There's nothing emotional about this. You lease or buy depending on the situation. Business leases do make a lot of sense.

 

Disagree, there is a lot of emotion surrounding the passion of the 911. Leasing is a way that one can get in the driver seat in a cheaper way, by basically "renting" the car. I own a construction company and lease most vehicles, but I felt it paid to own the 911 from a monetary and "emotional" standpoint of the simple fact that it's all mine! lol

 

Guess I should have added cash as an option, suprised on the amount of cash purchases, in which I did myself!

 

I purchased and financed at the low rate with cash down. Doing the numbers, the car will be paid for in 2.5 years and the money saved from not paying all cash puts more in my pocket in the end. Just MY situation. It's not for everyone. I lease my Lexus for business purposes.

 

I'm self-employed so I just leased my new '09 for the tax benefits, plus the money factor on the lease put it around 4% and I still got $20K off sticker and a strong residual. I purchased my '06, and had I gone the purchase route on this one, I never would've paid cash with the 1.9% finance offer. That's nearly free money! Then again, having paid cash for other cars in the past when rates were higher and I wasn't looking for the big write-off, I do appreciate the feeling of just writing a check and never having to make a payment.

 

If you say so... I think not. One can still be passionate about the car and be smart abound choosing the appropriate way to finance it. It varies with the individual and circumstances. I may have cash to pay for a car but it may be smarter to lease it, or not.

 

Exactly. I have done both lease and buy in the past - leased and purchased, have not financed in ages - but always depends on the deal. Financing a depreciating asset is rarely a good idea.

My last car I leased and I'm glad I did - going in, that seemed the best way to go, and in hindsight - glad I did it. This 997.2 I bought because at the time that was the best numbers. If it would have been a big discount and 1.9% finance, I probably would have done that...financing on some portion of it anyway - in May though, it was either/or, not both. 1.9% is pretty cheap money - hard to pass up.

The car may be an emotional thing, but the numbers just go into Excel and whatever comes from that is how to pay for it.

 

I agree with Adias...leasing made complete sense to me as I get the full tax advantages. You can still build equity with a lease but it all depends on the lease. My buyout at the end of my lease is $42k after 3 years, the car is worth in the low $50k range with less than a year left on my lease.

Dave

 

I think it is completely personal and geared to your own way of doing business and / or stage in life. I leased my first (demo) 911 purely for affordability. For $825/month and $0 down, I couldn't pass (and i didn't have the cash either).I was not married and building a career and portfolio then. But as I got older I found I simply hated monthly payments (on anything). As related, I changed my spending habits on luxury items (eg cars, wines, vacations) to not buying any of them unless I could pay cash AND if that money were somehow lost, it wouldn't change my life a bit. I don't finance anything. It's a control issue for me! Totally personal.

 

I was under same dilemma - buy used for cash or new with financing, and figured out - cheaper used car with no future monthly commitment is much better deal to make, especially in the case if something wrong happens. There is nothing worse than have no car but still have those monthly payments.
I wish I could buy new one for cash, but, it would be too much of a stretch for my family savings, I can`t risk like that during recession.

 

bought x2, lease is nice.. but to pay 35k+ over 3 years and then be left with nothing is not ideal to me, especially considering the added discount for paying cash on delivery... if you took the price i paid and deducted what i would have paid in lease payments.. the car would never depreciate to that amount EVER which made it worthwhile to pay cash.

 

Keep in mind that anyone leasing is entitled to purchase the car at the end of the lease for a price established at the beginning of the lease. If there's really that big of a difference between the lease-end buyout and the market value of the car at that point, the person leasing can always buy the car and come out ahead. I was in this position once and arranged for a friend to buy the car and she got the deal.

 

Makes no real difference whether you buy or lease. You can negotiate exactly the same purchase price, and irrespective of how you choose to finance your car the depreciation is going to be the same. It is depreciation, not your cost of money, that is the single biggest expense in acquiring your vehicle. It's no smarter to dump 100K into a depreciating asset than it is to lease it - both have their place and their is no one-size-fits-all answer to questions like this.

That said, in simple terms, those saying they'd never dump $X into a lease only to be left with nothing at the end of it have essentially done just that... Unless, of course, you've found a way for cars purchased with cash to avoid depreciation. Cash or lease, there are good deals and bad deals out there - and as always, caveat emptor is the only universally applicable advice.

 

i know that too..

my last car was 87k, for a lease would have been around 975/mon... 36months.. 10k miles a year..= 35,100.. discount on car for lease was 5k.. so thats 87-5-35=47... i bought the car cash outright for ~65, 65-35=30.. so leaves a 17k difference.. the buyout at the end of the lease was like 52... versus the 47 i would have paid the lease down to..

numbers are not exact but im going from memory.. it was more than 15k difference to buy the car and thats quite a big difference.. especially considering i have been driving the car much more than i thought and 10k a year miles would have never sufficed..

everything works differently for different people tho.. some people need more cash on hand and lease.. other people lease because you can write the full amount off on taxes.. im not saying mine is right and leasing is wrong, just for my case, leasing was not ideal.

 

bingo - it is exactly the thing about leasing - business expenses. unless you cannot go down this way - there is no point in leasing.

a friend of mine works in real estate and drives any sorts of new vehicles and changes them every 2 years essentially as it writes off very nicely for him.