350 Million Reasons Not to Lease...

[yourfriend]

i come from a family that keeps cars for, sometimes, 15+ years before getting rid of them. we always put well over 100,000 miles on our cars before buying a new one, and that is why we buy.

my dad had a 1990 535 for 15 years before getting his porsche.

it just works for us. leasing would be great if we wanted a new car every few years, but we're happy with what we have and keep them for a long time.

[ky_soldier]

my point has nothing to do with which is better, but more so that people's psychology of "owning" something is funny. there is a stigma associated with leasing to some people as if it's really not "theirs". it becomes even funnier if you get in a fender bender and someone runs into YOUR precious toy. it's times like those where it's nice to have a guaranteed residual and hand the keys back at the end of the term. don't get me wrong, i continue to evalutate each situation and do both, but never based on emotion. financial decisions based on emotion can be flawed

[135i_TT]

well its interesting to see the whole arguments.. i have yet to see someone who gets more out of leasing then purchasing... and I did get a VW leased and EVERYONE ive met or talked to about leasing says leasing is the worst thing someone can do.. The car got totaled in May and I wasnt at fault, currently waiting on my injury settlement but the car got paid off by the other gentlemans insurance but now that it reminds me that was a good thing 1st bc now I can get my 135i and 2nd bc that was the only way to get out of the lease and losing money for nothing. Id rather be able to say I OWN the car then say I pay less then someone else but I WONT EVER OWN this car unless I want to waste more money..

[135iPSU]

we have always leased our cars, because we keep cars for 4 years before getting new ones...go from a land rover range rover to a platinum cadillac escallade esv, and then from there to the new platinum escallade soon, but it has always worked out well, because of the fact that we always have new cars. I mean this 135 is the first car so far we have actaully bought but for different reasons. Because my parents were giving it to me for college. For most cars though, i would say leasing is a good idea if you can get a low monthly payment and if you enjoy a new updated car every few years.

[ky_soldier]

some people say they are going to keep their cars "forever" and when the next new 1er comes out, realize they want that and sell their ride and take a bath, esp if it was loaded with options. some people really do keep em and drive em until the wheels fall off. my hats off to you, but I LOVE the new models! half the time i'm itchin for something i've only seen spy shots of!

[BlackjackMulligan]

Best part about leasing is not having to haggle over trade-in value when you're tired of the car. That's where they really have you over the barrel. You can pit dealers against each other to get a new car's price down, but they'll all tell you to "sell it privately" if you're not happy with their trade in price, which is a PITA.

[Mark M]

Normally I am the type that subscribes to the camp of keep em till the wheels fall off.

I had an '84 533i that I sold 1.5 years ago. It had 308,000 miles on her. Was planning to avoid the 1er temptation...but finally caved last month.

Also in the stable:

'90 525i - 218k miles
'88 M3 - 188k miles
'97 M3 - 117k miles
'08 135 - 670 miles

[onehungevo]

I can't find a good lease payment for the 1. With the .9% buying is a better option because your payment is lease. At least that is what the dealer and I came up with.

[Noize]

Originally Posted by EmeraldRx

I lease, have leased for years now. Its perfect for me. I put zero down, and pay taxes up front. I save on tax, I'm only paying the taxes on my portion of owenership. I pay less per month, and the car is gone in 3 years with no hassle, and I am always looking to buy in 3 years anyway.

I think this is a little misleading to say "you put $0 down", and pay all the taxes upfront. If you paid all the taxes upfront, it wasn't $0 down. :smile:

Originally Posted by ky_soldier

buying = up front sales tax and no guaranteed residual. tell me again why that's better? it's only better if you have incentives like BMW has now on financing because they've chosen to subsidize purchases, or when lease residuals fall to the point where payments become higher than typical finance payments.

end of story

I don't know how they do stuff in your state, but in mine you get tax credit for a trade in on a purchase. You do NOT get a tax credit on a lease. So if I have a car they value at $23000 trade and I buy a $39000 135i, I'm only paying taxes on the difference, which is $16000. That's less tax that you'll pay on a three year lease.

