svmtbman

When you lease you are basically paying for the depreciation of the car while you own it. This is what there is a milage cap on leases. When you enter a lease you will be given a residual value, this is what you can buy the car for at the end of the lease( what the leasing co. determines the car will be worth at the end of the lease term). Generally leases have lower payments than a purchase and shorter terms, this makes them a good option if you generally keep cars for 3 to 4 years and don't drive them an excessive amount of miles.

I leased my S because I had a little over $4K negative equity in my TSX and this option let me keep near same payment as my loan was on the TSX. With the S being a 2nd car the miles were not an issue and with the low residual I can buy out the lease and then do a 36 month loan on the reisdual and come out paying just a little more out of pocket over the term of ownershp as I would have if I had paid off the loan on the TSX. Not bad if you figure the MSRP on the S is $6k more than the TSX.

i.e. - The TSX had a loan for 66 months at $635/mo = $41910
The S has a lease for 48 months at $600/mo and residual of $14300, if I finance the residual at the end of the lease for 36 months I'll be paying $435/mo, total cost =$44460

I know, I think things through too much.

LittleBluePill

OUCH.

gomarlins3

As mentioned above, be prepared to pay a LARGE amount in taxes. I didn't know it was coming until I got to DMV with my info. They hit me with a LARGE bill. Luckily I had just sold a house so I had the money.

twitch54

6% of $19,400....that's not that bad !