The Vehicle Purchasing Thread

Is it smart to lease and then buy afterwards? I'm wondering if this would be cheaper in any way by lowering payments on the lease then buying once the vehicle is cheaper at the end of the lease.

Can't seem to find solid details on how that would work and I've never leased a vehicle before.

No, it wouldn't be any cheaper. The remaining vehicle value is negotiated at the time of the lease. You still pay interest (Money Factor) during the lease itself.

The only time leases make sense is if your company pays for it or somehow the market value of the vehicle is higher than your residual and you have the cash available to buyout the vehicle at the end of the lease and then you resell the vehicle.

Cool, thanks for the input.

Ended up with this beauty.

Nope 3car unfortunately this is 3rd for me

About 13 years ago I sold Nissan/Ford's, afterwards I worked at the Nissan test range NA outside of Maricopa city in AZ.

It also makes sense to lease if all you care about is the monthly payment. For instance my wife just bought an Audi A4 the sale price was 48k MSRP with trade in and no money down, payments were only $510 for lease at 10k miles per year. After 3 years there is a balloon of 20k to purchase, with a finance option. We opted for a 75k warranty so we plan on keeping the car after leasing. My wife pays her payment out of her salary so it makes sense for her since the bottom line was all about payment. She'll end up paying longer and more but payment is payment.

I'll be buying a 3 series BMW this year (swapping out my Mercedes CLA250) and the residuals are too high on BMW leases to finance at the end. So it doesn't make sense for every type of car.

Bros, I come asking for help on looking to buy a new car. Never went thru the process on my own, so I kind of want to get some thoughts. I've already gone to my local federal credit union and have been pre-approved and they gave me some sort of check. With a 716 credit score, I came in at 4.75% on a 60 month. I know interest rates are pretty high right now, but that still seems high to me, should I shop around on that?

I have my current 2011 Honda CR-V available as a trade, from what I'm gathering, don't mention it to the end. Should I go ahead and get an appraisal from CarMax? Also should I just try to negotiate bottom line price on the car, not get tied up into monthly payments etc. Is it worth just initiating all of this online or is it better to go in and negotiate?

Any other things I should be aware of? For those that are curious, I'm looking at a new Honda Ridgeline.

Lanx said:

oof thats a carriage upgrade

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I'm open to suggestions. I wanted to stay small SUV or even better small truck. Although I shy away from domestics as interesting as the new Ford Ranger sounds. My concern is that truck will be 40k+

Hyundai has come a long way. I've had a Sonata for 8 years now, and it has been fantastic. I'll buy another one to replace this one.

If you're looking at anything, it pretty much has to be 2017 or newer. Most vehicles that offer Android Auto now, didn't have it present in the 2016 vehicle year.

TJT said:

Need to get a car for my wife. Luckily she's never really driven a car much because she grew up in Europe. Had a rental here a while back and it was some Hyundai Elantra. So she wants that. I've no problem getting this car or anything but I feel I'd ask if there's anything I should avoid here. I intend to pay no more than $20k at absolute most and I am just going to buy it with cash.

Her only requirements are must have backup camera, traffic sensor warning shit, Android Auto compatibility, and not be too big. So elantra sized. Is there anything else I should be looking at?

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Honda Civic will last you 10-15 years easy, but you really can't go wrong with any asian made car really. I like Honda's more than Hyundai/Toyota, mainly for interior styling reasons, but they are all good brands now.

BrutulTM said:

This probably isn't going to be popular, but reading this thread I just don't understand people going into debt to buy a new car when there's nothing wrong with the car that they have. There's this weird obsession with cars in this country, like it's an achievement to drive an expensive car, even if you can't really afford it, and that it's worth sacrificing actual lifestyle to sit in a car with wood trim and leather seats. Reliability? Shit if you're putting $300 a month in the bank instead of making a car payment with it, there's no fucking chance that you will ever have a car repair that comes close to that. Extended warranty for $1400? I bet it's one in a thousand cars that needs over $1400 in repairs before 100,000 miles. The whole industry is a scam. If you have lots of money and just want a fancy car that's one thing, but going into debt for it and then rationalizing that somehow it's a smart move and not an indulgence just seems deluded to me.

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It's like going into debt for anything man. Why buy a bigger, fancier, house than you need? Why waste money on designer clothes? Why buy a new video cards to get an extra 10fps when you current video card does a good enough job? Why buy a pickup truck that guzzles gas if you live in the burbs and never haul shit? It's all the same-- people go into debt or waste money on something they don't really need because they like to.

BrutulTM said:

This probably isn't going to be popular, but reading this thread I just don't understand people going into debt to buy a new car when there's nothing wrong with the car that they have. There's this weird obsession with cars in this country, like it's an achievement to drive an expensive car, even if you can't really afford it, and that it's worth sacrificing actual lifestyle to sit in a car with wood trim and leather seats. Reliability? Shit if you're putting $300 a month in the bank instead of making a car payment with it, there's no fucking chance that you will ever have a car repair that comes close to that. Extended warranty for $1400? I bet it's one in a thousand cars that needs over $1400 in repairs before 100,000 miles. The whole industry is a scam. If you have lots of money and just want a fancy car that's one thing, but going into debt for it and then rationalizing that somehow it's a smart move and not an indulgence just seems deluded to me.

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I'm in 100% agreement with this. I have a 1999 Ford Ranger. It starts every bloody time I turn the key, it always has, and parts and repairs for it are cheap. We got the Hyundai to replace a Taurus that was seriously old and no longer reliable without thousands of dollars of repair, so it was time to go. We got it also because we were soon to have more drivers in the house. We have an old Honda van, too. We need it if we go anywhere together as a family. They're all reliable, but old. No plans to buy anything new. In the mean time, save the dough.

As far as the larger house, I'm for that too. Ten years ago we did splurge a bit, and buy a larger home with a lot of property. At the time we had plans to use the land, and even though many see it as a luxury, I like to give the kids each their own bedroom. With five kids, that means a big house. However, we didn't go overboard, and we paid the house off completely now. We're making good use of the land, and the house feels full, not huge or over big. It's heavily used.

I'm all for living well within one's means, and avoiding debt like the plague.

BrutulTM said:

Sure, but I don't think most people go into debt for 5 years for designer clothes or video cards. I guess some do on their credit cards, but most of them didn't make a decision to do that. People who would consider it wasteful to buy a pair of $250 jeans will spend $45,000 including interest and warranty on a $35,000 new car when their old car was totally functional or needed a $700 repair or something and a lot more people would shake their head at the $250 jeans than that car which is wasting orders of magnitude more money. At least a house retains value. By the time that car is paid off, it will be worth well under half of what you paid for it.

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People go into massive credit card debt all the time for multiple years because they can't stop themselves from buying stupid shit. Actually, the chick who racks up 20K in credit card debt buying Louis Vuitton bags and all sorts of shit she doesn't need is worse off than the person who buys a car more expensive than they can really afford. At least the latter has equity in the vehicle-- he can sell it or trade it in and just eat the depreciation. The people who blow money on clothes, jewellery or other status symbols take a massive hit the minute they leave the store. The minute that LV bag is used, it loses 50% of its worth. Your car takes a 15-30% hit the minute you drive it off the lot (depending on brand), but it maintains value fairly well, and unlike used clothes is easy to sell.

That being said, whether it's a car or handbag, spending money you don't have, or don't have the realized potential to earn, is just dumb.