For those of you who have leased an '04 or '05 F150.

I was wondering, when you do a lease, can you expect the same kind of pricing as purchasing one. In my area $500 over invoice is easily attainable, lower if you get into full haggle mode. Is leasing about the same over invoice. How easy is it to haggle the money factor and the residual?



I plan on going to my local dealer on Friday but wanted to hear your input first.





BB

 

My input is do not lease.

You asked.

 

You still agree on a purchase price before you lease, but im fairly certain you cant haggle on the residual value of the vehicle, especially if ford is doing the lease.
Later Trev

 

Yeah. Because owning such a rapidly depreciating asset is such a fiscally wise choice.

You cannot negotiate the LMF or residual value (calculated as a percentage of the adjusted cap cost) if leasing through FMCC.

 

You are paying for depreciation whether you lease or buy. There is no way around that.

 

The way I understand it is, you are suppose to haggle on the price like your going to buy it, get them down as far as they will go. Then you ask them how much it would be to lease. The lease should be based off the the haggled price.

I not a huge fan of leasing either. Let face it , buying or leasing a vehicle is a poor investment. People lease here where I work, and to hear them worry about how many mile they drive, or that small rock chip they got. Worrying about if they put a bedliner in or anything after market,,,will the lease company care. Anyway, my only advice "other than not leasing" is do NOT lease for anything longer then 3 years. 2 years would be preferred, I seen people lease for 5 years,,, yes 5 YEARS!!! At the end of the lease he is still going to owe $12000.00+ on the vehicle. For less then $100.00 more a month he could have owned it.

Good Luck on what ever choice you make,
Jeffery

 

I agree with that. Regardless of whether you lease or buy, you pay to drive. If you lease and go over the mielage you have to pay extra. If you buy and drive more than the avg 12K-15K per year, you vehicle is worth less (depreciates faster) meaning you pay more.

By leasing, you only pay for what you use. When your done you simply give it back.

I get to drive a vehicle for the best 24k-30K it will ever see. I get a new on every 2 to 3 years. It's always under warranty. I don't have to screw around with brakes, tires or worse, breakdowns (again, warranty). After 2 or 3 years I don't even have to worry about or deal with the hassle of selling it. I just drive into the dealer and pick up the new one.

I'm sure we could debate this one until the end of time and while there are a few (very few) circumstances where I think purchasing is a better choice to leasing, by and large the lease is a better deal for the average driver.

One last thought. Take a look at any large company and their depreciating assets, fleets cars, computers, etc. Most of these companies lease these assets. Why? Because from a financial standpoint, it is the more "profitable" thing to do. They want to keep those depreciating assets off their books and only pay for what they use. This theory can be applied to your personal finances as well.

 

I just know that I fit into the "lease market" well. I drive low miles... less than 10,00 usually, I can get lower payments and use the equity from my truck now to get an investment going. etc...

Thanks for the input.

BB

 

Equity on a truck? Doesn't really happen when leasing. When you lease (or buy usually) a vehicle you are not investing, you are paying for the depreciation.

-Tim

 

I have always been dead against leasing vehicles because the mindset is that you are renting it and giving it back at the end. Once I got over that and crunched the numbers, I leased my first ever vehicle. I had the cash saved to outright buy the truck, and I fully intend to buy the truck at the end of the lease unless something happens to it or it turns out to be a pos. I negotiated the full purchase price as if I would pay in full that day, based on that price, I signed the prepaid lease which guarantees the value in 3yrs time to be around $26500cad (as an example, not sure off hand exactly what it was). The lease cost was $100. I took the remaining cash I had saved and am investing it. The way I see it, if my approx $14000 investment makes more than a $100 in 3 yrs, I am saving money on the purchase price of the truck. Ford placed a high resale value on this truck compared to previous models, so if after three years the resale of this truck on the market is less than what Ford expects it to be, than, I just may give it back. Buying it initially doesn't give me that option. Just my 2 cents though.

 

I totally agree with you....

Hopefully the dealer sees it that way.

BB

 

only leased a truck 1 time....it was a 97 dodge ram....i even haggled them into a great price on the truck before i leased it....i did mine for 4 years and at the end of the lease i was going to keep it but they still wanted like 12,000 dollars and the blue book was only like 9-10k.....i felt like i just through those payments i had made out the window...then if you dont keep it they will hit you for any normal wear and tear plus milage if you go over the max for your lease....In my opinion leasing is a rip off......like someone else already said for around 100 more a month you could own the truck at the end of the agreement....then whatever its still worth is yours......

 

Well there is one more adavantage to leasing a vehicle, and that is if you can use it as a tax write off like i do. My intentions with this truck was to lease it, and if i was still happy with it in 3 years i would buy it out. And seeing all the hassles i had with factory defective paint, and then hail damage to rub salt into the open wound, i am glad i did the lease option. In another year or 2 i will trade mine in on a new f150, and i will transfer all my stuff to it.
Hopefully i wont have any paint issues with the new one.
Just my 2 cents.
Trev

 

I leased my '99 Lariat and it worked out OK for me. I ordered the truck planning to buy it like I had with every other vehicle I've owned. I had negotiated invoice pricing before ordering.

When the truck came in I went to pick it up and mentioned that I was curious about the cost of leasing. He quoted me $404/month for 2 years with a 15K mile allowance per year. Only money down was the first months payment, which seemed fair. The truck invoiced at about $25K.

I decided to go with the lease but ended up going over on miles by about 6000. This would have cost me $900 at the end of the lease. My salesman suggested selling it outright if I could to avoid the loss. I didn't want to buy it because of piston slap issues with the 5.4L which this one had a bad case of. I ended up selling it to Carmax and actually making a few hundred dollars. Better than a loss, eh? The residual price about $15K after two years.

Your results may vary! The "lease factor" is the key. It is akin to the % rate on a loan. Since then I've bought an '01 and an '04 Lariat and neither lease qoute was nearly as attractive.

I just picked up a 2005 Mustang GT and no way was I gonna lease. I'm keeping this thing!

 

Whichever way you go, do some reading on the pro's and con's of each.

Here is a decent non-biased article:

http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/apr1999/burgess.htm