What Is Parked In Your Driveway?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Giantone

So when your lease is up how much cash do you need to put down on the next lease ?Unless you have a way of claiming your lease on your taxes for work to me any way a lease is a wast ,by buying the car you have cash equity in it and can drive as many miles as you want unlike a lease .

That was a little tough to read, but here let's do some math. Cost of owning one car for 12 years vs the cost of leasing via 36-month leases year after year.

I'll use a Toyota Camry as the example since it's America's best seller. Data is from Edmunds. I'm assuming you just get the base model and put no options in it.

A Camry costs you $22,159 (true purchase price per Edmunds, with no options on the car). Then you have to maintain it. Toyota pays to maintain it for the first two years. After that, let's say you take it for oil changes every 10,000 miles and do all the factory recommended service and replace the tires and brakes when you should, all that shit. Average maintenance cost per year after the 2nd year is about $250.

So over 12 years that's $22,159 + $2,500 = $24,649. Then after 12 years it's usually worth a little bit, so you can sell it for $2000. So we're back down to $22,649.

On leases, right now you can lease the same car for $3284 due at start (which includes $2499 cash down + $650 bank fee + $135 doc fee), and $142 per month for 36 months. $142 per month times 36 months is $5,112. So the total cost of your lease is $3,284 + $5,112 = $8,396.

Since that only gets you a car for 3 years, you need to string together 3 more leases back to back, so we get an apples to apples comparison for owning for 12 years. 4 consecutive leases x $8,396 per lease = $33,584.

So owning one car for 12 years, costs you $22,649. Leasing for the same time period every 36 months costs you $33,584.

It's a massive difference. How many miles do you put on your car per year? I can do the math to tell you whether leasing or buying is better, because that will affect it for you.

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

That was a little tough to read, but here let's do some math. Cost of owning one car for 12 years vs the cost of leasing via 36-month leases year after year.

I'll use a Toyota Camry as the example since it's America's best seller. Data is from Edmunds. I'm assuming you just get the base model and put no options in it.

A Camry costs you $22,159 (true purchase price per Edmunds, with no options on the car). Then you have to maintain it. Toyota pays to maintain it for the first two years. After that, let's say you take it for oil changes every 10,000 miles and do all the factory recommended service and replace the tires and brakes when you should, all that shit. Average maintenance cost per year after the 2nd year is about $250.

So over 12 years that's $22,159 + $2,500 = $24,649. Then after 12 years it's usually worth a little bit, so you can sell it for $2000. So we're back down to $22,649.

On leases, right now you can lease the same car for $3284 due at start (which includes $2499 cash down + $650 bank fee + $135 doc fee), and $142 per month for 36 months. $142 per month times 36 months is $5,112. So the total cost of your lease is $3,284 + $5,112 = $8,396.

Since that only gets you a car for 3 years, you need to string together 3 more leases back to back, so we get an apples to apples comparison for owning for 12 years. 4 consecutive leases x $8,396 per lease = $33,584.

So owning one car for 12 years, costs you $22,649. Leasing for the same time period every 36 months costs you $33,584.

It's a massive difference. How many miles do you put on your car per year? I can do the math to tell you whether leasing or buying is better, because that will affect it for you.

So we agree.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Giantone

So we agree.

If you're going to own one car for 12 years, yes. How often do you buy new?

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

If you're going to own one car for 12 years, yes. How often do you buy new?

I buy the wife a new one,she drives 4 miles to work and four miles back after 5/6 years when it is paid off I take that car and she gets a new one ,again.Happy wife ,happy life. Seriously I get a car with 40/45 thousand on it and then turn them in when it's time to get another .I don't take a penny of my own for a down payment.(my ride is 49 mi each way every day 6 days a week)
I just traded my old Camry 03 with 240,000 on it and in "fair" condition for 3200 on a a new Santa Fe.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Giantone

I buy the wife a new one,she drives 4 miles to work and four miles back after 5/6 years when it is paid off I take that car and she gets a new one ,again.Happy wife ,happy life. Seriously I get a car with 40/45 thousand on it and then turn them in when it's time to get another .I don't take a penny of my own for a down payment.(my ride is 49 mi each way every day 6 days a week)
I just traded my old Camry 03 with 240,000 on it and in "fair" condition for 3200 on a a new Santa Fe.

OK well you're not buying and replacing the same car every five years. You're buying and replacing every 10 years. You guys buy a new one, she keeps it 5 years, you get it for the next five years, but you're not trading it back in until it reaches 10-12 years old. That makes great financial sense.

That's much different from what my father in law does. He buys a car for himself, then after 5 years of owning and putting 50K miles on it, he trades it in and buys a new one. He does the same thing with his wife's car. So they buy 2 new cars every five years. It's way cheaper to just continually lease than to do what he does.