It’s a question that pops up a lot and that is car buying or leasing? But in a nutshell, the car dealership just wants your money either way. But what is honestly better?
The answer for car buying or leasing
It depends because each decision you have has there pros and cons. It honestly comes down to your driving plan. Leasing a car is good if you drive a few thousand miles a year leasing might be the better option.
When you drive like 200 miles a day you might want to see what’s on the new or used car market in your area. If you want no down payment you might want to look at the lease options or what else the car dealership has to offer you might hit a deal you like.
In a lease, you never own the car – so if you like that idea leasing may be for you but you usually only lease for about two to three years and then lease another new car. Or the owners of the car will see if you want to buy the car at a discounted price.
Leasing a car means you have to follow rules and the owner of the car makes them. You can lease a car with 12,000 to 15,000 miles a year that mean that’s how many miles you can put on the vehicle.
If you go over the cap there is a charge usually 25 cents a mile so you have to be aware of that. So if you don’t like the rules of driving a lease you might want to look at buying a new or used car near you.
With a lease, you have no trade-in value so they just take the car back and try and put you in a new car lease. You’re not going to see the value of the vehicle unless you buy it. Actually, if you try and turn your lease in early you will have to pay a fee.
If you want to buy a used car
Buying a used car or new car outright was the only way to go for a long time but the issue that always came up was where do I get the money to buy the car? You need some sort of auto financing for a car now either a manufactures loan or a bank loan.
Most car dealers will allow you to have a 36 or a 72-month auto loan. What you will want to do is keep a close eye on the interest rate because that’s where dealers get you the most.
It can be hard to find low down payments on used cars or new aren’t always best so you will want to talk with the car dealership before getting into an auto loan.
Really buy or leasing a car comes down to the plan you have for it. If you have good credit and don’t want to own the car and drive a low number of miles a lease may be great for you.
But if you drive a lot and plan on keeping the car for a long time buying the car would be your best bet and at the end of the day, you will own it so you can do what you want with the vehicle.
Additionally, we encourage you to run the numbers on both new and used cars and then do the research so you have the confidence to negotiate for a vehicle at your local car lot.