Why You Should think about Leasing A car

Is your current car paid off, do you plan to pay it off, have you ever paid a car off? If you answered ‘no’ to these questions, you may be able to save a lot of cash or drive a very upscale car, if not both, by leasing.

Sure, leasing a car is oftentimes made to sound very difficult, and many consumers think about leasing a complete rip off, but, in reality, leasing may be very advantageous for some car purchasers and is simply another way to finance a car.

The only fundamental difference between purchasing and leasing is that when you purchase a car, you finance the entire price, but when you lease, you finance a part of the car’s price for a specific time period (usually 36 months).

Things that prevent many individuals from think abouting a lease are objections like, ‘but after lease is over, you have nothing’ and ‘I’ll get penalized for extra miles or damage to the car.” Unfortunately, most individuals owe more than their car is worth, which is worse than nothing, and regardless of how you finance a car, excessive miles and wear will be penalized through lease penalties or trade allowance.

Unlike purchasing, leasing cars can actually give you more flexibility and shield you from changes in the market because at the end of the lease you can purchase the car or walk away from it. This means that if a car is worth more than predicted, you can come out ahead by purchasing it after the lease, but this is not always the case.

It is a well accepted fact that automobiles are a depreciating commodity, but many individuals do not realize that they are subject to supply and demand just like anything else.

think about this scenario: two individuals get the same SUV, but one purchases and the other leases. During the next three years, gas prices jump to £5/gallon. That SUV will be a very undesirable car, which will lower the resale price. For the person in a lease, they simply dump the car, while the person who bought the SUV may be so upside down on their cash advance that they cannot trade without several thousand dollars down.

Just like purchasing a car, you can trade cars when you lease and you can negotiate the price. Many of the advertised lease specials are able to provide low lease payments by using the invoice price as the actual sale price, but you do not need a lease special to get invoice pricing.

If you are someone who trades often and does not pay cars off, you cannot afford not to think about a lease next time you trade. Do some research on what determines a lease payment, available options to fit your driving habits (like extra miles or wear/tear coverage), and what a lease payment would be on the cars you like. After you see what your payment is, or what kind of cars you can afford for your current payment, you may find your self wondering why you never leased before.