Thanks for all the good replies.
I guess an important thing to note here is that I would never want to go through the hassle of selling my car myself to a third party. So if I bought a car, then went to buy another five years later, I would simply trade it in. Trade-ins are always significantly lower than resale value.
I would also not want to decide whether to lease or buy based on guesses of how much it'll depreciate. If you wanted to take that route you could crunch the numbers every time you want to get a car; sometimes buying might come out as cheaper, sometimes leasing might come out as cheaper, all depending on what you think the car would be worth to trade in or sell if you bought it versus what you'd pay to lease it. Well, that's all good in theory, but I wouldn't want to make my purchasing decision based on guesswork. No one ever really knows for sure what a car will sell for in five years.
So here's my standpoint. I will probably never desire a new car every two or even three years. But if I make a decent salary as an adult I will almost definitely want a new one at least every five. That would go without saying. If I have the money to spare, after five years I'll be wanting something new. Now, combine that with the fact that I will never want to sell my car independently, and instead will always trade it in. Those two things combined, perhaps leasing will always be the better alternative for me? My choices are, lease a car for three or four years, with as little down as possible, then lease another, and so on, or buy cars over five-year terms, then trade it in, buy another, etc. I think in such a situation leasing will always be cheaper.
The problem I run into is I read something like what I just typed and then I think "No, no, I must be missing something." Why do I think that? Because two-thirds or more of everyone here says buying is better. But I KNOW for a fact that all of them DO NOT keep cars until they die, and all of them DO NOT sell their cars to private parties every time they want to get another. So if that's true why are SO MANY people preferring buying?
I guess an important thing to note here is that I would never want to go through the hassle of selling my car myself to a third party. So if I bought a car, then went to buy another five years later, I would simply trade it in. Trade-ins are always significantly lower than resale value.
I would also not want to decide whether to lease or buy based on guesses of how much it'll depreciate. If you wanted to take that route you could crunch the numbers every time you want to get a car; sometimes buying might come out as cheaper, sometimes leasing might come out as cheaper, all depending on what you think the car would be worth to trade in or sell if you bought it versus what you'd pay to lease it. Well, that's all good in theory, but I wouldn't want to make my purchasing decision based on guesswork. No one ever really knows for sure what a car will sell for in five years.
So here's my standpoint. I will probably never desire a new car every two or even three years. But if I make a decent salary as an adult I will almost definitely want a new one at least every five. That would go without saying. If I have the money to spare, after five years I'll be wanting something new. Now, combine that with the fact that I will never want to sell my car independently, and instead will always trade it in. Those two things combined, perhaps leasing will always be the better alternative for me? My choices are, lease a car for three or four years, with as little down as possible, then lease another, and so on, or buy cars over five-year terms, then trade it in, buy another, etc. I think in such a situation leasing will always be cheaper.
The problem I run into is I read something like what I just typed and then I think "No, no, I must be missing something." Why do I think that? Because two-thirds or more of everyone here says buying is better. But I KNOW for a fact that all of them DO NOT keep cars until they die, and all of them DO NOT sell their cars to private parties every time they want to get another. So if that's true why are SO MANY people preferring buying?
Facebook
Twitter