Discussions

Any comments on personal experiences would be appreciated.

I have done both and have compared the two options quite a bit. The best answer is that it really depends on you.  
 
Leasing seems to be my preferred option given that  
- I drive minimal kms and have never been in danger of going over the mileage limit.  
- I get bored with vehicles so change relatively often and, therefore, assume I will be making car payments anyways.  
- I usually have a toy vehicle as well to play with, modify or customize meaning I don't feel the need to modify my primary vehicle.  
 
For these reasons, leasing currently works for me. In addition, I don't worry about the buyout price at lease end because comparing that buyout price with the actual market price of my vehicle at that time will dictate what I do.  
 
But, I know people that drive very high kms which makes leasing problematic. I know people who do many vehicle mods. Some of those can be worked into a lease but it does add an extra degree of difficulty. And, finally, to those that keep their vehicles longer term and take good care of them, I usually recommend buying (especially at a good interest rate). It is usually about the 5-6 year mark that a well maintained vehicle can become an asset vs. an expense. Notice I said CAN and not WILL.  
 
There are many variables at play but this is how I look at it. Good luck with your decision and enjoy your new vehicle either way.

both ways. If you drive on gravel, probably not a bonus. If you drive under the allowed kilometers, it can be a good choice. It all depends on the individual doing the deal. Good luck however you decide.

I personally would never lease, as your tied to a payment forever and nothing to show for it ! I just finished paying my vehicle off after 6 yrs of byweekly payments and what a relief that was! I don’t drive a lot of Kms a year probably around 10,000 so my vehicle is like new to me. All I have now is maintenance, which has been minimal. To me it’s a win win!

for a person to lease. You put on ten k a year, which would make you a good lease candidate. Have a new vehicle every two years, always warranty to cover repairs. Your vehicle is six years old and no warranty. All depends on how you look at a vehicle. Lease payments often lower than car payments. A personal choice for sure. Good and bad things about both routes.

But no lease payments can pay for any repairs that come up. (I only Buy two year old vehicles that come off lease) and keep them till they are 10 years old and have I very seldom need to put repairs on them other than just maintance items. Just make sure you maintain them properly..  
I personally would never lease a vehicle unless I could write it off to a business.  
I could not see myself making payments for the rest of my life and not owning a bolt in my vehicle.  
But everyone circumstances are different.

I’ve always had car payments because when the payments were finished I was either ready for a new vehicle or the vehicle needed work done that I didn’t want to pay for. I don’t typically keep a vehicle longer than 4-5 years out of boredom like an above poster said so for me, payments aren’t a deal breaker.  
 
My current vehicle is leased and it’s my first time doing so. I am self employed though and able to write the payments off whereas before only the interest on the payments were a write off so that was a bonus. I also used to always just buy pre-owned but with leasing, I was able to get a brand new vehicle which was nice.  
 
I’m also low km’s so no worry of that. If I drove more I’d have to take that into consideration.  
 
So far, leasing has been fine. We’ll see in a few years I guess but it’s definitely dependent on your needs

Do you have to worry about the buy out price if you plan to turn the leased vehicle in for a new leased vehicle when the term expires?  
 
Does the contract limit the charge for "excessive wear and tear"? That is so open to interpretation and this scares us a bit.

Most manufacturer websites will outline what excessive wear and tear is down to minor dent and stone chip size. If the website doesn't, the dealer should be able to. If they won't, I would avoid them as they are likely to try and ding you for even normal wear and tear.  
 
As for the buy out price. Think of it the following way:  
 
If the buy out price is 20k for example. That means nothing right now. It only has meaning at the end of the term. Say your vehicle has a market value of 17k at the end of the term, you turn it in and start from scratch. You aren't interested in paying 20k for a vehicle worth 17k and the dealership can't penalize you the 3k as you met all the conditions of your lease.  
 
If your buyout is 20k and the trade in value of your vehicle turns out to be 23k, you have some options. The dealership may give you some credit for that equity as a way of retaining your business. You may love the vehicle and decide paying 20k for a 23k vehicle is a good investment or you may buy the 20k vehicle and use that 23k asset (3k equity) at another dealership or on the private market.  
 
Chances are that you will just hand back the keys and start from scratch but the other scenarios are possible. It is for that uncertainty that I say the buyout price isn't really important when you start the lease.

Will I lease. Accountants will tell you it is a stupid idea, even if you own your own business as the write offs are comparable in both cases.  
 
We leased a small truck years ago with GM and the resulting debacle has turned us off of all GM products for life. They nailed us with over $3000 in after lease fees and refused to discuss it - even though the definition of the tiny scratches it had fell within their definition of "normal wear and tear". They even fabricated some damages that were not there when we turned it in. Lesson learned there.  
 
