Hate leases? Here is my reasons for highly recommending one.

I have a 2015 f150 4x4 XLT. It had a sticker price of 49k. With all discounts and a friend of the family discount, my monthly payment is $359 for a two year lease. I had a trade-in with a net value of $2100 and 15.5k annual miles.

It is an extended cab with all the bells and whistles, except for heated steering wheel.

I will try to be brief: I have had TERRIBLE luck with vehicles in my 40 years of driving (I'm 54 yrs old). I had a Nissan Pathfinder burn all the wires in the engine compartment because of a short, LITERALLY WITHIN 24 HOURS OF BUYING IT.
I purchased an older truck, trying to save money, looked good, no issues, no rust. 150k miles........Owned it for a year and a half, paid 6k, I spent 4k in repairs only to sell it for 3k. UGH, tranny issues

My last truck wouldn't run right, cost me a day's vacation to miss work.

I am in a lease, I turn it in before the warranty is up, I get another truck.

I had fair credit so I couldn't get into a used truck with a loan, so Ford bailed me out. I walked in with a 2000 f150 , rusty but trusty, sort of........ I drove out that evening with a 49k vehicle, giggling for the next month.

I don't smoke (3k per year?) I don't take vacations (yeah I know, driving my truck is a vacation) and I don't drink or party ( too bad right?)
My truck is my addiction, I walk a little taller, a little more attitude, when I step out of that beautiful machine.
I park WAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY out in the parking lot even though it's a lease.
LOVE IT. Highly recommend it, Just sayin'

That's my story, would love to hear yours

 

Why is your credit so bad that you cant get a loan on a used vehicle? A lease is the same as renting a home or apartment. You pay and pay and never own it. Thats a poor financial choice right there.

 

Sounds like you could ha e bought a brand new lower end truck and actually owned something, OR you just got hustled into a lease because the dealer said you couldn't get a loan.
What's done is done though, enjoy your ride and the next one when you turn it in.

 

In 2 years you're out the 2100 for your trade plus 8616 in payments... meaning you've spent 10716 and have what to show for it?

Zero.

This is why I will never lease a vehicle.

 

I'm curious... if you joined the forum in 2009 why it took 7 years for your first post?

 

Wife and I used to lease her car, a BMW. After two years, it was tossed back to BMW, and she would pick out a shiny new one. I traveled quite a bit during that time frame, and the piece of mind I had knowing that she would never be stranded with a car repair/without a car was good for me, as they have a good program where they pick up a stranded car, and bring you a loaner at the spot you are stranded. This only happened once, but I was happy to hear that my wife was not stranded.
However, after the 6 years and 3 cars of being in this program, we did not have anything to show for the payments made. I really did not want to own a BMW that would be out of warranty, as they are way too costly to maintain without one, so leasing was a decent option with this type of car.

Good and bad with leases. You like driving a new car every couple of years without out of pocket maintenance costs? Lease is a good option for you. Otherwise, it does indeed take your money away with nothing to show for it.
Never, never lease a vehicle for longer then its warranty though.

 

This is what I gather from a lease, and if I'm wrong feel free to educate me, as I have never leased one. You put down a down payment sized amount of $$ up front, your payment is normally way cheaper than a payment, essentially allowing you to rent a vehicle that in some cases you couldn't afford to purchase. Then after 2-3 yrs you turn it back in for nothing. I'm not sure I see the advantage from a financial standpoint. However enjoy the truck.

 

There is virtually never a true financial advantage to a lease. To say otherwise would be going against just about every financial advisor and publication out there. Now if you want to argue that you need a "shiny new thing" every 2-3 years and don't really care if you pay up for it, then well who am I to say how to spend your money. Personally I will never lease because of a few things:


1) Leases are extremely complicated and designed to benefit the auto company and not you.
2) I like owning my vehicles and having no payments. Save up and pay cash or take a small loan and you can drive "for free" for many years. The cheapest auto is virtually always the one you own free and clear no matter how much you have to spend in maintenance. 5-10k a year in payments I don't have to pay will pay for lots of maintenance!
3) I like to do mods on my vehicles and you cant do that with a lease.
4) I grow into my vehicles over time and seem to like them better over the years after I get used to them.
5) I want to drive my vehicles as many miles as I want and not be restricted.
6) Don't want to constantly worry about damaging the vehicle and paying up for it at the end of the lease.


Leasing is renting and usually getting something that you could not otherwise afford for cheaper. Kind of like those rip off rent to own places. Personally I could afford to lease a Bentley, but the thought of paying all that money out and having zero to show for it is just not in my DNA.


Leasing is not for me. What others do with their own money is their business. Just don't say when you are 65 that you don't have enough to retire on when you have spent all your money on never ending lease payments your entire adult life.

 

I don't think leasing a vehicle is not to bad. I've done both. The way I look at it driving a vehicle is going to always be a monthly expense. Even if you keep a vehicle and pay it off your still on the hook for all the repairs. In addition most likely you will eventually by a new vehicle sometime so even though you have no monthly payment eventually you'll need a down payment which is most likely coming from the money you have put in the bank while not making a car payment.

Take Slyobeg for instance. Had a truck for 18 months. Cost of it plus repairs cost him 10 grand. Sold it for three grand so it cost him seven over the year and a half he had it. That works out to be 388.00 a month. Got a new truck for $359 a month plus $2100 down. Averaged out it costs him $446.50 a month. Only $58.50 extra a month and he has absoultely no worries about having to pay for any repairs, tires, brakes, etc other than oil changes.

A little bit of advice I can give when leasing a vehicle treated as your buying it and bargain with them. The reality is that even though you're leasing it the dealer is selling it. They sell it to the leasing company i.e. the Ford Dealer is selling it to Ford Leasing. So you can bargain you monthly payment and down payment down. But also keeping in mind lease deals change just like rebates change month to month so you have to be ready to jump when the deals come around.

 

Would never work for me, but it can be a good option for some people. I drive over 20,000 miles a year and actually use my truck to do work with. In addition to losing nearly $11k in 2 years I'd be on the hook for more than 10,000 extra miles and paying a body shop to repair the dings and scratches when I bring it back.

I usually have the best luck buying new or lightly used and keeping it 150,000-200,000 miles. I've been driving since 1974 and haven't paid for a major repair yet. Just normal stuff that wears out like tires, brakes, shocks etc.

I've gotten 50% of the initial cost or more in trade after 150,000 miles several times. The truck you're leasing could have been driven off the lot for well under $40K, around $37-$39K. You could drive it 10 years and get close to $20K out of it based on how trucks have retained value historically.

That $20K ten years from now would make a huge down payment on the next one. By leasing you have zero trade value to help you 2 years from now.

You just don't buy a new vehicle without a significant down payment or trade value. Once you get in a position where your trade and cash is at least 50% of the cost of buying new, or even used it makes a lot more sense to buy.