batman5273

ok, now i got something going on here. let me address thing one at a time.

let me teach you all something. personally i dont care what you guys think, but most of you are wrong. you dont work in the industry. I know what i am talking about.

lets talk mileage first. if you drive 20-30k miles a year, you definately lease. there are 10-12-15-18 and 20k miles a year leases.
what you do is take a 20k a year lease and then pre pay miles. when you prepay miles its only 10 cent before the lease. but it could be either 15 or 20 after the lease. thats how you save money is prepay the miles. so for 10,000 it $1000. so take a 24 or 27 month lease. on a good lease it will be a difference of 100 bucks better to lease. so you have a 100 bucks to play with, add in prepaid miles. 20,000 miles = $2000. divide the 2000 by how many months. 24= $83.33 27=$74.07 so you are still under the $100 bucks to play with. so you take a normal lease, paying the "Firsts" meaning your first payment, taxes on rebates, security deposit if required. all of that lets say is $1000 bucks. you either put the $1000 down and add the extra miles to your payment, or put 3000 down, and have the norman lease payment. either way its cheaper when you do the mathmatics. and if you buy a brand new vehicle, and you put that many miles on, you are going to loose your ass by how much your vehicle isnt worth anything. no one wants to buy a 60k vehicle. banks do not even do loans on vehicles with more thatn 72 k miles on them. and the banks control everything. so dealerships do not want your 60 plus k vehicle. so in the long term you loose your shirt if you buy one. buy you can save face if you lease one. with that many miles on it. and you will never deal with negative equity. so even if the lease payment and the buy payment is the exact same with the exact same money down. you will not have negative equity. Remember folks Negative Equity is the enemy. and dont blame dealerships for that, mostly blame yourself and banks. most people do not want to put money down. not even the taxes. im not saying put 5000 down, but pay the taxes, tag and title. you are going to pay interest on those things that has nothing to do with the value of the vehicle. so you go in dont put anything down, and in two years you want to trade in. you are not only paying for the depreciation, but you are paying for the taxes, plus the interest that the vehicle and the taxes accumulated.

batman5273

yes you can get out of your vehicle at anytime if you traditionally finance. buy you said it yourself: "It wouldn't be the most financially responsible (the 2 week trade-in haha)" even the two year you would have paid more a month to get out of your vehicle, if the lease difference was 100 bucks a month then you spent $2400-$2700 more dollars for such a freedom. I would rather keep my car and then take that money and spend it on a vactiaon with my family to disney world. or put that money into a college fuind for my daughters, or into my money market account and make money for my retirement. cars are the worst thing to invest your money in. hands down. would you take a 5 year loan to pay for a computer? or a TV, or a stereo? no you wouldnt. Car are appliances. just like a toaster, tv, blender, or vaccuum. they are throw away machines. and its sad to say that. but its true. we live in a throw away society. tv breaks, you buy a new one, because the cost to bring in a repairman with parts and laboir, you could just buy yourself a new one. cars arent that far from being the same. and when i say cars, i mean ALL CARS (AMERICAN AND FOREIGN)

when i say the HHR is a bad lease, is because it is. I work with these numbers all the time. this is what i do for a living. you want a good lease to be 100 or better when you compare it to the buying price with the same money down. when i was going to lease the HHR, it was a difference of 2 dollars. let me repeat, 2 DOLLARS. so yes the HHR lease is bad. and let me give you more insight, its not the dealers gouging you. its the companies that deal with the manufacturers. companies will put a "guarantee" on a vehicle's worth in the future. GM and all manufacturers deal with such companies. because the HHR is new, no company can predict its value in 2-4 years. CAN YOU?? at the same time, if you are in good business, you do not discount something that sells alot. Ever hear of a huge discount on a Corvette? let me just rattle off a few vehicles that have no discount: 2005 mustang, the pontiac solstice, the saturn sky, the HHR and so forth. WHY?? because they are new. you dont see microsoft discounting the XBOX 360. maybe in 3 years they will, because it wont be new anymore.

batman5273

well snoopy, i dont want to challenge your knowledge, but and its a big but, every financial guy I have ever talked to said not to buy a vehicle. unless it was 0% or better, you could pay for the whole thing up front. if you are super rich, paying for a whole car upfront is like us buying groceries.

