nberry:
Did you have to put down any money in getting the lease. If so, did you include that in your calculation? If you traded a lease car in, there would have been a financial penalty if done prior to the expiration of the lease and that would have to be included in your comparison.
Remember a leased car is a liability and not an asset which an owned car would be.
Finally, when you calculate your driving cost leasing makes little sense. Christian, has several cars which I assume are all leased. His recently acquired TTS has to be costing him close to $3500 a month or over $100 a day. Since he does not drive it to work he is paying each and every day over $100 for it to sit in his garage. He gets absolutely nothing for paying the $100. The car sits while the money burns. The driving cost of his car is huge.
Nick, I think you make a huge mistake here. You compare US lease offers (I guess) with German ones.
You are not even close to what I pay (not even a little bit close ) and I can assure you that I know what I am doing. Of course the car would be "cheaper" if I would drive it all day long but whats the difference between leasing and buying then? The value of the car at the end of the lease stays practically the same.
Again (I think you didn't understand):
- I made a fixed initial payment at the start of the lease. These payments can be as high as up to 50% or so of the car's value. Of course nobody usually pays that much but if someone does, the monthly rate sinks dramatically. I usually pay 10-20k EUR, on the 991 Turbo S, it was a little bit more. I usually try to reach the same "value" as if I bought the car and sold it after 36 months. So far, I've done pretty well.
- It doesn't really matter if the initial payment is higher or the rates are higher. In the end, it is the same thing. Even for companies. I usually lease for the company and privately because I have the same advantages. I cannot deduct private lease cost but it would be the same as buying the car, especially considering the fact that the rebate is the same (sometimes even better) when I lease (vs. cash).
- My lease contract indicates that I am allowed to do 30000 km during the lease period (if I do more, I pay a certain amount per km on top of it at the end of the lease but this never happens...fun car and all and even if it would, the cost is not really high).
- I make fixed monthly payments for 36 months. After 36 months, I drive the car to the dealer, leave him the key and walk away.
I get the feeling that you are referring to residual value leases (which I would NEVER EVER do). I do "fixed mileage" leases only, where the residual value is only calculated to establish the initial payment and lease rates. You should see my wife's X3 35d lease conditions, almost a gift from BMW.
Unlike people who buy the car, I know my cost of ownership with 100% certainty in advance. No surprises here. For my previous cars (and the 991 Turbo S) the lease conditions were pretty good. Yes there are bad lease conditions too, like the ones for the new Macan for example. The car is just too new and demand is too high. This is also the reason I took a Boxster S instead. The Macan was just too expensive to lease. In two years, when my wife's X3 35d lease runs out, she will take a Macan at much better (hopefully) lease conditions.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Turbo S, Porsche Boxster S (981), BMW X3 35d (2013)