Lease vehicle or buy

google is probably your friend on this one.

Do NOT lease a vehicle... it's a bad idea... an even worse idea than buying new.

You only get so many miles you're allowed to put on the vehicle during your lease, ANY ding, nick or scratch is going to go against you when your lease is up... You get charged for any mile you go over your allotted amount.

At the end of the term, you don't get to keep the car, you have to trade it in... so all you did was rent it...

Like I said... it's worse than buying new. At least after a few years you still have the car... and if you need to, you can sell it.

You don't have that option with a lease.

I heard one point explained that made a lot of sense that a car is an asset, a pretty expensive one, that depreciates greatly, and quickly, in most cases. Therefore, it's wiser to lease, and that way you are not stuck with a depreciated asset down the line.

It makes sense to me, but I still haven't leased a car yet, perhaps because I'm too old-fashioned or like knowing that it's MINE.

I learned from my mom's mistake... she leased a car and at the end of the lease... was very sorry she'd done that.

That's what sucks about cars. They depreciate very quickly in the first few years.

doesn't really matter...the idea behind a lease (at least in theroy) is that the lease that you pay is basically the depreciation of the car plus a little profit for the dealer....

what that means is, let's say one person leased a car and another paid cash for exactly the same car....at the end of the term of the lease, the lesee turns the car back in and the purchaser sells his vehicle for exactly book value....if the lease was set correctly, the purchased car should have lost exactly the same amount as the leasor paid in lease payments....

that is how it is supposed to work, so there should be no difference in costs between the two...unfortunately, as others have said, extra mileage charges, abnormal wear and tear charges, etc....can really run the cost of a lease up on the back end.....

Leasing is a sucker move and only utilized by people who want to overextend themselves and get a vehicle that is above the price level that they should be in.

Here's how I see it. For those who are saying buy a car instead of leasing because at least at the end of it, you still own something...With the way cars depreciate these days, the only way you really MAXIMIZE (here's the key word) the gain here is by getting the entire life of car. That means running that car until it's dead at 200K+ miles or whatever.

You aren't doing yourself much good (or the gain is minimized) if you're going to just keep the car for 10 years or close to 100K miles and then try and sell it. So, it's about what your projected needs/wants are in life, IMO.

For me? I'm young, single, and have sufficient funds to lease or buy a car. I also don't drive very much and drive at a fairly consistent rate (daily commute to work). I am choosing the lease option because I don't project myself keeping a car for very long as I get fairly bored with cars quickly. I want the 'new', upper class model car, so sue me. I don't want to get caught in the trap of having an 8 year old car with, 70K miles and then having to bite the cost of the 'lost gains' by not keeping it longer and squeezing more life out of it. If I trade in the car (depending on what it is), you have probably saved a couple hundred in comparison to the lease option. If you sell it privately, maybe a tad more. But is all that work worth your time and effort? Maybe so. It's an individual call.

I know that by the time I'm 35 and/or married and settled down, I'm probably not going to have to opportunity to have the newest and latest. I'll probably end up buying a no frills minivan. And I'm fine with that...but it's not for me right now.

I say live a little if you can afford to, but it definitely has to fit your category.

ETA: As far as wear and tear goes, I hear that as long as you turn it in in reasonable shape, they won't charge you for that. Small scratches and the occasional 'door' dings probably won't warrant much.

I'd also recommend being very sure about the projected miles you plan to drive. This can make a big difference in the cost of leasing. Take a look at your past oil change statements in chronological order, and calculate the miles driven over the past year.

If you own a company and can write off the lease payments then sure but for an out of pocket personal car then no. Just my two cents.