Do you lease or buy?

[Lady's Human]

With leasing, much depends on your intentions at the end of the lease and how the figures work out. We leased my wife's last car, and the effective interest rate at the end of the lease (after lease buyout, not before) was something like 4 1/4%, which was a better finance rate than we could have gotten at the time.

[Jessika]

Oops. Voted lease but meant buy!

Well, we got a loan from the bank for a used car anyway, but when its done its OURS, 100%.

[Lizzie]

I bought a new car through my credit union and a year later took out a home equity loan with the same bank, paying off the car loan. So the car was all mine only a year after starting to make payments, the amount I still owed on the car became tax deductible and the car is equity. I think you would have to shop around very carefully and do a lot of of research to lease a car in a way that was more financially sound than buying one.

[Logan]

I am certain that you and Wade already know the answer to this question, Pam, but I had to throw in my vote. BUY and if you can keep from financing anything, that is the way to go!!!

I leased once, but it was a mistake. I was putting so many miles on the car, I ended up buying another one so I could park the leased one!

Logan

[Edwina's Secretary]

On this theme....I am very excited. Today my odometer will turn over to 100,000 (it is at 99,997 right now.) I have never kept a car that long!

[Pam]

I am really so surprised at the way the poll is going in this thread. At work I feel like the odd man out, being the only one who doesn't lease. Here I feel like *one of the gang* for the most part.

[cyber-sibes]

i've done both. When it got too expensive to fix my old van, I rented a van for three years. I got in during a special and it was MUCH cheaper than buying, and the maintenance was covered. It actually worked out pretty well for my situation. When the lease was up, I bought a great used vehicle & got many years of service, then gave it to my son. I'm buying another used vehicle now, I don't like how high my payments are, but I like my car.

[moosmom]

I buy only because I keep my cars until they don't run anymore. (anywhere from 6-10 years). Besides, I was told that leasing is good for people who don't drive alot.

[anna_66]

At the moment we are doing both.

We have a lease on the Durango and are buying the van (which I think must have been a lease it was so well taken care of).

In my personal opinion leasing is good if you don't have a long lease and don't have to drive a lot.
Case in point...
Our last lease was a Dodge Intrepid. We only had a 3 yr lease on it and were allowed 12,000 miles/yr. At the end of the 3 years it only had 26,000 miles so it was way below the mile limit. So because there wasn't a lot of miles on it we didn't have to replace the tires and there was no damage or motor problems so at the end we didn't owe anything when we turned it back in.

Now with the Durango we went a little crazy (pretty much a top of the line Durango) so we could have a vehicle we both could agree on and could afford, so it's a 5 yr lease with 12,000 miles/yr also. Not very smart on our part as the payments are more and for longer. If we would have tried to buy it at the time we started our lease it would have costed us almost twice as much in monthly payments as we are paying now. I know the tires will need replaced for sure which will cost quite a bit and who knows what else we will have to have done in the next year and a half.

I can't say I regret leasing, I like having a new car that I don't have to worry about (besides car values decrease sooo much) but if I did it again, it would only be for a max of 3 years.

[mruffruff]

I've never leased. I can't see paying for something that will never be yours at the end of the contract.

I bought my used '96 Toyota pickup 8 years ago. I paid cash, but I could have financed it for three years at a reasonable payment. That still would give me 5 years of use for NO payments.

The only repairs I've made have been a new battery (this month) and a set of tires last year, as well as semi-regular oil changes. I did have it repainted, but that wasn't necessary. The southern sun had faded the finish.

[lute]

buy. i bought my car at a yard sale of all places for $3,000. it's a silver '93 Lincoln Contnental. it's a nice forst car, but definatly want to sell it and buy a pick up truck or something i can keep more than one dog crate in.