Buy or Lease your next car?
2 Answers
I have always purchased, but there are people that like the latest technology and updated styling, so leasing would be their best option.
We leased our 2009 Toyota Prius for the first 3 years, then purchased it 2 1/2 years into the lease. Leasing is like purchasing 3 /5 of the car. It's also about paying for the depreciation up front. Generally speaking, people lease a higher priced car they couldn't ordinarily afford to buy. I do agree with you that it's better to purchase and hold onto a car for a while with no car payments to get the best return on investment. If you purchase a good car and maintain it properly, you should be able to drive it to 150,000 and 200,000 miles. There's going to be repairs, but, the actual cost of repairs will never rival the cost of car payments and your costs per mile driven will be justified. At least that's my experience.