So guys, I never post in this section but now I am. I really really need your help. We have a honda civic sedan which works fine for our small family. I love it specially because here in NY, parking is terrible and only small cars can fit into small parkings. My husband now travels to another state for work. His contract is for a year. With all the snow and wear and tear the car will go through, we don’t want to “buy” a car. We decided its best to lease a bigger car (easy to drive in snow) for a year.
My husband would love to get a nice expensive SUV but I told him that there is no point in getting an expensive car when all we have to do is use it for travelling purposes. And with mileage adding and wear and tear we probably don’t even want to keep the car after the job ends. I suggested that we buy a nice but not expensive American made SUV (ford, chevy etc.) that is pretty well made for snow and would serve the purpose. My question is, how does lease work? Can we return the car after a year? What’s the best car you guys suggest that we’ll have to pay no more than $300/month :D??? We calculated that if we sign a lease for a year, even the cheapest SUV will cost over 1000/month.. wth?? Can we sign a lease for 5 years that will bring our payment down and still return it after a year?? Does all of this sound like a good plan?
**if you lease, you must be mindful that they allow only a limited number of miles a year…say 15-20 K…if ur hubby drives long distances then you gonna for sure drives tens ofr thousands of miles more than your allotted number of mileage. at the end of your lease, you have to pay for the extra miles you drive which is quite expensive PLUS you have to maintain the car according to their scheduled maintenance log.
Yeah but wouldn’t my “own” car damage so much that i’ll start hating it. It will start giving me trouble. When I say he has to drive in snow, I mean he has to drive 500 miles each week in snow in CT which is pretty bad drive from NY. Why would I want to buy a car and still keep it after so much wear and tear. We can work on the miles a little bit with the dealer don’t you think??
**i live in canada and we get more snow than you do on the average…a lot more! we all drive our cars…both locally and long distance. you just have to have salt protection. you may spray paint the underside of ur car. also, wash your car regularly to wash off the road salt that accumulates on your car.
no, the leasing companies are very strict with mileage…yes, you may have a higher mileage for extra charge which is quite a bit…it has to do with the end-of-the lease value of the car…if you drive more on lease, you may opt to buy at the end of ur lease which will NOT be cheaper…buying ur own car is the best option i can think of.**
You can’t sign a lease for X amount of years and then return the car before the lease matures.
A lease is tricky business, if you plan on returning the car at the end of the lease then you have to make sure the car is literally in pristine condition and is within the allocated km’s (miles for you guys). Dealers/Manufactures use third party contractors to examine your car when you return it at the end of your lease contract and these contractors penalize you for the smallest of surface scratches on a vehicle.
Anyhow, back to leasing. If you want a short term lease there are probably two options.
Luxury car manufactures usually have short-term lease options (minimum two years I believe) since thee market is mostly executives, who change cars frequently.
There are independent website (www.leasebusters.com; It’s Canadian but there must be American equivalent). These websites post currently leased cars where the leasee for any reason wants to off-load their lease to someone else, perhaps they can’t afford payments anymore or perhaps their allocated km’s are running out and they don’t want to buy the car out at the end of the lease so they try to find someone else who may be interested in taking over their lease.
But you can’t return the car back before maturity without penalties.
Go with “Lease with option to buy” program. That way, even if you go over the milage limit, it wont matter. In fact, if you could pay cash at the end to take over the possession of the vehicle, “Lease with option to buy” is the best way of acquiring a new car.
But that’s by default, if you chose you can buy the car after the lease matures or return it. If you know the condition or the mileage of your vehicle is not within the defined rules of the lease OR you really like the car and want to keep it then you buy it out. If you don’t want the car and will incur no penalty, then you return it.
usually the buy back price is too high because they depreciate the car very slowly. i had bad experience with this option. i simply return after 2 years. i prefer a new vehicle every two years.
Thank guys. I had no clue how lease works. Now after the replies I don’t think lease is a good option for us. Imagine all what the car will go through in heavy snow driving and then returning it after the end of lease will be a nightmare. We are thinking about getting a used car that is in good condition. Better solution huh?
**yes, but it has to be a late model car…like max 5 year old. look for a car driven by a lady or by retired older folks.
you are too obsessed with snow…snow is NOT a problem if you have the right under-car protection and wash it periodically to wash off all the salt off of the car’s body. we drive car in worse snow all the time.
lease is better option if you drive under 15000 miles a year…which is well within the allotted FREE mileage.**
