If you finance a car, you don't own it either. The bank does. You don't own it until that last payment is made.

If you trade it in before that last payment, you never owned it. Just like a lease!

 

Well not quite... you do build equity - and you can mod it from day one because you are the owner (with a decreasing lien against it).

 

How do you build equity in somethat that is continuously depreciating?

 

Decent down payment, good interest rate, bigger payment.

Same with a house. You can rent, never have any say on the property, have to deal with landlords, and walk away absolutely empty handed.

Before the pump and dump RE crash, residential real estate typically increased (long term) value at about 4%/year minimum.
So for homeowners, regardless of the investment aspect, and even though a person doesn't own it outright until the 360th payment, it IS your home. You control it and can remodel, paint it whatever color you choose, don't have to ask permission from a landlord, etc.; and with every payment build a little equity, have tax deductions of int & prop taxes, etc., etc.

Besides, as to auto leases, doesn't a lease have the depreciation factored in with its pmt vs residual value? Neither the Dealer or Lessor is going to eat that. So you're paying for that depreciation anyway, but have zero equity or rights in that vehicle. Right?

 

A lease owner has the right to purchase the vehicle for the residual value at the end of the lease. If a lease is written (calculated) correctly, it's should come out about the same cost as if you purchased it. There are good leases, and there are bad leases. They are not all equal and you need to do your homework before leasing. I've leased 4 cars, and helped my mother lease 3 of them for under $170 per month. She just got a 2011 Honda Civic LX for no money down and $159 per month.

People hate leases because you don't own the vehicle. True, but you are only paying for the time value of the car you are leasing. If you lease a $40K car and at the end of the lease it's worth $25K, then you only pay the $15K plus interest over the term of the lease.

If you buy the car for $40K and trade it in (after the same lease term for example), and you get $22K trade in value, you're still out the same $15K plus! At the lease end you're worth retail, but trading in you're only getting trade in value.

The difference is your lease payment was based on financing $15K, while your buy loan your payment is based on the full $40K. Now your payments were higher, and you've paid more interest which you'll lose.

I leased my Mustang and it was the best deal I ever had on a lease. A $35K car for $328 per month including taxes.

They are not for everyone, but they are not as bad as people make them out to be. You just need to do some lease vs buy math.

 

I'm keeping my car forever
I just hear nightmares about leases, and just the logic of paying for something that you're going to give back it's just odd.
I put 7k down on my car, I can sell it and still come out with change.

 

And I would have bought my lease if I didn't get laid off during it!

 

turn it in and get '11 or '12 you won't regret it

 

See I've often heard that.
To me, leasing could make sense if a person is committed to changing cars like every 3 years. Just accept you'll always have a pmt (rent) and toss the keys to them every 3 years and drive away in a new one.
I'd have to have solid comparison figures and then put it to the test with my compound interest calculator. The sneaky part is Lessor's rarely want to reveal the interest rate so you have to run the numbers. When anyone is sneaky I first assume they're hiding bad news.
But I buy most cars to keep a long time so buying is right for me.

 

I've had one used car, and that was my first one. After that they have always been new. I usually keep them from 2-4 years, but my Trailblazer is now 6 years old. I'm only keeping that because I want another Mustang, and chances are that will be a lease, then purchase at the end.

I ask for the residual values and interest rates these days. Even recently at the Honda dealer I asked for them, then pulled out my phone and loaded up a lease calculator. They had no problem giving it to me, and neither did my Ford dealer for my Mustang. I'll have to see if I can find my paperwork on that. It was something like 71% at 4.9%. It was one of them too good to be true deals, but it was true!

Edit: just checked an old email from Jeff, and the residual was an unheard of 72% at 4.75% for 10,500 miles.

 

I temporarily removed the spoiler and filled the holes with Autozone plugs sealed with silicon caulk. I do prefer the "no wing" look but these black plugs don't cut it either. I may try to get the flat V6 spoiler, if I can find one in HP white for about $100. Otherwise and if I do buy this lease out, I'll take it to a body shop for fill and repaint on the trunk lid.

 

One lease I had was for our 98 Windstar...wife needed a baby hauler- and with a very sick baby money was tight to say the least for a while...we got a Ford red carpet lease- nothing down, 200 a month, fixed buyout at the end was real reasonable...we bought it at the lease end, so paid on the darn thing for like 6 years, but it allowed it to fit in the budget- even if the banks made out interest wise...so IMO if just stretching the payments out, guess it can work, or if you rollover cars every couple years, leases might make sense...

A while ago(10/22/2010) Ford offered a buyback of 2000 for our old Windstar (recall found cracked rear axle), we said fine, signed the title over 6 weeks ago(when we got the paperwork from Ford), still no check from Ford- starting to get a little upset. Talk about slow.

 

Andy: This one is a no brainer! Where else are you going to buy a brand new beautiful white GT/CS Vert for 22.5K? Thats right Bro, no-where. Look. You already know and love this car. And the clean ones shall become one of the next collector Mustangs some day soon. Get the smaller loan/save the twenty grand for mods and then enjoy those top down days for years to come!! You will not regret it Bro! And you can always sell it for a down payment for a future Mustang someday if you must have one.. Good Luck!! CalStang

P.S. We are keeping ours! And read that someone out there makes the white plugs for those trunk lid holes. "RC"

 

Thanks RC, yea I'm calling the dealer tomorrow to tell them that on 2/26 (last day of the lease) I'm doing the buy out. When the weather gets nicer, if I cant find a HP white V6 spoiler at a good price, I may try the GT-500 version from the Spoiler Store.

 

Andy: Good choice Sir! These California Specials are never going to be out of style in my opinon. We display ours at a lot of summer car shows and the CalStang still gathers a crowd of onlookers everytime! One fella even tried to buy ours at one show!! Yes the newer GT/CS versions are faster and now the latest thing out there. But they are also getting pretty spendy for the average Mustang fan/owner to now have! So Enjoy Bro!!

Relative to your ideas on spoilers. One of our TMS members got the V-6 spoiler unit a couple of years ago and he just loves it! I have a very large photo file with thousands of shots from TMS over the years and just dug up these pix of his very sharp looking GT/CS.

They also put this spoiler on the 2008 Shelby GT-500KR! So thinking this would look pretty sick on your own Cal-Vert!! Check out "New Takeoffs" to possibly find an affordable left over new one out there. "RC"

 

For those looking for the flat V6 spoiler, you might try Shelby Autos. They had quite a few left over from the KR program, and were selling them for $99.99. https://www.shelbystore.com/ProductD...ctCode=T-16600

 

I would be horrified if someone evr told me my time was going to be up with my baby.

 

"TRUE THAT"

 

Great deal, **** I wished they had 'em in performance white. Nice find for those who match up with the colors available.

 

RC
thanks for the pics, man I do like that V6 / KR flat spoiler. I looked around a few websites for one pre-painted in HP white but with no luck. I did find one locally on Craig's List but it's black. I picked it up for $40 but it will need a paint job. Got some good news from the dealer today when I asked about the exact buyout price (it's stated in the contract) but I forgot the $525 security deposit that I will get deducted from the lease buy out. That puts the 08' GT/CS at $21.9K and I'm good to go and very happy about that.