Lease or buy?

[gt_ltd]

[quote name='franklin']Here is an opinion. Delay your gratification. Hold on to your 5 year old car with 40,000 mi. Save your money and see how your career plays out. As a grad student your focus must be on school. Its unlikely you drive too many miles a year-right? And unless things are great for you I doubt you have lots of money right now. Dont dig a financial hole for your self right now with a car. (P.S. I love cars and my son is an undergrad now) Franklin[/QUOTE] thanks for your opinion. :) do you have a daughter btw?

[gt_ltd]

[quote name='Gumby']I've never leased, always purchased but it is my understanding that part of the lease agreement is that you don't mod the car. What the definition of mod is I'm not sure but I think it's fair to say that turbo/intercooler/UP/DP/exhaust/springs/shocks/sway bars etc. would not be acceptable. Someone with a lease please chime in. Dave.[/QUOTE] as long as you can return the car un-modified at the end of the lease..

[jim malach]

nope;)

[TSiWRX]

Since this thread was revived.... Lease vs. purchase - the only way to figure this one out is to pull out your calculator, and do the figures for yourself, your own unique case. For me and the wifey, in our current financial state, leasing just happens to be the way to go. We're in the middle of purchasing a house. We're also in the midst of trying to "grow up" and have started to divert more of our savings for retirement and for our (planned) child(ren). Pulling out the calculator - and even after a meeting with our accountant - we've determined that leasing is the way to go. No matter how we cut it, at the end of our lease terms, we're still coming out ahead, dollars to dollars, versus a purchase. And this is before we even factor in a not insignificant increase in our retirement portfolio with the money diverted from a purchase, either cash total or financed. However, this is for OUR particular case. Furthermore, our situation is confounded by the fact that my lovely wifey just simply tears up her cars. It's not really her fault - she tries not to, but inevitably, her cars prematurely age. I truly believe that this trait of hers is somewhat genetic. ;) On the other hand, leasing and the need to de-mod cars before returning the car at the end of the term will be a big incentive for me to not "soup-up" my ride extensively. This is an issue for me as my good buddies and I are all tuners in some fashion or form, be it old-detroit muscle or import sport-compacts. There's benefits to be had either with a lease or with a purchase. And I truly believe that not only can no-one tell you what is best for you, but also that the old-think of "purchase is always smarter" is no longer the absolute truth that it used to be when placed in today's aggressive and highly competitive leasing market. -A

[suba_rus]

If you drive less than 12000 mi/year try lease first and look for cars with high residual (resale)-Lexus, Honda. Subaru residual sucks :-((. For the same mony as my LGT -selling price 22800 (that right- they have some mony coming back) I could get Honda Pilot that priced at 30000. That's power of residual and on top of that Subaru does not have it's own bank like Honda, they do leases trough Chase- no the best bank to deal with. I sell Hondas, but went with Subaru- way more fun.

[suba_rus]

In a lease only reversible mods. Sorry Comrads.

[TSiWRX]

^^^^ Agreed. The residual is what's killing my LGT lease. Or rather, it's what's making my wife want to kill me, LOL. ;) -A