I am at crossroads of about to either purchasing or lease a minivan. Can anyone help me figure out which I should go with? Which makes more sense financially??? TIA
2014 Toyato Sienna (pristine condition, 40k) $341 x 60 months - unlimited miles
2017 Chrysler Pacifica $277 x 36 months - 12k a year
Look at it this way, assumimg you can get the same lease deal (which is not at all a given) after 5 years leasing will cost you approx, 16,600 which is about 3800 less than buying.
But you'll be without a car, whereas if you purchased you can prob sell for 8-10k (in order to compare apples to apples we'll assume you put 12k/yr miles), which will bring your cost from 20,400 to approx 11,000. Add to that the diffrence in maintenance costs on a new car to a used car. On this case prob not so significant.
Bottom line is it'll prob cost about 1k more a year to lease.
Obviously, if you're willing to drive the sienna into the ground the savings by purchasing will be greater.