2 more payments on my lease and not sure what to do. Buy it or sell it. Buyout price $20,500 only 23000 miles.

A lease is a notoriously bad deal- a money loser- you can ride in style for awhile, but at the end of the lease you have a vehicle that isn't worth what the buy out is- and left with the dilemma you describe- I think you have to lower your expectations about what you can afford to drive, or just lease another new car-

Life is so easy for those people who live in the realm of "right" and "wrong" always the easy answers, the bottom line- it's all about money, profit, buy and sell isn't it? so easy to come up with $20,000 isn't it? so easy to live in the sphere of judgement and blame- and proclaim loudly, other people are "WRONG" ( so I guess your assertion is that a lease is a good deal?) Welcome to CarGurus

Are you always an ass. Buy it means continue to pay for it. For another 5 years to pay it off. Or take out a LOAN for 5-6 years to pay for a used Tahoe because I cannot afford a payment on a $65,000 vehicle. $20,000 Loan I can do. I can see you like to Assume what other people are saying.

Thanks for the answer Dan. That makes a lot of sense. So just go to the dealer near the end of the lease? Thanks mingya

Hi Mingya, you don't necessarily need to wait to go into the dealership if you don't want to. In fact, if you did a 3-year lease, I would recommend going in a bit earlier to fully evaluate your options for your buy out and finance options. If you were to miss the 3-year mark (from date of purchase) it would increase the cost of your options for getting the Jeep certified to extend the bumper-bumper warranty. You don't need to make a decision while you are there and I would actually recommend not making a decision while you are at the dealership the first time, as you have time to make the decision. If you are not in love with your Jeep, you can always do an immediate buy out and trade-in towards another vehicle. But you should have at least a few thousand dollars in equity in the Jeep now, which would be a more than substantial down payment. The one other factor here, you will need to pay state sales tax on the buy out price of the Jeep, because you have not yet paid it during the course of the lease

Jamnblues, I didn't mean to come off so harshly, but when you give advice based on generalizations that don't apply to a specific case the OP should be made aware that the advice is incorrect. You are correct in your thinking that leases typically aren't a great option and cost more money over the course of time, but in this case the lease is already a sunk cost. Mingya has the option letting the car go and losing thousands of dollars in equity, or 3 different options that are all better by buying the jeep. Also, of course Mingya is qualified to get a loan on a vehicle, they are just about to complete a lease on what was a more expensive vehicle at the time of signing. Even if there were other issues going on, banks will almost always finance someone with strong auto loan payment history.

I wasn't calling anyone names, that was all you. It is ok to be wrong sometimes, we all are. Your sweeping generalizations continue to shine through here. Its not like I am a real person who is capable of having my own original thought. Apparently, I am merely the product of whatever category you want to loop me into so you can more easily hurdle insults that you hope stick. Enjoy my friend.

If you call people "wrong" you think you are "right" the real problem here is that you wanted to come on the Gurus site and tangle with opinions you don't like- I happen to think of cars in a romantic way and you think of them as investments- that's all- neither one of us is wrong or right, just different- go ahead on, but don't expect to go onto blogs and start throwing your views around without catching some flak from people who inhabit the site- THIS is a car- the rest is just 21st Century junk, apparently owned as investments-

This is non-sensical. I get that you are a big deal here and have a great reputation score. In your original response you wrote "at the end of the lease you have a vehicle that isn't worth what the buy out is" which according to CarGurus, and any other metric you would care to look at, is incorrect. I'm not sitting here judging you or making statements about you, merely about your one statement on this one. Who are you to sit here and tell me that I look at cars only as an investment? Mingya is looking for advice on affordability of her current options, how to love a car. So I provided advice based on years of industry knowledge about the financial options present. Does thatt mean I don't know how to appreciate a car? Does it mean that I have never driven a car for the love of driving? No. I have been granted an amazing experience to drive an incredible array of cars in my life so far. And yes, the Ferrari 250 GT is a lovely car that I would also love to own, drive, even just sit in. But I cannot remotely afford it and have absolutely no idea on where to find one that someone else would let me drive.

