I'm 30 clean record 1600 for 2 new cars full coverage. 1 lease 1 own. As far as leasing or buying. It depends on the lease deal. There is no rule. But there are some. If you use more than 12-15k miles then leasing is not for you.if you use very little miles then buying is best because you can keep it for long after you finish your payments. If you don't maintain your cars well then don't buy. Assuming you will use 12k and maintain it, Generaly japanese cars hold their value best and of course cost more used. Typicaly if you finance a 3 year old toyota or honda with around 36k the payments will be about the same as a lease when you factor in all the upfront costs of a lease. Then assuming you put on 12k miles a year like a lease after 5 years you should have have a car to sell/trade thats 8 years old and has about 100k miles today such a camry or accord can still get you close to 5k a sienna or odysey can be 7k so its like a lease for 5 years with a 5-7k rebate at the end. Sounds good no? But you have to figure repair costs on the used car. That's just mazal over the 5 years you can rack up a few k (yes batteries and tires count too!) then you are talking about saving maybe 3k over a 5 year period which to some people isn't worth the hassle of hunting for a used car then dealing with repairs even if its not major money but its time and hassle and you have an oldish car after a few years. I would say most of the time dollar for dollar you will save a few thousand over the 5 year period with a used car so if dollars and cents is all that counts buy a quality japanese car. If you are willing to give up a few thousand at the end of 5 years for the convenience of a fresh car that's always under warranty and will not break down on you when you are in a rush to work and no hunting around shlepping to pr-check cars by mechanics then wait for a good deal on a lease and lease a car.
