Someone has been paying attention in class

Seriously though, I couldn't have said it any better myself, and your comment about US Bank is right on the money (pun intended...) if you go on lease trader.com, look at the lender at a bunch of the leases and you will see a preponderance of US Bank.

I went down to my local dealer and looked at their silver GT-R. They seemed willing to lease though I don't think it was Nissan and I am sure they wanted me to bend over with some insane numbers and a big deposit down, not to mention that they had the nerve to still list their GT-R at 20k over MSRP

 

Can't afford to buy it.

 

Why does everyone always assume that?? Sure for some leasing lets them get into a car that they normally could not afford on a 5 year loan. But for me, I like to change cars every couple of years, so leasing works well for me.

I also like to limit my expenditures on cars since they are depreciating expenses. No matter how much we love our cars, they lose money.

Granted, I have also limited my investments this past year as , sadly, it was also depreciating

 

Cant afford or don't want to afford to buy it.

Think about it this way -

Buy
You buy it today(assuming you finance), it will depreciate at a set rate and you are paying interest on average of 5%-7% for the entire amount ($69K+).

Lease
You lease the car, it will depreciate at a set rate and you pay interest only on the depreciation amount which for most leases is that rate is low, in the 1%-3% range. At the end of the lease (24/26 months) you can turn it in if you see something else you like OR (most people overlook this) you buy the car out right for the payoff (which is negotiable for some). You've just "saved" two years of paying a higher interest rate on the depreciation. The car is going to depreciate regardless of what you do.

 

Not Necessarily. Not all leases are through manufacturers.

I'm sure people are still leasing GMs even though GM is not offering lease deals anymore.

Manufacturers offering leasing isn't a must, sometimes you can get better deals because they want to promote and market their cars with great deals. But independent finance companies can lease any car they'd like to.

Bottom line, IMHO, a Lease is a Lease. Especially for some business owners, there are tax benefits to leasing. But I would'nt imagine too many independent compaines beating manufacturer leasing rates $$$.