Current Events > Have you ever leased a brand new vehicle

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Im.thinking about getting a brand new amd thought about leasing Instead of buying what's ur thoughts on this

I do lease daily drivers because I don't want to deal with longer term maintenance issues. Newer cars are more complex and less serviceable at home, and somewhat more designed to be disposable. Also would like to have something new more frequently. Hard to tell whether or not leasing or buying truly puts you ahead long term.

Started a lease in 2018
Term was to end summer 2021
Rear-ended end of 2020
Modern cars have so much more to them that getting a bumper damaged is more than just the bumper, so it was totaled.
I didn't really lose sleep over sentimental value as it was always foreseen to be returned anyway.

This was a ~$30k car
Leftover to pay was about $2,500
If I financed towards buying the car, I still would've owed more like $8-$9k

Payout from insurance was like $23k (value of car at that point before damage based on GAP insurance)
Car value was like ~$18k

So I ended up with like $4k that was more than the upcoming down payment and covered my old down payment.
This vs. owing another $4-$5k if I was buying the car out.

If I was paying towards buying the car to the point I owed $2.5k, and got rear ended then, *maybe* I could've netted more money. But that's assuming those extra 2 years are without other investments into the car and the depreciation curve is favorable.


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Its best to just buy preowned in my opinion. Cars lose a ton of value when they leave the dealership. Find a car thats only a year or two old with less than 50,000 miles on it.