I'm looking at getting a new 2005 F-150 FX4 perhaps because it's the cheapest truck with the flowthrough console and I was wondering if it's a good idea to lease in this day in age. Is it easier to do this and is it worth it to buy after the lease is up or what? Are there any sites that deal with this?

 

http://www.leaseguide.com/lease03.htm

and

http://www.cars.com/carsapp/national...easeindex.tmpl

 

the lease vs buy depends largely on how you drive.

For me, because I put on so much mileage, it's worth my while to buy and drive it into the ground.

If you drive less and prefer a newer vehicle then go ahead and lease.

 

Leasing is okay for some people, but its something I would never do again. The one thing you have to watch is when the lease runs out, you can be hit with a large amount of fines if you're not careful. Another thing is if you decide you want to end the lease early and go buy something instead of lease again, you will have alot of problems.

I had my previous 2000 F150 for 3 years of a 4 year lease, and in 2002 I went to trade it in and purchase a truck. Even though I had the $2000 for a down payment and a $2500 cash rebate, which was what I owed in payments for the lease truck, the lease company would not let me pay off that lease early and told me I had to wait the full term of the contract to turn it in. So I eventually had to keep both trucks and make payments on both for almost another year. Once I got down to 3 months on the contract, then they let me pay off the rest. I was paying over $900 a month in 2 trucks in which one we rarely drove. I tried to sell it but wasn't able too as they wanted too much for the truck.

My opinion is to not lease, but like J-150 said, it you drive less and prefer a newer vehicle and plan on continue leasing, then go for it, but if you want to lease only this one vehicle and then purchase, you will pretty much be stuck with it until the contract is up. At least I was.

 

Sorry to hear about the problems you had Paul, that sucks. I guess it really depends on the lease company you go with because I bought out my truck a year early and had no problem at all.

I was leasing through Wells Fargo but, get this, when we moved to Juneau last year Wells Fargo was accessed a personal property tax on the truck by the city and somewhere in the teeny tiny print in the lease contract it says that Wells Fargo can pass that cost on to us! It mad me angry so I asked Wells Fargo what it would take to get out of the lease. They quoted me a buy out price, I called the bank and requested a loan for that amount, they Fed-Exed me the paperwork, we signed it and Fed-Exed it back and bought the truck without ever leaving the house!!

I'd lease again but be really careful about the teeny tiny print next time!

 

When I bought mine, my payments were less for a 60 month finance than they would have been on Ford's Red carpet option. Then, by going with the RCO, I was only allowed 12,000 miles a year, and still owed a huge baloon payment after 48 months. If you're going to lease, go with an outside leasing company, not FoMoCo. They're a lot better about payments and such.

I was trading out of my trucks every two to three years, so I thought I'd give it a try on my last one. Got bent. I average 25k miles a year, and was WAY over my miles when the truck was repurchased under the lemon law. The only reason I'm not paying still on that truck was the lemon law buyback. I'll never lease another vehicle again.

No matter who you go with, a lease is still a losing proposition for the leasee (you.) It's how much you're willing to pay for the convenience that counts. All these leassing company ads you hear on the radio wouldn't be there if they were losing money.

 

Leasing is an excellent way to go if you can do two things :
1 : commit to the time you signed for and
2 : keep it under the mileage on the lease deal

I don't know why paulv107 went with a 4 year deal, that in itself was risky BUT i leased a model year 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport
in Sept '99 for three years with a 36k contract. When the lease was up i then bought it from them with only 21k knowing i was getting a great deal on a used vehicle that i knew the history of. Then because i owned the retail contract on it i got an excellent deal on my '04 F-150 because there was only 33k on the Jeep when i traded out. So it depends on your driving habits and such.
Good luck with your choice ( the f-150 is an excellent truck )

 

I used to think leasing was the stupidest thing, but it can work out. You really need to generate a spreadsheet with all the numbers comparing the two. Sometimes leases are subsidized more than buying, and vice versa. I leased a car last October for the first time. The sum of cash of my lease payment plus the buyout was about $3k less than if I would have bought it up front.

