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Good lease for under $300/month?

madoka

madoka

Diamond Member
My friend needs a new car. He wants to put about $4000 down and pay $300 per month or less. Having never leased a car before, I don't know what to look for.

This is a commuter car, so I take it he is interested in gas mileage and comfort. I don't know if it matters, but he lives in the Bay Area.

Are there any good leases going on right now?
 
madoka said:
My friend needs a new car. He wants to put about $4000 down and pay $300 per month or less. Having never leased a car before, I don't know what to look for.

This is a commuter car, so I take it he is interested in gas mileage and comfort. I don't know if it matters, but he lives in the Bay Area.

Are there any good leases going on right now?
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step 1.

Do not put down money on a lease. All you are doing is pre-paying payments.

4000 down+300 a month for 3 years is almost $15,000. Unless you are getting a 30,000+ car. terrible idea.
 
JulesMaximus said:
How many miles a year does he drive? Leases have mileage limits and if you exceed them you pay a penalty.
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Yeah. "Commuter car" makes me think this'll be a problem.

IMO, if you want a reliable high mileage car that you aren't going to want to keep in a few years, buy a pre-leased Prius for $15k and sell it in 3-4 years for $10k. The money you save, you can buy a sports car for the weekends.
 
AreaAffect said:
I never understood the appeal of a lease personally.
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I loved leasing. I don't lease now due to driving too many miles. Reasons I liked it:

1. Car payment was typically a good $100/mo less than buying. And rather than being stuck with a 5-year-old car after doing a 60-month loan, you get a new car 3 years in.
2. On a typical 3-year lease, never had anything more major than oil changes, tire rotations, and air filter changes. No brake replacement, tire replacement, etc. needed. Maintenance is basically a non-issue.
3. In my situation, no garage & not a hands-on car guy. Leasing is basically the equivalent to renting a car for a few years.
4. I personally didn't mind the monthly payment, for several reasons. It allowed me to have a reliable car even when I was working for wages in retail ($13/day out of my paycheck towards an average $250/mo lease). In 10 years of leasing, that monthly payment was the most expensive thing I ever had to pay on a car (I never put any money down). As mentioned, it's less money than buying. Partly, it's a budgeting security thing...I always know exactly how much I'll be paying for my car and maintenance everything month.
5. I'm personally not hung up on ownership or customization. If you have a need to own something, then by all means buy the car. Or if you really like to customize your ride, awesome.
6. You get to try out a new car every few years, which is fun. My wife also leased for the last ten years. We've driven Saturn, VW, Kia, and Honda to name a few.

Leasing is not for everyone, and has it's fair share of negative points. It all depends on what your personal goals are. Having an endless monthly payment can sound pretty bad, but it's not like I'm ever going to be sitting around not working for the next forty years, so I'll always have an income stream as long as I'm willing & able to work. In exchange for the payment, I get a nice, new, reliable, low-maintenance car with safety features that improve every few years, and also lets me adjust the car to my needs for that period of time.

The strongest argument for economics is to buy a low-mileage, well-kept late model car because you almost always get something that is pretty reliable. So again, it all boils down to your preferences & what your goals are. Leasing is not for everybody, but it does fit some people's situations pretty well.
 
michal1980 said:
step 1.

Do not put down money on a lease. All you are doing is pre-paying payments.

4000 down+300 a month for 3 years is almost $15,000. Unless you are getting a 30,000+ car. terrible idea.
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Yup. Also, every grand works out to approximately $17 extra per month. So if they want $2,000 down, that's only $34 extra a month. Save your two thousand bucks & skip a pizza or two every month 😛
 
dave_the_nerd said:
Yeah. "Commuter car" makes me think this'll be a problem.

IMO, if you want a reliable high mileage car that you aren't going to want to keep in a few years, buy a pre-leased Prius for $15k and sell it in 3-4 years for $10k. The money you save, you can buy a sports car for the weekends.
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My buddy just bought a used Prius & did a battery swap. He drives from Hartford to Boston every day...super economical!
 
