Lease or Buy a car

[pdavester]

For those of you OOTers with a lot of experience with buying/leasing cars; which is better?

Especially if you only want the car for 2-3 years.

[Uglyowl]

Need more info.. how much you driving. With a lease you can't drive anywhere or you go over and then get raped when you return the car.

[pdavester]

driving about 20 miles/day 6 days a week. So probably 500 miles/month, with your occasional long distance trip thrown into the mix. Probably about 8000 miles/year.

[Gin 'n Tonic]

Unless you’re obsessed with image / newness, buy something secondhand – I do about 30-35K miles per year and always buy a one-owner / full service history car from a dealer. Something reasonable with about 80-100K miles, usually a saloon as they’re not very popular currently and tend to stick in the dealer’s stock (you can always get a discount on a saloon).

Always lasts 2 years +, and I get about ½ my money back in part-ex on the next one.

Usually works out at about £250 ($480) per year – much less than the depreciation on a new car, cheaper to insure and waaaay cheaper than leasing – especially with the high mileage.

[pdavester]

forgive my ignorance, but what is a saloon?

[fsuplayer]

get dont anything new, get it a year old, and buy it.

if you insist on getting something new, then lease.

[JinX11]

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Especially if you only want the car for 2-3 years.

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driving about 20 miles/day 6 days a week. So probably 500 miles/month, with your occasional long distance trip thrown into the mix. Probably about 8000 miles/year.

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Sounds like a lease is the only way to go for you.

[Bulbarainey]

get to a private dealer auction, find someone who can buy for you, usually is a few hundred, but u will save thousands. weve had a few cars we got from the auction, used them for a year to year and a half, and sold em for the price we got them. it might be worth the trip to CA to check out some of the dealer auctions, lots of cars for less than BB wholesale price, mostly repo's though

[groo]

If you need to have a new car and you are driving 8000 miles a year, then leasing is simply the least expensive way to use the car for 2-3 yrs.

If you don't need new, buy something a year or two old.

[Gin 'n Tonic]

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forgive my ignorance, but what is a saloon?

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It's an Englishism for any car with a boot (trunk in the US), as opposed to an estate car (station wagon).

What to you call a 'traditional' car with a trunk in the US?

[guller]

car

[jakethebake]

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car

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ni han

[jakethebake]

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Sounds like a lease is the only way to go for you.

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[OrangeHeat]

Definitely lease. With the price of new cars if you only have it 2-3 yrs on a 60 month loan you will most likely be upside down at the end.

Better to take the cheaper lease payment for two years and have zero equity rather than negative equity.

Orange

[pdavester]

We call it a sedan (4 door) and a coupe (2 door). We call a station wagon a wagon.

[pdavester]

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get to a private dealer auction, find someone who can buy for you, usually is a few hundred, but u will save thousands.

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Now this sounds interesting, how exactly do you find where these auctions are, and then how do you set it up with a dealer? Do you just go up to one and slip him a few C-notes and tell him which one you want?