BOBFSPORT

My lease is from a dealer in north jersey. RWD 350 F Sport $399 a month $0 Down 12k miles a year 27 Months.

toyotatom

You very well might be right, but let me ask you this. If I lease this car for a cap price of $47,000. put down the 14 K and if 6 months later the car is totaled. Now say the insurance pays an ACV of 42,000, your saying all that money goes to the lease company I believe and I get nothing at all. If you add the 42 K and the 14K that I put down that totals 56 K. So your saying the leasing company will pocket an extra an extra 9 K for a car that costs 47,000 to begin with. That doesn't sound right to me, it doesn't work that way for loans which is basically what a lease is for the most part. Let me know what you think, Thanks

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

Odd you found a RWD in north Jersey.
Very rare because I've been told only AWD's IS and GS models are allotted to north Jersey.

Bass Mech

they aren't going to pocket anything, the car was damaged so if it costs that much to fix it thats what it costs.
remember on a lease YOU DO NOT OWN THE CAR your renting it.

it is no different than if you went to hertz rental car and put 14k on their car and make a daily rental payment.
the only difference is you don't need to put 14k down to rent. but when you lease a car they will allow you to put money down to make the payment more affordable.
some people actually pay the entire lease up front. that would be really stupid! (unless you keep the car for the remainder of the lease) but if the car is totaled and you can't keep it for the remainder of the lease your getting hosed.

keyframe13

That's exactly right, you'll lose all your money. What you don;t get is that you didn';t lower any monthly payment.. Well visually you did.. But you paid that 14k upfront for that.. So from that deal by renting the car to you, the dealer needs to make 20k over the lease period. You didn;t save any money, you'll still pay 20k is just you paid upfront most of it. and you pay monthly less.
That's why is never good to pay anything as downpayment when you lease.. The lease montly payment is low for a reason to make you afford that car to rent it rather than buying it.. If you thought the monthly payment is too high to a lease it just mean that you cannot afford that car as that was the less you could have that car for.
I truly hope nothing happen and you learn this lesson the easy way. Always read and do your research before you make a deal. That;'s why we have this forum for.

Here, this is a good read for you to get you familiar.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-leasing/d...ood-lease.html

BOBFSPORT

They are up here. Oddly enough the North Jersey dealership got the car for me from a dealership further north in Connecticut.

toyotatom

Keyframe, the car is just ordered at this time so I am not locked into how it will be paid for at this time. What would you suggest to do, are the MSDs a good thing to do also, I just learned about them reading in this forum. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated on this purchase. Thanks

dmclone

I've had a lot of cars over the last 25+ years of driving and every single time I buy a new car I run the numbers on a lease and it always has made financial sense to purchase over lease regardless how long I decide to keep the car. I also go back after selling the car and look and see if a lease would have made financial sense and it never has. Keep in mind that every single new purchase except my last one has been a Japanese car except one VW GTI so that may make a difference.

I think a lot of the people who are getting into leases are the ones looking for a certain low monthly payment. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but this has been my experience.

SonyHome

I've always purchased and planning to purchase my 3IS also but would like to know how you did your calculation on lease vs purchase. I can't see purchasing being the better option if you want to switch car every few years.

Thanks.

keyframe13

I'm not the perfect person to ask as I don;t believe in lease. But yes MSD is a smart way to save some money with those deposits. You just need to run the numbers and see it it's working for you. It will not make a huge difference in your monthly payment I think but you'll get your money back and you don;t risk to lose it like when you put a down-payment.
With such a nice trade in value $14k , if I were you, I would look serious in buying the car vs lease it if that would work for you. You can make the loan for 72 months to have your monthly payments less and try to pay it faster. The rates are very low plus you have no limitation in miles and no risk on paying penalty because of dents or what not. The difference between the buy and lease with your down-payment might make sense.
At the dealer you need to concentrate on negotiating the price of the car as low as possible. Don;t let him concentrate on your monthly payments, that's your business not his. That is your biggest saving.. Negotiating thousands from the selling price.

azmojo

It's only possible to do in retrospect once you have all of the numbers: purchase price, sale price, months of ownership. Subtract sale price from purchase price, divide by months of ownership. Maybe add in a factor for "opportunity costs" of what you could have made (or lost) had you invested the money.
To do it before you buy you have to estimate those things. As I said in an earlier post, it also helps a lot if you sell the vehicle yourself versus trading it in since the dealer rapes you on a trade-in. I have always had good luck selling my owner cars quickly for top dollar, but I take really good care of them. Negotiating a good purchase price and getting a good sale price can reduce the cost of ownership by $5k or more on a Lexus.

Fizzboy7

It would be interesting to see how many people who lease with no money down and have higher monthly payments end up having to sell their car prematurely or default. I say this because there's a huge chunk of society that doesn't know how to put money away and budget out. All that extra money saved with no down payment easily and quickly gets blown elsewhere, then suddenly they are stuck with a high monthly payment because someone told them never to put money down on a lease. It's horrible advice. People can't budget out having "extra" money, and our society has a terrible habit of not saving. Yet no one comes on here and admits they had to sell their car after two years because the high monthly paymens were killing them. This is the reality for many, and all sides of the story should be talked about. At least when you start a lease, you know how much down you can afford to give. Ones a small gamble, the other is a huge gamble. It is much safer to set up your finances on Day One of your lease (make your payments then), rather than take the risk you'll properly allocate money each month for the next four years.

Slust

I can think of many good reasons, it's just that they don't apply to your situation/outlook.

My friend is always saying that "Eating is a neccessity so you might as well enjoy it as much as possible." Owning a Lexus is a luxury like you said but for many of us trying to sustain a lifestyle, driving is a neccessity. So if I have to spend a good portion of my time on the road almost every day than I might as well enjoy it. I see people say that if they were to own a car for 10 years than it would be a beater and not a Lexus. I say if I'm going to spend 5+ years in the same freaking car than I better love it! I want a car that I can trust and won't be a nightmare to maintain. I also want a car that has great resale value so when I am done with the car, I can recoup some of my loss. When you factor all these points in the True Cost of Ownership a Lexus exceeds the competition.

On top of that getting a car paid off and not having a monthly car payment for a few years is not only a good feeling it's better than the "next newest toy" ... well for me. I can then use that money to save up for the next car or next investment.

To be honest, your biggest pro for this car is one of my biggest cons. I don't want the newest and best thing to be noticed. I get more attention than I care for already and getting this car is only going to make it worse. I'd rather be stealthy and blend in. This car is about the worse choice I could make to attain that goal. There is obviously worse but not in my price range.


I won't pretend that a Lexus is a good financial decision. Like you said it is a luxury item, but I go back to my intro. If I am going to be spending a lot of time driving than I might as well enjoy it. We came to the same conclusions but just found different paths getting here.

WWM

Not to mention that you have much more flexibility when you finance. If you want to keep the car longer than X years, you can without paying a huge lump sum. Or if you want to trade it in you can do it and still be financially ahead (or at worst even) with a lease. This is all assuming one can afford the higher monthly costs though.

BOBFSPORT

Your fat friends eating habits has nothing to do with my argument. A Toyota Camry has excellent resale value with the same reliability as a Lexus. When did i say i want the latest and greatest for attention?! In Jersey you buy a beamer if you want attention, not a Lexus. I like having the latest and greatest for myself!! Judging by the douchy statement below doing something for yourself is likely a concept that is foreign to you.

"I get more attention than i care for already".....i am sure you do big guy!