Leasing is only okay if you're already buying a new car every 2-3 years anyways. In general its a terrible idea financially, just like buying a new car every 2-3 years is. Main problem is you get trapped in that cycle of payments and never get free.

I'd rather keep my cars a little longer and retire earlier.
 
Leasing is great for several reasons:
1) Lower monthly payments, and NO money-down/security deposits (assuming great credit and you negotiate properly). This means I just sign and drive, no money is exchanged other than first month's payment, and even then, sometimes the dealer even pays that! Depends on how desperate they are.
2) All routine maintenance is included in the lease. I never pay a penny for taking it into the dealer for service, and I get a free loaner vehicle.
3) I can write off my lease for work on my taxes. I can't do that with a personal-owned vehicle.

I don't typically log a lot of miles since I fly more often for work, and I'm also specifically speaking about my dealings with Lexus so YMMV.
 
Midwayman said:
Leasing is only okay if you're already buying a new car every 2-3 years anyways. In general its a terrible idea financially, just like buying a new car every 2-3 years is. Main problem is you get trapped in that cycle of payments and never get free.

I'd rather keep my cars a little longer and retire earlier.
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You just have to know how to lease and it is a killer dealer. I won't even consider a lease that has a payment (inclusive of tax and anything else) that is more than 1% of the MSRP. I shoot for .5% with nothing down. You can get subsidized vehicles for even cheaper than that if you can work at it. At that kind of price point it's almost impossible to come out ahead in a purchase. Run the numbers to confirm, the breakeven point will be 10 years assuming no maintenance costs in that timeframe.

Want real world examples? You can get a Dodge Ram for about $200/mo for a $45,000 MSRP truck. Say what you will about the brand, but I cannot argue with that kind of cost. You are looking at the same cost as an $11,000 loan over 5 years. $11,000 will not get you much of a truck, and certainly one with almost no maintenance costs over that time frame.
 
iamwiz82 said:
You just have to know how to lease and it is a killer dealer. I won't even consider a lease that has a payment (inclusive of tax and anything else) that is more than 1% of the MSRP. I shoot for .5% with nothing down. You can get subsidized vehicles for even cheaper than that if you can work at it. At that kind of price point it's almost impossible to come out ahead in a purchase. Run the numbers to confirm, the breakeven point will be 10 years assuming no maintenance costs in that timeframe.

Want real world examples? You can get a Dodge Ram for about $200/mo for a $45,000 MSRP truck. Say what you will about the brand, but I cannot argue with that kind of cost. You are looking at the same cost as an $11,000 loan over 5 years. $11,000 will not get you much of a truck, and certainly one with almost no maintenance costs over that time frame.
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How do I lease a dodge ram for $200 a month? Sign me up. I see $280 on their website 🙁
 
Yeah I got in a vicious cycle of buying a new car very frequently. Now I lease.

At the end of the day you're paying for conveniences and some niceties. As long as you're OK with that, I don't see the problem. Everyone spends money on things they don't need.
 
Somewhere, Dave Ramsey's head just exploded. 😉

Honestly OP, not to derail this, but this sounds like a situation to avoid completely.
 
It should be a convertible, because bay area supposed to be nice weather. Not horrible hot desert area. How about mustang, they are big and boaty and should be comfortable, cheap, and cheap to maintain?

Otherwise if your friend is small, a miata or boxster.
 
Does your friend have a place to charge an electric car? Or interested in a Chevy Volt? You can get any of the following: Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, VW eGolf, Chevy Volt, Chevy Sonic EV, or Fiat 500e for $2500 to $5500 down and less than $150/month. (Any if/when they renew the CA EV rebate program, you get an additional $2500 check in the mail.)

http://ev-vin.blogspot.com

Crap, shouldn't have looked at that -- i think they're like $800 to $1000 less than I paid a month ago!
 
for 4 grand down, you can buy a toyota corolla LE for about 300 a month on a 5 or 6 year loan... will go a lot further than a lease.

Leasing is stupid unless you can write it off or need the tax break
 
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