re: About to lease a car...any tips before I pul the trigger?

I'm just trying to get something for the lowest amount possible. Lease or purchase doesn't make a difference to me. If we buy we'll honestly prob sell soon after she graduates and starts working so at the end of the day, we aren't going to be keeping whatever we end up getting.

Car buying is never going to leave you coming out ahead no matter what you end up doing so I'm just trying to get to the lowest amount of cash out of pocket.

Her not having a car is not an option. Her school hours don't match up with my work hours and I honestly don't want a 105 pound woman walking or bike through BR.

I don't think everybody is trying to push buying because it's an amazing deal. Cars are generally a money pit regardless of whether you buy or lease

I think the point everybody is trying to get across is that unless you end up with a POS used car, buying used almost always puts you ahead of leasing from a financial perspective. Plug actual prices into one of the many Buy v. Lease online calculators out there and see for yourself

IMO your situation seems like the ideal case for going to a place like Carmax, if you have one nearby

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Car buying is never going to leave you coming out ahead no matter what you end up doing so I'm just trying to get to the lowest amount of cash out of pocket.

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I'm probably the biggest proponent of leasing on this board, but this statement alone means you should get a 3 year old car with low miles. Depreciation slows significantly after 3 years, but still new enough to get an extended warranty and have very few issues.

Leasing is a great way to lower upfront and monthly costs of a new vehicle. However, it is still expensive and not the "cheapest" way overall. It is only worthwhile if you want the new vehicle (at trade off of value) and will be trading it in/selling after the lease period.

Try to look at it from a total loss of capital/money perspective. If you lease, you're out all your monthly payments + cash at signing (roughly $8k from your OP). Will you be happy with a vehicle that you can buy and sell at the end of 2-3 years and lose less than $8k? A $12k lightly used car will likely NOT be worth less than $4k with the miles you will put on it, probably closer to $8k. This may change if you can adjust numbers for a lower mileage lease (ie. if payment goes down/residual up, and total cost is only $5k).

Sounds like most of the people on this thread just say Leasing is bad...leasing is stupid..blah blah

Leasing is another way of financing a vehicle. You pay for what you use. (Finance the difference in the sale price and residual). A lease will have a fee or two on top of this and this is where you decide if it is worth it. They have many lease calculators and articles you should check out. Listening to people say its stupid without any reasoning is pointless.

IMO in your situation a lease sounds like an option worth exploring...always get a purchase price and lease price..sometimes you get more incentives to purchase that you will not get with a lease.

Get her into a safe car with a low monthly payment and a warranty. At the end of the lease you have a few options: Turn it in, trade it towards a new vehicle, buy it for the residual or sell to a third party and pocket the additional $ if sold over residual price.

At the end of my lease I will either sell to a third party (residual will be lower than what the car is worth) or buying it for the residual price if we like it.

FYI I am not a fan a buying a used car with 100k+ miles.

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As far as getting that 06 accord, I really don't want to drain our savings to buy a car with over 100K miles.

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what is this about draining savings? You've got to pay $1500 down on the lease anyway don't you?
Last year I put 2k down to buy a 2010 Fusion (64,000 miles). My monthly note is only $218 and I had a very limited credit history prior to getting that loan.