Overhaulin'

Lease vs buy a car, in cash or by credit?

What is my best option? I got $20,000 from a settlement and I am ready to buy a brand new car (a hybrid one). what if I lease the car? or what if I give a small down payment and pay montlhy or just go ahead and buy the car in cash up front? What would you do in my case? please. Thank you great to see all these wise advices thanks to you all.

Public Comments

1. 1. lease is worse business move you can ever do. talk to any financial officer and they will agree. 2. paying a loan, of any amount, of any time costs money due to the interest rate. 3. if you have the cash, buying out right is best and the cheapest move. Saves the most money over the long run. And that car payment is now extra money each money.
2. A lease is only a good deal in very limited circumstances. So I would recommend against a lease. As far as making payments vs. paying cash, if you can put your money into savings where the interest is equal or better than the loan rate, and you can keep from spending that money, you will be financially be better off making the loan. Usually, if the interest rates are close, it is still better to finance the vehicle. But there is a lot to be said for owning your car outright. There is a psychological barrier from trading when you do not have a payment. You just do not want the payment. So that helps you from doing something dumb like trading :-). I know because I am guilty of that - LOL.
3. All i can tell you that I learn my lesson and if i had a $20000 cash i won't buy a car with lease or loan because after 6 month to a year you will feel upside down because they are a lot of new things may come up and you can't buy it because you have to pay for your car and what ever you put on monthly payment on your car it won't be enough because you have a contract that you sign and committed to pay off. so what i mean in this situation. i will use the money that you got and find a better useful and reliable car that will last me longer and save more money over the years for something else like buying a house or investing a big market. that i will do after i buy the car. no more reason is that i don't have to deal with monthly payment of treats if i don't pay off the car. learn from this lesson. i got my self in very bad financial problem and i can't seem to get off it until i pay off my car or if i gave up then i will lost everything even the two and half year that i been paying for the car. so you got cash. go and find the car of your dream for $20000 and save your self a headache from paper work or lease and remember this when you go to the car dealer with $20k you can choose any car that you like because the dealer won't let you get out with that money or without a car. so like i said it better that you pay cash and that's what i'm going to do when i buy my second car. i will pay cash because i learn my lesson and i don't want to demage my credit or any of my relative credit. so does you. good luck.
4. Leasing a vehicle just like everyone has said before me,is a real bad thing to go into. unless u are a person that has the money and REALLY takes care of your car and does not put a lot of miles on your vehicle and you like to be in a new car all the time the i`d say leasing is for you. If u are in a car accident and the car is totaled, then you do not receive any money for the vehicle. and there are some people that i knew of, still had to pay for the vehicle even after it was totaled. if your insurance company decides to pay for the vehicle they might only pay for half or just what the car is worth in their kelly blue book. meaning that once again what ever is left on the car u have to pay. yes you can sometimes put down a smaller "down payment" on the Vehicle if u lease and your monthly payments will sometimes be less also. for example a couple of months ago i went to look at the 2008 Nissan Altima. when the sales rep and i went over monthly payments on the Altima if i went to get one, he showed me a chart of how much i would be paying for example if i put down $3,500 with good credit i would be paying $429 a month. now if i went to lease the car, i could but down $1,700 and my monthly payments would be $280 a month. But if i were you find a nice car that has good relibiable ratings and get it pre-owned and pay cash for it. Or if u want to establish your credit weather good or bad, then i`d just would put down $2500 or $3500 on the vehicle and make monthly payments on it ON TIME! in fact you can have what ever bank that is financing you, do a direct deposit, each month and that way your payment is on time, and if they get funny with u and say that they have not received some of your payments on time, you can have proof. Plus if all of your payments are on time, then your credit score goes up, and when u go to get your next vehicle, the sale rep will not hesitate to approve u for you next car. good luck to you.
5. Never lease, if you are an individual, if you have a small business, then you may lease for tax purposes. Hybrids are only good if you drive a lot in the city, if you drive in highway their mileage it is not so good. I would buy a Corolla or Focus, you can get them cheap or an used car about 10k (look in www.autotrader.com) and save the rest of the money in cd with high interest. Pay cash and get cheap insurance.
6. LEASE YOU WILL GET HAMMERED AT THE END. HYBRID YOU WILL BE SORRY IN THE LONG RUN. IF YOU REPLACE THE BATTERIES AFTER THE WARRANTY EXPIRES, IT WILL MOST LIKELY COST SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS. TOYOTA CLAIMS PRICES WILL DROP AS HYBRIDS BECOME MORE POPULAR; BATTERY PACKS CURRENTLY RUN AROUND $4900. HOWEVER THE PACK CONTAINS 38 MODULES THAT CAN BE REPLACED INDIVIDUALLY FOR $138.00 EACH. HONDA'S INSIGHT AND CIVIC HYBRIDS HAVE AN 8-YR./80,000-MI. WARRANTY ON MOST OF THE POWERTRAIN, INCLUDING BATTERIES, AND A THREE-YEAR/36,000-MILE WARRANTY ON THE REST OF THE CAR. THE PRIUS HAS AN 8-YR./100,000-MI. WARRANTY ON THE BATTERY AND HYBRID SYSTEMS, PLUS A THREE-YEAR/36,000-MILE WARRANTY ON EVERYTHING ELSE. THE ELECTRIC MOTORS AND BATTERIES DON'T REQUIRE MAINTENANCE OVER THE LIFE OF THE VEHICLE. ALSO YOU AS THE OWNER WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WORK ON IT YOURSELF, NOTHING AT ALL. YOU WILL BE MARRIED TO THE DEALER FOR LIFE AND THE SAD THING IS THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF DEALERSHIPS THAT STILL DO NOT KNOW HOW TO FIX THESE VEHICLES. LASTLY, THERE HAVE REPORTS OF TECHNICIAN'S THAT HAVE BEEN KILLED WHILE WORKING ON THESE VEHICLES DUE TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF VOLTAGE.
7. lease it because in 3 years you will want something else or you will get tired of the car.