 

Leasing IMO SUCK!!!! Unless you don’t mind tossing money away year after year. It’s like renting except worst; you don’t own it and have no value for it. Here’s my reasons why it’s sucks. If anything goes wrong with the car and it’s not covered under warranty, guess who pays, you do. Why do you want to fix something you don’t own? If you were renting an apartment and the pipe breaks, is the landlord going to say tough you have to fix it? You lose out on a lot of money 1. You’re paying your monthly payment. 2. You paying taxes on it and don’t own it. 3. There’s a lot of small print, there was a $250 dollar “Turn in fee” on my friends lease. How can you explain that, he gives the car back and has to pay for it!!! You have to keep it under certain amount of miles. Forget adding Mods or anything else, it’s not your car. After paying your lease for 2, 3, 4 years and turn it in, you have nothing to show for putting all that money down on it. Dang after 3 years I owned my truck. Sure it’s not near worth what I paid for it, but at lease when I do want something I can sell it or trade it in and get a few thousand for it.

 

and what is your opinion on purchasing equipment that depreciates?


a lease is no different than buying... you only pay for that depreciation incurred under your possession.


leasing cars sucks... but so does buying. you **** a whole lot of money out the window and NEVER get it back. yes you may own it... but you are paying for something that loses value, in addition, vehicles older than 3 years/36000 miles cost more to maintain. Once you hit that mileage you need to start servicing the tranny, changing brakes, maybe tires... etc.

cars are a losing proposition PERIOD. Depending on your particular situation, leasing may actually cost less than buying.



this isn't an "IMO" based on "my friend this, my friend that"

My arguement is based on FACT. Do the math. Maybe leasing works for you. Maybe it doesn't. But do the math anyway to know for sure which option is better for you.

 

I think it all depends on how you normally buy and use cars. If your the type who wants a new vehicle and would normally trade it in every 2-3 years then leasing might be the best option. If you are the type who buys a vehicle and normally keeps it a long time then buying might be the best option, especially if you can pay the note off in less than 4 years. The maintenance will be more on an older car but you also don't have the payments to deal with. my trucks been paid off for just over 2 years and I can tell you it has cost less to maintain it than it would cost to make the payments on a new one.

 

As was stated it all depends on how long you are going to keep it. As was stated if you are changing vehicles every 2 – 3 years then you “usually” win by leasing (cost less). Try to trade a car in that is only 2 – 3 years old and see how much you really lose because you “usually” do. On the other hand if you tend to keep vehicles for 4 years or longer then buying “usually” works out better, especially if you keep the vehicle for 5 – 10 years.

Here is something that may be easier to understand. Look at the same two vehicles, same price and you intend on trading them in for another vehicle in 3 years. Your lease payment is always lower on the same vehicle, and usually you lease for 2 – 3 years, anything longer then 3 years for a lease is not a good idea.

So now you have lower payments for 3 years then if you had bought it. When you go to trade it in you will not be upside down, owe big money. If you had purchased the same vehicle and then went to trade it in after 3 years, not only will you have made higher monthly payments you will usually always owe a good chunk of money on it and have to roll that over into the next vehicle…

 

another factor is financing rates.


here's and example:

you buy a truck and finance 100% over 60 months.


you lease a truck and pay for 50% of the truck over 3 years and then buy it out paying off the remaining 50% over 2 years.

so in both cases you pay for 100% of the vehicle over 60 months.


in the purchase option, you may get 1.9% financing for 60 months.

In the lease option you may get 1.9% leasing for 36 months but then 10% when financing the remaining 24 months.

In this case you will pay more on the lease.

 

I have done the Math. After 4 years I’m done paying for it, so after interest I’ve paid $20,000. A year’s worth of service on average is about $200 bucks. I have 90,000 miles on my truck and it’s been in the shop once for a sensor. Other than that, routine stuff like oil changes and tires. So I’ve had my truck for 5 years now, add all that up and I’ve paid $21,000. I’ll go sell it right now for $10,000. I have no truck and I’m out $11,000. Get a $300 dollar lease for 5 years and you will have paid $18,000 and have no truck.

 

apparently you DID NOT do the math.

a truck purchased for 20.0M over 48 is not the same truck leased for 18.0M over 60.

secondly, if you lease over 60 months you are a fool. if you need to you are obviously in a vehicle you can't afford.



my point was this "leasing does not suck" if your particular situation shows it to have a financial benefit over purchase.



just keep your mind open.

it sounds like you BOUGHT a FORD... which means leasing sucks and Dodges/Nissans suck.

either that or you got taken by a dealer.

people that lose on leases are dumbasses that generally get taken by people all the time.