Dan and Ming- my apologies- even if I am called names I should not get angry- so apologies are in order- and yes I was speaking in generalities because often from the initial question it is not clear what the client is asking- so let me be more specific- in my opinion, spending 40 grand on a new wrangler is not wise- a completely restored CJ with a much simpler mechanical arrangement could be had for the 20 grand being discussed here- the money spent on these new plastic, electronic cars just doesn't seem to be the way to go- I would not take one of these electronic wonders out into the middle of nowhere, because I could not repair it when something went wrong- but if it is just for looking cool around town, I also think that Ming is lucky to have made it this far with no mechanical abnormalities- they are no doubt waiting in the future and will add to the cost of owning this vehicle- so, my advice was to bail on this vehicle- I doubt if Ming is the kind of person to appreciate owning an old CJ- Dan, you gave him exactly the kind of advice he was looking for and you did it well- maybe you should become a Guru because you are good at it- especially on questions such as this- personally I look at these questions differently- because I remember a time when I bought a six year old Austin Healey 3000 for $800 and had a chance to trade it for a Ferrari 250 which the dealer was asking $2500 for- to me, the cars have not only changed but the world has also- I happen to think that payments of any kind are a mistake- maybe people should just drive what they can afford? a quaint idea, I get it- but this is one of the reasons the prices of cars have been driven up- when a bank will pay for it, charge what you want- $40,000 for a Jeep is shocking to me- that is a lot of money- and my place at Gurus is to point this out to people- not that they get it- to me, I would want this completely restored, immaculate Land Rover- I bet $40 grand would get it- so there's the different point of view- which I see does not fit in Ming's case- Dan thanks for doing a good job, and again my apologies for being off base here-

Hey Dan, thanks again for the info I was looking for. I will be going down to the dealer next week. Jamn, first off nothing you buy or build is going to last forever. There's a reason my wife and I lease vehicles. I am not a mackanic. Neither one of us have ever had an issue. I'm self employed so if my vehicle goes down I dont get paid. Plus we like tgetting a different vehicle. We enjoy going around test driving the new styles. If I was a mackanic things might be different. Just to look kool, what. I live in New England and like having a 4wd and a convertible all in one. Some of us can't afford multiple vehicles. You need to get off your high horse. Do you say the same to the people that are buying $3- 400,000 cars. Probably not. But it sounds like your on the wrong site. Perhaps an exotic car site.

Glad to hear it. Mingya, as much as I disagreed with his thoughts on your specific question, Jamnblues has provided a ton of great advice to countless other users on the site. He is obviously extremely knowledgeable about the mechanical side of the automotive industry, and I can tell just by his taste in vehicles that he is a valuable contributor on this site. Because of strong knowledge base in fixing & restoring cars, he is naturally going to favor older vehicles that can be easily worked on without a complicated set of instructions and with enough space under the hood to access specific components of the vehicle. While I know a lot about cars, I am not so mechanically inclined and need to bring my jeep to a mechanic for servicing if something goes wrong. I know how to appraise, buy, & sell cars. I can listen and drive to understand when something is wrong in a car, and sometimes can even deduce what is wrong, but I am not capable of fixing it without a mechanic. Jamnblues, I appreciate that. And I am sorry for jumping right on you when I started off.

Dan I'm sue he's helped a lot of people with fixings and told them how to build things. I doubt he's sat behind a desk selling new and used cars, writing up lease deals. I went through with the lease because of the buyout price. I new that it wouldn't be a loss. But I defiantly didn't expect to have that kind of equity. I thought I was just asking a straight forward question for someone in the business or knowledgable on buying and leasing. I don't want to sound like a jerk but some people just hit me the wrong. And then keep going. Thing is I really do like my jeep. Just not in a romantic way. Lol. Know if I had owned a gem, things with me and her would be very special.