Leasing vs. Buying

[orikes]

Does anyone have much current experience with leasing a car over buying a car?

The car dealership I visited today offered me what looks like a good lease deal. I'm just not sure it's what I should do. On one hand, it puts the payment at something easily affordable, and I wouldn't have to worry about the car ever being out of warranty.

On the other hand, the car would technically not be mine and I'm not sure what constitutes normal wear and tear in regards to the lease deal.

I'm really torn on this one.

Comments

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm kind of with Tina on this one. That's pretty much what leases are for. It depends also on--

1) how long do you keep cars?

2) how good are you at maintenance?

3) are you willing to keep meticulous records?

I keep cars until they're around ten years old and have about 150,000 miles on them, so leasing isn't for me.

Also. Also also also. Have you looked at pre-owned certified cars? That's what I always got until my last one, and I had a pretty good warranty deal with those (plus your warranty for the powertrain should be good until 7 years/70,000 miles. That's pretty standard.) And I think you can even get financing.

I like owning my own home, but I agree about leasing cars.

PB

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

My current car has been around for eleven years, but not by choice. There was a significant period of unemployment in the last few years, so.. I really didn't have much choice. I would have liked to have traded it in around the six year mark to get into something nicer. That wasn't in the cards.

I'm a little worried about the mileage limits. On one hand, I can see them being completely within spec because I'm not going to be going crazy driving all over the country with the way gas prices are. But at the same time, I do like going on trips. It's part of the reason I want this particular car. I've put 10k on my Neon in the past year and that's with two decent trips.