Part of the problem with leasing is the low mileage allowance and the accompanying high fee for exceeding the allowed miles. Some people can easily live with that, but I never could.
While I have no stats to back it up, I have a theory that the higher the sticker price of a vehicle, the more likely it is that the folks driving that vehicle leased it, rather than bought it. Those who have a need to impress others may do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal, even if it winds up costing them more money in the long run.
@VDCdriver I drove a vehicle to impress others and I didnât lease the vehicle. I drove the same 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass for 33 years to impress my superiors that I wasnât wealthy.
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We leased our last car, $200 a month, our 11 year old van with no major repairs until a problem with guages going whacko, interior lights going off and on and could find no fix cost us $218 per month for 11 years, price, sales tax, loan interest, tires brakes (oil changes not included as we still have to pay for them) and other maintenance and repars. We average 8 to 10k mikes a year with 12k per year allowance. 3 years we will do it again, my 2 cents. Everyting is warranty for repairs, brakes tires battery should be fine, Possibly costing more but no worries is worth something. Another no worry is her 280 mile round trip to see her mother once a month or so it is nice to know we are minimizing risk of brealdown.
How do you minimize risk of breakdown by leasing? sorry, does not compute.
You had an 11 year lease??
3 year old car max vs 10 or 11 year old car owned @BillRussell
For a good reliable vehicle thatâs well maintained and has low miles like you put onâŠ
You reduced the risk from .01% to .5%.
Not worth that extra cost to me.
" I drove the same 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass for 33 years to impress my superiors that I wasnât wealthy."
Well, I think that we are fairly similar, Triedaq.
Whileâlike youâI would also like to let people know that I am not interested in the trappings of wealth, I donât think that we are typical. Or, at least we are not typical of the auto leasers whom I know.
I submit the case of somebody whom I know, who is an inveterate gambler.
While I own my own spacious home on 3/4 of an acre (free and clear), in an upscale rural area, and while I have owned all of my vehicles outright over the past 4 decades or so, he lives in a small apartment in a dodgy, urban neighborhood. He leases a new Cadillac every 3 years, because, âIt really impresses the doorman when I pull up to the casinoâ. He and his wife liveâliterallyâhand to mouth, from one month to another.
Clearly, you and I are interested in impressing different people than he wants to impressâand for different reasonsâand I dare to say that we are probably both on a much firmer financial footing than he is.
John Andrew McCormack, youâve postulated a good theory; perhaps young people now are leasing more readily than they used to⊠which says something scary about the economy.
When I bought my first new car, s standard car loan was two years. Three for luxury cars. My new car was about 25% of average gross annual income.
Not too many years later, the standard loan was three years.
Then four years.
Now, itâs five years (six, you say?). The average price of a new car is about 65% of average gross annual income.
Or is it now leasing??
So tell me, what went wrong?? 
The prices got so high that the all the marketing turned toward the . . monthly payment. . .as the sales catcher.
The only way to accomplish that was with either a loan that outlasted the warranty adn sometimes the practcal life of the vehicle . .orâŠthe lease !
â now with the deluge of auto ads touting little more than the monthly payments . . and the younger crowd that has memory of little else . .?
Yep,
It is they, as the greater percentage of the buyers now, who are walking in to ââbuyââ that car at ââthisââ monthly payment and, BAM, a lease contract is on the desk and they really never knew there is much other choice.
@VDCdriver - "While I have no stats to back it up, I have a theory that the higher the sticker price of a vehicle, the more likely it is that the folks driving that vehicle leased it, rather than bought it. "
Perfect timing, Car and Driver has a list of lease % by brand, pretty much as you theorized:
Smart 80%
Maserati 74%
Inifiniti 64%
BMW, Jaguar, Lexus 57%
Lincoln, Mercedes Benz 53%
Rolls-Royce 51%
Audi 50%
Acura 45%
Volkswagen 42%
Cadillac, Volvo 41%
Bentley 38%
Land Rover 36%
Buick 34%
Honda 31%
Porsche 30%
Mini 29%
Industry average 27%
GMC, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda 26%
Chrysler 24%
Aston Martin 23%
Nissan, Toyota, Chevy, Fiat, Ford, Lamborghini, Jeep 20% - 22%
Tesla 16%
McLaren, Subaru 15%
Ram 13%
Dodge 12%
Mitsubishi 8%
Ferrari 4%
Alfa Romeo 1%
Yep it is! On a smaller scale itâs sorta what you are seeing with all the cellular carriers offering lease up in the top tier phones and of course everyone loves it because you can âtradeâ the phone back after the 2 years are up or sometimes 1 depending on the carrier⊠But the point is is that you never pay off the smartphone in full and you can never own it outright⊠Which i donât know about you but I have a few back ups that we (family) have saved over time that will work just fine in case something should ever happen to my current phone that allows me a little extra room to save up and have the phone fixed when I have the income. Anywho the prices of some of the cars today is so crazy when you factor in the current state of the economy that I donât see how some people can afford it other than leasing them. Personally I would rather buy a nice little used car from a private party who have kept all the original receipts from the work thatâs been done on the car⊠Beats paying for 6-7 years now
sell ya our kia optima, 13k buyout price for a 2015 less than 30k miles in 2018 if you are interested @âJohn Andrew McCormickâ
@Barkydog Iâll keep it in mind⊠How are Kiaâs ? I see an awful lot of commercials on them out here⊠Especially on the optima
I have only leased one car. I was attending my night vision devices maintainer/repairer school in Fresno, CA when I saw an advertisement on TV. Mazda Miata for 1 penny down $199 per month. The day after I returned home I went to the dealer. The on hand lease deal $21,000 MSRP Miata was a base model which was perfect for me in Montego (color shifting) Blue. The lease deal was 100% legitimate. I ended up with a 36 month smile on my face! Priceless! When the lease was nearly up my next door neighbor wanted it. The residual was well below market value. He wrote me an $11,000 check. When I turned the car in I paid the residual and turned the 24,000 mile car over to him. He replaced the wheels and tires and acquired a hard top which he painted to match. He drove it for about a year then sold it for $15,000. I realize the average lease today is usually a screw job.
ken green: I think you nailed it. The young have been taught that history is gone and doesnât matter. The future is unknown. Living per month is the norm. Hopefully rent and car (lease) + insurance payments are less than monthly income. All instant gratification such as $600 cell phone + $150 monthly plan, $1,500 TV + $150 monthly cable bill, eating out 90% of the time, and outrageous concert and sporting event tickets are what credit cards are for. Very sad!
The KIA is fine with 2 exceptions, not as good as the van was in snow, but that may be true of many sedans, and the road noise is greater than the van.
I have a business that I can charge the lease payments to as no doubt many of you have. However, itâs still less expensive to buy a new cat and keep it for a number of years and then sell it. or downgrade it to a family grocery hauler.
The OP must have ulterior motives for planting this question. Nearly everyone knows leasing IS the ]most expensive way to âownâ a car.
@John_Andrew_McCormick wrote:
How are Kiaâs ?
While waiting at a local car rental place last year, I began talking with one of the employees about the different kids of cars they rent. He said they keep their rental cars for 30K miles before replacing them. However, he made his dislike for Kiaâs very clear, saying most were junk by the time they hit 30K miles.
:trollface: