, leasing may be the most cost effective option.

It all comes down to what you pay. If you get a bad deal on a lease, then you won't be saving yourself any money and leasing could be the wrong option for you. On the other hand, if you do your homework and understand some simple lease factors, then you can very well save money by leasing.

Here are a few of the most common misconceptions about leasing:
-The price of a car is higher on a lease.
This should not be the case. The price should be the same no matter how you finance the car. The price is also referred to as the “cap cost” on a lease.
-The interest rates and other factors are kept secret.
Interest rates are federally mandated to be disclosed to the consumer. You can compare lease rates, also called “money factors,” just like you can compare interest rates on a loan.
-I will have to pay a lot if I drive over the miles calculated in the lease.
You will have costs; that is true. The key here is planning. If you know you drive more miles than the annual allocated average, build that mileage into the lease by buying additional miles up front. If you buy a car on a normal loan and then drive it an excessive amount of miles, you are also lowering the value of that car. If you were to try and trade it in, then you would most likely be in a negative equity situation and owe more on it then it is worth.
Very simply, driving a car an excessive amount of miles further lowers its value. With a lease you can buy extra miles up front to cover yourself, and when you turn in the lease you walk away without negative equity.

Leasing may or may not be for you, but you should consider it as part of the overall research and homework you do in shopping for a car.

Answer 3

Unless you understand things like capitalized cost, residual cost, and lease factors, and are ready to negotiate these elements, it's likely that leasing will be more expensive to you than buying. The dealer has more variables to jerk around in a lease deal and unless you are familiar with these, they will probably be used against you. In addition to this, you have no way of knowing how badly you will get dinged at the end of the lease for what you might think is ordinary wear and tear. Your most cost-effective route is probably to buy a slightly used car, maybe a lease return or rental return. If you buy new, go to Edmunds or another site and find out the invoice price and actual average selling cost for the car (not the MSRP!) and use those as bargaining points. Whether you buy new or used, two other items are important. Arrange the loan separately from the car purchase, preferably with your own bank or credit union. That way, even if it looks like the car dealer is giving you a sweet deal on a loan, you can walk away from his loan and use your own if he tries to tack on costs, etc. Second, never buy an extended warranty, no matter how hard the dealer tries to sell it to you. Good luck.

Answer 4

It's definitely buying a car - a smarter choice. Leasing a car
really makes no sense and you lose a lot of money. In the end,
you have 0 asset in the car.
I hope you understand!

Answer 5

Their is no unequal way . It depends. What people dont know is that you have several options when the time of the lease is up . 1 is bringing the car back with less/equal miles of the contract , thank them , leave the keys and car and leave . 2 you can say " hey guys i love this car to death and I want to be the owner of it , all you do is finance whats left of the residual for as many years u would like , most likely is two more years at a little higher payment . 3 is you can trade the car in for another before your time is up , but this isnt recommended for a lease . A lease is simple , its made to finance a part of the car , not the whole car throughout a time period . Giving the customer shorter and comfortable payments . What people dont think about is that some people purchase cars and finance them for five years saying " oh yeah , i bought the car " while then you see them trading it in for another car in an average of 3 to 4 years and for what ?? They problably been paying a high payment last 3 years and then trade in ?? Sounds pycho to me . A CAR IS NEVER YOURS UNTIL YOU FINISH PAYING THE TIME PERIOD AND YOU HAVE A CLEAR TITTLE IN YOUR HAND , PROBLABLY LESS LIKELY .

Answer 6

Leasing is one of, if not the, worst financial decisions you can ever make. Four years of ridiculous payments and at the end of your lease you get the privilege of buying the car or handing over the keys and walking away. If you are able to walk, that is. Trust me, the dealer will nit-pick every blemish, ding, scratch and stain and charge you for ALL of them. When it is all said and done, the damn car is put on a lot and sold as used for 40% of the original cost when new. That's when you really see how stupid it all was ... you could have just bought a four year old car and saved $10,000.00 from the outset. Egad! What a deal...
It is ALMOST as cheap to rent a car from Enterprise as it is to lease one.

Answer 7

i own a repair shop,and i think its smarter to buy,to me paying a lease is like paying rent ,when you let the car go back you got nothing to show for all the money you payed out on it,at least if you buy it you have the car to show for the money,i have never leased a car and probably never Will either,i guess its all up to the person doing it whether or not it makes good sense or not,good luck i hope this help,s.

Answer 8

Depends what you are looking to do
But remember you pay less on a lease but you don't get to own the car and you can only drive a certain number of miles and things like that....personally I would buy

Answer 9

Buying a car, leasing makes absolutely no fiscal sense. It is the equilivant of a long term rental with 0 equity. it is insane.

Answer 10

Leasing is goodm for a business but bad for an individual. It will end up costing more and there are many problems associated with leasing.