You're also assuming no equity. If you buy cars, you will eventually have equity. With a lease, you don't have a pot to piss in at the end. And then you have a decent down payment to make to start over. Its brutal.

I bought an Evo VIII in 2003. I only put down $1500 and had a 60 month note. At the end of three years, if I'd have leased it, I would have spent somewhere around $17,300 in payments, including the amount due at signing. After three years since purchase, I had paid $21,400 in payments on the car. That is a difference of $4,100 for the purchase. But I sold it to an individual after three years, and I came out with $6,500 after I paid the car off. So it was $2,400 in my pocket and in my favor for not leasing in that instance.

Originally Posted by ky_soldier

my point has nothing to do with which is better, but more so that people's psychology of "owning" something is funny. there is a stigma associated with leasing to some people as if it's really not "theirs". it becomes even funnier if you get in a fender bender and someone runs into YOUR precious toy. it's times like those where it's nice to have a guaranteed residual and hand the keys back at the end of the term. don't get me wrong, i continue to evalutate each situation and do both, but never based on emotion. financial decisions based on emotion can be flawed

What about when you turn in the car and they nitpick you to death? Either buy SafeLease up front or prepare to get bent over at the end.

I leased a 335i, and it was a terrible scenario for me. I got a lot more car than I have now for a little less than I am paying now, but things happened. First, I had some changes in life that suddenly necessitated my mileage going up annually. I was set up for 12,000 annually, but was suddenly in a situation where I would be 18,000 annually. In three years going that many miles over is almost a cool $3000 at end of term.

I found myself NOT feeling like it was my car, because guess what? It wasn't. I was micromanaging myself on miles because I was going to be paying a lot at the end if I didn't come up with something fast. I berated myself for not getting a lower optioned 3 series and just buying the stupid thing outright.

After 4 months of going substantially over mileage, I cut my losses and let someone assume the lease, and got out. It was the best financial car decision I ever made.

Originally Posted by Design1stCode2nd

IMO the reason BMW's are/were leased is the attractive lease rates and the expense of BMW's in general.

Exactly. Instant gratification to make something that would be a little out of reach become more affordable.

To me, the way protect yourself from depreciation as much as possible on a BMW product is to go really low on options. Don't go so low the car won't have resale, but get Sport and call it a day. If you need one toy (I did), get leather or something nice to make it worth your while.

Cars are terrible investments, but you can minimize the losses if you're intelligent. One of the best things you could do for resale is to get something like a MINI Cooper S. Get a color that is not too loud and get sport with a limited slip differential. If you can afford to put down even $1500 and do a four year loan, the value of that car after even two years will be substantially more than you owe on it.

Screw a lease.

[imported_mega]

r56's still drop in value, everything does

no car is an investment

leases are really for businesses that can write off the full lease payment, instead of only depreciation on a purchase, there's a big tax advantage to that, and businesses all want to rotate to new cars every couple years

[xjusticex]

I disagreee with most people on this thread
i think Lease is such a awsome thing, espeicially when you can get good rates.
Think abt it this way for four year you pay around 48% of the car. Lets say you bought the car with cash and the total MSRP cost around 50k, after 4 years, do u think u can sell that car for more then 25k or less then 25k? In most cases its under the 25k line, in ways you alrdy saved some money. Most important part: cars is a asset that will keep depreciating. I understand how some ppl might also want to keep their car for 10+ years or so, and in a accounting aspect cash payment might be better. 50k divided by 10, basically each each your using 5k worth of the car. If you can still drive your car after the expected lifetime of it, you've gained something.
Depends on every1's situation and preferences, leave vs buy have their goods and bad side.
"

[dbtheo]

Previously I kept my cars for a long time. My reasoning was I drove so many miles a year (30k +) but now for me & my wife both, we lease. We do high mile leases, which works out great because we turn the cars in soon after the warranties are gone, we don't have to worry about trade the trade in value of 2 year old car with 60k miles on it, we just pay for our usage. It's not an issue of cash flow or affording the car, I can do that just fine. With a high mile lease, our payments are damn near a buy payment. But over a 5-6 year span, I will have 2 or 3 new cars under full warranty vs 1 high mileage car. Makes sense to me:iono:

Dave