but if you saved a long time, and you could pay for a whole car, then it goes back to all my previous statements. lease the car. you will make more on your money, making small payments, investing your money, and then getting a new vehicle when the lease runs out. would you rather make 4% or loose 4%?

batman5273

first off $690, let me say one thing about that...ITS A MERCEDES!! mercedes are not cheap.

and lets talk about the prices people see in the paper and on tv. they are HOOKS to get suckers in the door. i can lease you a corvette for 200 a month, but it requires alot of money down. and you have to look at a mercedes for a second. who drives them?? rich people. rich people can put 6000 down. but mercedes wanted to hook a middleclass person.

normal leases require certain things down. for GM its First payment, security deposit, title and taxes on rebates. the monthly tax will be in your payment. but in the case of mercedes they are asking you to pay for all the tax upfront. i doubt it required to drive away. but you want a 349 payment thats what it takes. think about this, if you could drive a mercedes for 349 a month, with no money down...dont you think everyone in america would be driving a mercedes?? or a porshe?? or a BMW?? those cars are not cheap. they cater to rich people. and unless you are rich, you arent driving one. it conflicts with their image. i remember a spokes person for bently got in trouble because he said he hated the image of rappers driving their vehicles.

and then lets look at one last thing 690 a month to lease... what was the buy payment? 800? thats what i would think. becasue a 800 payment is for a $40,000 vehicle. and the last time i looked mercedes were around that price.

listen folks, im not here to change you mind. I am just putting out information that dealers and salesmen dont tell the public. if leasing was bad, why would i have two leases? if it was bad why would all my managers and finace people lease their vehicles? Leasing is a privedge for people with good credit. thats why the credit standards are higher. and if you are the lucky ones with below average credit that gets approved on a lease. take it and run with it, because on a buy you are going to have such a high interest rate, you are going to be burried in that vehicle for the term of the loan. at least you can drive new vehicles while you are re-establishing your credit.

but you have to take care of your vehicle. thats not a bad thing. would you want to drive in a vehicle that looks like crap?

the main mistake on leases is that people are not honest with themselves. they know they drive way too much. but take a lower mileage lease because of the cheaper payment. and then they get burned. but if they would have just paid the extra 10-20 bucks a month, they would be happy.

another mistake is they go to outside lending institutions for their lease. you only lease with the manufactures banks. examples: GMAC, Ford Motor Credit, Honda Credit, Chrysler Financial...etc. If your credit sucks and you cannot get approved by those banks, do not lease! you will pay so many fees, especially at turn in. and if your credit sucks dont buy a new vehicle. buy a used one. right now i sell alot of 2005-2006 used chevy's. they are cheaper by 5000 bucks and they are gm certified, and we are talking 10k miles on them.

here is a statistic for you. in the state of michigan, 90% of new car sale are leases. thats right 90% why do you ask?? whats in michigan? the automotive headquarters of GM, & Ford. they dont call detroit motown for nothing. people who work with cars know the deal. the more turn around on vehicles, the more our economy is secure. believe it or not buying car and keeping it more than 3 years hurts our economy. alot of american jobs rely on the purchase of just one american car. in detroit, they know this. everyone leases cars in michigan. because you pay less, and you always get a new vehicle. do you know how many people i switched from buying to leaseing. its not because i showed them a magic trick, or hustled them. its because i showed them the math. math does not lie. you can pay $300 bucks and buy a cobalt, or pay 300 bucks and lease a trailblazer. me im going to drive a trailblazer.

BryceStrong

The most common upfront cost on a lease is the first payment. In most instances, that is hundreds, if not thousands less than a down payment.

The benefit of leases is that you have no negative equity at the time of trade-in. It takes (about)the first two years to pay off the interest on a loan. After that you begin to pay on principle. Unless you had thousands to put down originally, you will still have negative equity. That means that every time you trade-in a financed car, you're adding negative equity to the payments. Ultimately, you're going to pay for that negative equity, either up front or when you turn it in. If you plan on keeping it only three years, might as well save the money (both in monthly payments and before and after the term) and LEASE!

