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Leasing vs buying...

M

mztykal

Diamond Member
Looking at a 2017 Tacoma...

Current lease offer is 249 a month, 0 down, 3 years, and 12k a year. Lease end cost is 26k for the v6.

If I buy it'll end up being a 4cyl instead of the v6 as its 29k otd for the one I want. Would be putting 10k down and payments would be around 340 a month for 5 years.

Issue is I never keep my cars longer than 4-5 years. Regardless I usually find something better and end up selling or trading in my car.

I'm leaning towards leasing without the intent of buying the car in the end.
 
Don't ever lease to buy at the end, the math makes no sense. Lease to turn it in and move on. Find something better to do with that 10K. Just make sure the miles you build into the lease will work for you. I've been leasing for 27 years and I have no intentions of ever buying again. Somebody will have to deal with the remainder of my lease term when I croak.
 
Leasing to buy at the end can actually make sense for some electric cars (e.g. Leaf), but generally speaking that's correct.
 
Yah the residual is high at turn over. Which makes it not worth it to buy at lease end. I'm sure this option makes the most sense as I don't think I want a truck past 3 years.

I've never leased before always bought. Which is a hit and miss. Only car that didn't tank me was my Lexus.
 
I leased and did not enjoy it. Having to worry about miles all the time, the fact you are 'locked in', making sure it's in a certain condition, etc.

One major thing to consider is how your state taxes the lease. Most do it correctly on just the portion you are leasing, others such as mine (learned that a bit too late) tax the entire vehicles worth at signing.

I'd also recommend learning about early termination options and what, if any, fee there is when returning it. Some charge you fees if you don't go back into the same make and instead just return it.

That being said that lease initially sounds like a pretty good deal. Remember you can still negotiate the final sale price of the vehicle, so you might can be even lower of you get the vehicle price down a bit. Be sure to factor out the money rate, etc to make sure they aren't playing around with the interest rate. However, on a lease like that it's probably tweaked by Toyota to move products.
 
mztykal said:
Current lease offer is 249 a month, 0 down, 3 years, and 12k a year. .
Click to expand...

Can only assume you drive less than 1,000 miles a month. $250.- a month to rent a nice truck sounds good to me. Tough to tell if the math is better without more details on the truck(s).

FWIW
2014 prerunner double cab w/36k miles sells for $21 trade in and $24 private party on kbb. List price was $28,xxx. Very little depreciation on the Tacos which is why they are willing to lease for so little.

Say you go ahead and do the 10k down and $350. a month. Get bored with it and want something new in 5 years. A 2012 prerunner double cab w/60k miles sells for $19 trade in and $20 private party on kbb.

Instead you would be in your second lease of 2020 something with no equity in anything. Granted, you would have only spent around $15k by this time leasing vs. the full $30k from buying.

Most cars are depreciating assets. Some depreciate more than others. For Tacomas you may want to consider owning. In the above very rough scenario you end up about $10k to the good over 5 years if you own the truck. It only works for a vehicle with such high resale values and you have to take good care of it.

Also, If you can lock in a low APR you might want to just keep your large-ish deposit and finance the max. That money could make a better return. Works even better for leasing.
 
boomerang said:
Don't ever lease to buy at the end, the math makes no sense. Lease to turn it in and move on. Find something better to do with that 10K. Just make sure the miles you build into the lease will work for you. I've been leasing for 27 years and I have no intentions of ever buying again. Somebody will have to deal with the remainder of my lease term when I croak.
Click to expand...

In general i would say don't lease to buy, but if you are a savvy shopper, it can make a lot of sense.

if you pay attention to residuals, you can get a pretty decent deal buying out at the of a lease. I have had leases with $5-6k worth of equity at lease end (on a 30-32K original msrp).
 
We leased my wife's Lexus and the buyout at the end was $29k... which is more than it was worth so we turned it in and moved on to something else. Buying your lease only makes sense when the buyout is less than what the car is worth... which is almost never.

I checked on what a dealer would give me for her Lexus on trade and they offered $24k for it.
 
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Curious, anyone know if they allow more wear and tear on a pickup lease, given the kind of use they might be expected to see. I'd hate to lease a truck and have to worry about scratching/denting the bed.
 
twinrider1 said:
Curious, anyone know if they allow more wear and tear on a pickup lease, given the kind of use they might be expected to see. I'd hate to lease a truck and have to worry about scratching/denting the bed.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt it. Get a bed liner if you're going to actually use your truck. And try not to dent it.
 
You're not going to lease a pickup without a bed liner. It's a requirement and the cost will be factored into the lease.
 
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