Ok, well I am looking to drop my monthly payments. I was purchasing my last z for 550$ a month.. I can do a 3-4 yr lease for 330-350$ a month. This looks enticing as it takes some stress off the pocket book every month.

Now at the end i have basically 2 options:

a. purchase car

b. turn car in

If i decide to keep the car how much more am I spending compared to buy it outright? 2k? 5k? 8k?

I like the idea because something better may come along that I would like to switch to, but I also like that I can decide to keep it..

I have never done this before so please help/warn me now.

 

If you lease... be sure you pay for enough miles up front. I once had to pay $3000 in overage on an Acura. That was not fun to give the car away and pay $3000 to do it.

I leased my Z, mostly because I have problems keeping cars for more than 2 years. However, I got VPP on my lease, and paid for 15,000 miles a year, whcih is about 500 more than my average over the past 3 years.

Also, you have to take into account that when you are done paying for your lease, if you turn it in, you have just paid all that money, and then you have nothing. No trade-in value, no equity in the car, nothing. What I do is put a specified # of dollars in the bank each month, and use that for my next down payment. I consider it part of the monthly payment on the vehicle. Depending on the length of your lease, you might want to do that with $100/mo or even $150, which would still have your total costs lower than what you were paying at $550.

 

If you intend to keep the car, DO NOT LEASE. Leasing a car and then purchasing it from yourself is not very smart, as you spend THOUSANDS more than you would purchasing. It's better to extend the term of the purchase out to 72 months (which is still not a good thing).

What's the residual on the lease payment you've been quoted? Also, is this a new Z? I've never seen lease payments that low on a 3 year lease (w/out money down).

On a $32,000 Z with a 39 month lease your payments will be approx $475. Unfortunately I'm not sure what a residual on something like this would be, but let's just say $20,000. If you finance it for 60 months after the lease (approx $386.66/month)your paying a total of $41,724. Keep in mind the residual could be completely differnet, I really don't know. If you had financed it you would have only payed about $37,119 and only payed for 5 years (@ 618) instead of 8.


All payment estimates were based on 6% interest. Keep in mind you will get a lower interest rate on a new car than a used car (your car will be used after the lease). So in actuality, the lease then buy scenario will be even more than in my example (but it was just an example).

 

I leased mine - 2003 performance with 8k miles when I got it.

Negotiated price was $26.8k. I put $3k down, payments are $288 and residual after 48mos. is $13.6k. This is with 12k miles a year (which is def. enough since I live in the snowbelt and drive my Jeep in the winter). Also, my Jeep was originally a 48mo. lease as well. I bought it out at the end and....negotiated the residual $2k lower then it was on the lease (which was below BB). So....you're really taking a chance I guess, but in the long run it's worked out well for me.

Best of luck on your new Z!

MF

 

toykilla - sent you a pm

 

i am seeing both good and bad.. but looks like if things go bad they REALLY go bad..

 

you can also negotiate a lower purchase price from the leasing company at lease termination. Especially if you lease through a 3rd party and not nissan. Leasing puts the resale value risk on them, not you

 

I leased my 350z. I'm at $322/month for 36 months @ 12k miles a year.

Here are a few of the "rules" for leasing from the research I did.

1. If you want to Mod the car and / or keep the car at the end of the term, it's generally better to buy.

2. You want to have some new hotness every few years, it's probably a good idea to lease.

3. If you put a lot of miles on the car, it's generally better to buy. Getting hit with $.15 - .25 a mile for a few thousand miles sucks. You need to have a good idea how many miles you drive a year and how many miles you've driven over a period of years. Leave some wiggle room just in case.

4. If leasing, resuduals, money factors, etc are getting you confused and you are not sure what to do, it's better to buy. It's generally in the dealer's best interest to lease and your best interest to buy.

5. When negotiating with the deal NEVER mention that you are thinking of leasing the vehicle. Talk $X over invoice and never $x below MSRP. Once you have a price set, then you can do the math to see if leasing or buying makes the most sense.


If you are concerned about payments, and it makes more sense to buy according to the rules above, I really suggest trying to wait and save up for more downpayment. It seems you just wrecked your Z, so you are probabyl between a rock and a hard place right now. I feel for ya

Hope this helps!!

CaptinB

 

I leased mine. Lots of good info listed above regarding leasing as well.

I leased because this new 'Z' is not my primary vehicle. Therefore, when presented with 12,000 or 15,000 a year, I took the 15,000 (even though in six months, I still haven't hit 1k). But when given that type of choice what is there to decide. And again, not my primary vehicle so I'm not driving the thing to and from work every day.

And if you're fickle and another shiny metal type or sheet metal curve catches your eye, you can hand over the old and start again with the new when it's time.

But keep in mind, that on a 'lease', you don't own it, you just drive it. So treat her/him right!