Skatetheglobe

I guess leasing is fine for the people that drive around in a stock vehicle but who wants to be one of those people? Good luck with your new same as everybody else car..

BryceStrong

They do have buyouts. The worst case scenario is that you'll lose the money you invested in your aftermarket mods upon return. Or, you can opt to sell it to another buyer, pay out the lease, and bank the difference. If that's what you'd plan on doing anyway with a financed/bought vehicle, it's all the same. Or, if you plan on trading it in (lease, finance, or own) chances are you aren't going to see money coming back for subs, rims, custom paint, engine mods, etc. I didn't, that's why I stripped my Grand Am before I traded.

batman5273

where in the world do you get your information. YOU ARE HUGELY WRONG!! I am going to just pick apart your statement.

1) i didnt over pay for my HHR. once again, i got employee pricing, i got 3.9% interest, i put $1000 down, and My wife and I have excellent credit! my payment was mathematically correct!! math doesnt lie. I sell chevy and i work at a dealership. do you really think i would overpay?

2) are you crazy?? buy payments are not cheaper than lease payments.

3) 2000 down? know how much i technically put down toward my trailblazer?? 600 bucks. i put more money down on my HHR and that was a buy.

4) you have no trade...thats not a bad thing. 80% of people who trade their vehicles into me are dealing with negative equity. the other 20% are people with clean titles to their vehicles, or they bought the car the right way with proper money down, or they payed a little more each month so they set themselves up for success as opposed to failure. remember negative equity is the enemy here.

5) if all you live for is for bad life events, they you'll never live your life. but thats america. i can afford a $500 a month payment if i wanted to. im paying 288. i take all that money and invest it. im not living above my means. i have money in the bank. im not trying to brag, but my wife and i have taken care of ourselves.

6) yes people look at their "monthly payment" because thats the most important thing. you you bought a 200,000 house and the monthly payment was 300 bucks, would you take it?? people dont keep their cars. so people care less how much the future will hold them. its now. what can i afford now? because you are right. life does happen. but it doesnt always go bad. a child is not a bad thing. i have two of them, but what if you make more money? what if you have to move? what if you get married and their is another income? what if you win the lottery? not everything bad happens in life. but do you want to talk about something bad?? what if you are in an accident?? all this money you spend to buy a car is gone!! yes insurance gives you a check, but its on a depreciated value of the car. and if you didnt pay for gap protection in your loan. you will still owe money on a car thats totaled. and you can get another loan until its paid off, or you have to roll that money into your new loan. thus starting your chain of negative equity.

i dont think some of you read my inital thread. i wasnt trying to tell you to trade your HHR, or lease your HHR. i was just putting out information, the 100% correct information. it was hard to trade in my HHR, i really didnt want to. but in the long run, its a no brainer. now my situation doesnt work for everyone, thats why i stated that i get the employee price. but alot of you out there do too. I get the employee price on all my vehicles, GM and Ford. my family works for them. I am not bashing the HHR, I love the vehicle. and honestly, im only one of a couple sales men that do. i have one saleman driving an avalanche for 375 a month. i've had customers drive and HHR for the same price. The HHR is not a bad vehicle. It just sucks at leasing. period. and leasing is the best way to purchase a vehicle. you man not believe me, and thats cool. but i know the game. and i try to teach the rules of the game to everyone. chess and texas hold em take a short time to learn, but it takes a long time to master. buying cars is the same. especially when you take poor advice from people who arent even in the business.

i wish people would over analyze all their purchases like the way they do for cars. no dont get me wrong, there are ALOT of horrible car dealerships that will slit the throat of an old woman to make a huge profit on her. I am not like that. im not even selling you a car. so i have nothing to gain here. I am trying to educate. but do you know the exact markup for a cell phone? or a gallon of milk? or a can of paint? or carpeting? people buy groceries more than cars but do you know how many dont cut coupons? or use savers cards?

i cut coupons, and i know how to buy a car!

batman5273

Stock vehicle?? My trailblazer is 4WD, Sunroof, Onstar, 6 Disc Changer, side curtain airbags, bose sound system, 8 way power seat.

that doesnt sound like stock to me.

batman5273

thank you bryce!! finally another guy who knows the game!!