Leasing works for us. I have a new vehicle every three years, no maintenance cost, you only pay sale tax for the years you use the car ($23.56/mo in our case), get rid of it in three years (or buy it), do it all over again or go to another vehicle. In our case, as we get older, we don't want to drive a vehicle out of warranty and we want to eliminate problems that go with owning a car longer than the warranty. Never have to worry about batteries, tires, A/C problems, etc. Maintenance is included so oil changes, tire rotation, etc. are included in the lease. Keep the money in the bank. No worries!
do you negotiate at all when you lease or just accept what they offer? We have leased three or four times before, but don't remember any negotiating, other than having them waiving the excess mileage penalty.
We are in a similar situation. Always paid cash for slightly used cars and drove them for many years (last one was a 1999 Acura TL bought for $10K that lasted almost 10 years). At this point in my life, I couldn't care less about cars. They are money pits one way or another, and insurance in our neck of the woods (South FL) is REALLY expensive. But my wife wanted a damn Mini Cooper, and after a bad experience with a previously owned Mini Cooper hardtop (also bought used with cash), there was no way I was going near another one UNLESS it was fully under warranty and with ALL services and maintenance included. BMW/Mini offers just that with their cars, up to 3 years (the duration of our lease). Plus, it's January, so they need to move all the remaining 2013 stock and get them out of the lot as soon as possible. I put ZERO down, and aggressively negotiated the bottom-line, 3-year total, final price of the lease. The dealer said they were actually loosing money on this car. Got it with plenty of toys (not the base car) for a little less than $11,500, bottom line price including all taxes, fees, etc. A Kia Soul (another candidate) would have been significantly more expensive and not as great on gas. We also sold the Acura and downsized to a SINGLE car (I work from home, and my wife takes the train to work now).
I am still an emotional mess over this, though. A part of me wants to believe we made the right choice. Brand new car, worry-free throughout the duration of the lease, all services included, ZERO down, I can write off a percentage of the lease since I am self-employed and we only have one car, and at the end of the lease we'll probably have to only pay for the disposition fee and new tires (which I will buy on my own, since the dealer charges twice as much) and, hopefully, we won't even need that (since we don't drive that much and I am hoping we keep tire wear to a minimum). More importantly, my wife is happy and loves the car.
But my rational, ER, uber-frugal side of the brain (actually, I would say this is more like 95% of my brain instead of half of it!
) tells me that I am throwing money at the wind, that the car is not "mine", that we own nothing, that the dealer will ALWAYS rape us with BS fees and they will find things that are not there and nitpick every single little mark on the car, etc.
For those that went through similar situations (ie: always paid cash for everything and are now leasing a car for the first time), and since we are on the subject, I would appreciate any feedback, words of encouragement.
