Need Help : Buying vs Leasing

As to the rest of your questions, you need 3 hours and a large bottle of heavy liquor. Here are mine 20 cents.

You need to sit down and start doing the math. First guess how long you'll be keeping the car if bought. Let's say it's 9 years (makes numbers easier).
On one piece of paper you'll have everything related to leasing. This would be: monthly payments, initial downpayment, amount owed at the end of lease (beware as some dealerships require you to pay "severance fee" if you choose not to buy), and payment per mile if you go over. NOw take this, multiply by 3 -- this will be your expected cost to lease over the next 9 years.
On another paper -- everything about buying. Total cost + interest for 5 year, plus maintenance. The latter one is hard to predict so what I do is look up manufacturer recommended preventive maintenance, approx. how much it would cost, than add ~ 20%.
Now compare two numbers and see which one is cheaper.

In 2006 I bought Honda CRV for $19,976 -- that's for EVERYTHING, including tax, destination, license and whatever else they put on top. After selecting cars I liked (it was a tie between CRV and Toyota RAV-4) I secured credit from my bank. Then called / emailed about 30 dealerships in ~ 100-mi radius telling them I have $$ ready and will be buying within 2 weeks. After some back and forth 2 joints gave a reasonable offer. We did test drive and selected what we liked more. I saw dealer twice: once during the test drive, another a week later when I came by to pick up the car (we had to wait for the one with color my wife liked). There were no "talk to the manager" BS, no nerves wasted. I came in knowing specific person I was looking for and with printout of the price we agreed over email.

Whatever you decide, do NOT buy the car after the lease. This is a sure way to overpay.

 

I live in central Jersey. The guy can deliver a car, but the first time it's better to meet.

 

Kinda like Idzik treats FA, huh?

Sorry, couldn't resist

 

It's actually better to buy a car in NY.

There are no DOC fees in NY and you still pay NJ tax.
The only thing is, you will have to take your car to an NJ inspection site to get the NJ inspection tag, the dealer will put on a NY one.

But most NJ inspection places have new car lanes and you can just blow through it in 10 min.

Edit: My last car was purchased in White Plains, NY and I live in NJ....

 

meant that for others Brook. ={

 

Buy a Toyota. They hold their value for years and years, granted you take decent care of the car.

 

I live in the same area as you - Morris County NJ. Let me give you a different perspective. First, what model and make of Honda do you have? Do you like the car?

You might want to consider buying your leased car. Here is why:

1. Hondas hold their value very well
2. After Sandy, there is a low supply of good used cars in NJ. The prices for used cars, especially those that are recent years and low mileage, are very high right now.
3. Check the buy back price of the car on your lease agreement and then go online and see how much it would cost to buy it on the open market - check the blue book value of your car. I think you'll find that you can buy your leased car at a pretty significant discount. I did the same last summer with my Honda and the buy back price was about $3000 less than the price I would pay to buy the car used on the market. It would be the same as buying a used car and the dealer saying the blue book value is $20,000, but I'll sell you the car for $17,000.
4. You know the car, you know its repair history, you know its good and bad points. It was yours.
5. Interest rates on car loans are pretty low

So, if you like your car, you are not likely to get a better deal on a car than buying your leased car.

Lastly, Honda lease prices are not overpriced or underpriced. They are pretty much set. When you lease a Honda, there really is no negotiation. But you know you are getting a very good car reliable car that is unlikely to give you any trouble for the three years you lease it.

 

Keep at it, you will find a dealer that is willing to sit down and work with you.

I ended up buying a 2011 subaru legacy sedan.

I wanted to buy a good vehicle that handled well in the snow, my honda has struggled the past couple of years in ct with the snow storms we have had.

I liked the frontier crew cab but back seats were cramped.

So I went to look at a jeep grand cherokee Laredo -E, we liked it a lot and started negotiating a little bit, just laying the groundwork for more serious talks, the hiccup came when we started talking trade in, the sales man wanted to give me $5000 for my 2008 Honda EX-L, V-6, we walked away.

The third car on my list was the 2011 Subaru Legacy AWD, we went to the dealer a couple of days later, we drove the 4 cyl, comfortable but loud with the CVT tranny.

We drove the 6 cyl and it was awesome, the sales man told my wife and I that he was going to put a great offer on the table for us.

I figured here we go again, he goes inside, comes out and asks me to turn on my car, he looks at it and after a couple of minutes he said to my wife and I, that he would give us $11,500 for my honda and he would take of an additional $1000 dollars from the car we were interested in.( my honda is worth $8500) and he offered us 2.9% for 5 years, which is good because I pay off my cars after 3 years. The point is that he was willing to put together a deal that was a winner for both sides, needless to say that we purchased the car.

keep up the search and don't give up it will happen, some dealers just won't work with you and that's ok, you will find one that will.

 

cool thread because im puzzled with these things too.

 

Do this. ^^^


I've bought my past two cars this way. Paid well under invoice (not msrp) both times. I dropped $50 at fightingchance.com and they did all the research for me.

Both times I knew I was done when the other dealers said, "you were offered what? That's a good price. You should take it."

One test drive. One visit to sign papers. That's it. I let the dealers compete with each other. No haggling necessary.

 

I just went through this hell again today. Was trading in a car I bought less than 7 months ago with $0 down so knew I had some work to do to get that covered, my bank gave me blackbook and NADA value when I went to pick up my draft and I was over $2000 underwater.

Having the truecar.com price walking in to the dealer helped out a lot, along with also having financing taken care of beforehand. I actually got the dealer to cover most of what I was underwater on my trade and then they came in below the truecar price.
Biggest thing though was getting to the dealer at 4 o'clock on the last day of the month, they were pushing to hit their number for the month.

 

Out of curiosity, why a new car after only 7 months?

 

Bought the car and found out 2 months later needed surgery on my neck so getting in and out of a sedan really sucked. Have a Jeep Compass now.
One of the reasons I got the last car was for the better gas mileage because my office had just moved further away and I was driving 60-80 miles a day depending if I was going to court or not, since I have been off for 5 months I decided to look for something closer and found something less than 5 miles so gas mileage is not a problem now either.

 

Yikes. Everything okay?