I leased a Hyundai a few years back because they were offering 0% and a warranty program that would save me the worry of normal wear and tear costs after. Paid $600 for that coverage, with the assurance it would cover up to $3000 in dents and scratch repairs. When the time came to turn it in, they tried to charge me nearly $2000 in damages and outright refused to let me use the warranty package I had bought. I fought them on that because again, all of the tiny dings actually fell within their allowable (they even sent me a card with measuring tapes and samples to show what was and what was not acceptable. I finally got them to honor their warranty - but then they outright refused to let me purchase my lease return (that had been my plan all along - I bought thousands of dollars in winter tires and rims for this vehicle and I wanted to keep it). They refused to finance me for it, it was clear that due to it's high resale value they just wanted it back to sell. The only option I was given was to buy or lease a brand new - more expensive car from them. They also refused to let me finance a less expensive car if you can believe it. Bank did not want to finance such a new "used" car either without an insane interest rate even with such a high remaining value on the car. Crazy. I handed them my keys and went down the street to a Ford dealer and purchased a used Escape outright with cash. (One that fit my expensive tires and rims)  
 
No more Hyundai or GM for my family ever. And no more leasing - too much headache.

Please don’t rush into a lease. We did it once and it wasn’t a good experience. Your monthly payments are less but after the term of the lease you have nothing to show for it. Consider buying the car and when  
your payment terms are done, you will love not having a car payment. What people don’t realize is that assuming you will always have a car payment is short sighted. Honestly, go online and use an investment calculator and see how much money you’d have if you invested that car payment amount each month. If you invested $400/month for 20 years at a very modest interest rate of 5%, you would have $164, 400.00. Now, my investments are making 12-15%. At 12% that money would grow to $395,756.00. I just kills me that people are paying car companies so much money that could literally make their retirement so much better. Do you really need to drive a new car every few years or would you rather have nearly $400,000.00 ? If your car payments are $500/month, after saving that for 20 years it would be 495,682.00 ! If you are 25 years old, you could spend $500/month on a car for the rest of your life. Or, you could by a cheaper car, pay it off as fast as you can and invest that money. If you paid it off by age 30, by the time you were 65 years old that money (making a conservative 8%) will have made you $1,147,000.00. Your car payments are literally robbing your future and costing you over a million dollars in growth. It’s compound interest... if you don’t believe me just look online for a savings calculator or compound interest calculator. Instead of the dealerships getting rich on charging you interest, why don’t you get rich using compound interest.  
 
The problem is that leases are confusing, even to some attorneys, and lease contracts do not clearly disclose the various components that determine the lease payments. Interest charges are not disclosed at all.  
 
Another problem with leases is that they are usually more expensive, at least in the long-run, than purchasing a car. Consumers who purchase their vehicles and hold on to them for a longer time than the lease term will save significant money. Additionally, many who lease cars are surprised by the high end of lease charges such as wear and tear charges and charges for miles driven in excess of the mileage permitted under the lease.  
 
One of the pitfalls of leasing is that many leases, especially those involving luxury and near-luxury models, have mileage allowances that are substantially less than the average use of a vehicle. Many consumers who lease cars fall into a lease "trap", where they owe large amounts at the end of the lease, only to have the dealer offer to "roll" the extra mileage charges into a new lease. They do a new lease in order to avoid the high charges, and at the end of the new lease, they are faced with the same dilemma. For this reason, leases are not a good option for consumers with long commutes or who frequently take long trips.  
 
Another leasing pitfall is that consumers who want to end their leases early due to unexpected changes in their financial or other personal circumstances will usually have to pay early termination charges. These can amount to thousands of dollars unless the consumer is near the end of the lease term. Additionally, if a leased vehicle is repossessed, consumers do not have the same protections that the law gives to consumers who purchased and financed their cars.

We pay cash for our cars - no payments. We drive older cars, and rarely have issues with them. Yes, we spend money on them from time to time, but when I crunched the numbers even when we had to do major repairs it's at least 25% cheaper in "payments" to operate TWO older cars in a year vs. buying ONE comparable new one, plus we don't get hootched on the depreciation because most of that has happened already.  
 
My husband and I have been together for 17 years, and we both came into the relationship with a vehicle, so we've always operated 2 vehicles. We've bought a total of 4 new-to-us vehicles in those 17 years - twice because our needs changed and we needed a bigger vehicle (car to minivan, minivan to 12-seater), once because a vehicle got written off, and once because it was cheaper to replace than fix. That particular vehicle was 19 years old when we replaced it and I (we) had driven it for 15 years with only minimal repairs until the last 12 months or so if it's life. At that point, we did the minimal amount of repairs we needed to keep it going until we found a suitable replacement.  
 
Most vehicles on the road supposedly have 50-75% of it's life remaining before they need to be scrapped. You just need to be patient when buying used, if you wait you will eventually find what you want. Not including the write-off replacement, our last 2 replacements we spent 6 months or more looking for the "just right" vehicle within our budget, and both were great buys.

I am actually a salesman at a GM dealership and have been leasing myself since 1998, lots has changed over the years, interest rates, residual values etc.  
In all the time I have been involved in the process I have never seen residual values so high. This is good and bad. If you fall in love with the vehicle it may not be worth purchasing at the end. BUT if you can write off the payments or just love having a new vehicle and always have warranty it is the perfect time to lease.  
You have to get numbers and decide on your own.

I ever did ...never again . to keep it brief

I leased 2 domestic branded vehicles (one lease after another). Both cars turned out to be POS. Unncessary things broke down in the cars. Thank god I was on a lease, and gave them back. Feel sorry for whoever bought those cars.