I have never leased anything before-what is the advantage of this other that monthly cost? Just wondering.
A very fiscally conservative friend of mine always leases one of his cars and buys the other. There were 2 prongs to the main reasons to lease: to always be rotating one of the household cars to having the latest technology. The second item is a little harder for me to find the right words, but it basically removes the risk of perhaps getting a lemon of a car, or if the car is in an accident, you don’t have the liability of a lower resale value as the residual value is already predetermined. (Yes, the car has to get fixed, but “previously repaired” is never a good label on a used car.)
Three years ago I did my first lease, largely driven by the latter point, as the car was going to be one that younger family members and friends used. I also didn’t feel like I could see beyond 3 years to know what would be needed. Weirdly, here I am at 3 years and still can’t see the future well. Anyway, I just bought it out because it has insanely low mileage on it and I could turn around and sell it to Carmax for more than the buy out costs (and I’m still waiting on a Tesla quote because I’m just curious what it would be.) And then there could always be a private car sale that should net even more. Or maybe we will keep it as it still has an occasional purpose.
It is probably my one and only experience with leasing. I estimate it cost me about $2k more than if I had just bought it in the first place (not comparing it to financing and not factoring in the time value of how I might have had that money invested the past 3 years). It did give me some mental flexibility for awhile, although fundamentally I develop an attachment to my cars and it was weird having this “visitor” in my garage.
