There are many different ways how one can acquire a car these days. You can buy it outright by paying the complete purchasing price right away which is the easiest way to do it, but it’s not always the best course of action because cars tend to lose value which means that financially, this can be a huge drawback.
You can also opt for leasing or financing which does not mean that you will not always gain 100% ownership of the car, but it also means that you might be able to dodge depreciation a bit better. Agreements such as these can also include all sorts of benefits such as extended warranties, cheaper insurance, and so on.
In this article, we will focus mainly on car leasing and why you should or shouldn’t opt to lease your car. Car leasing usually means that you will have to pay a certain amount of money upfront and also follow that up with fixed monthly payments for a few years.
At the end of a lease, you will have to decide if you want to purchase the car or extend the lease. You can also opt to get out of it completely and consider other previously mentioned ways how you can get into a new car.
Car leasing – The essential rundown
A car lease is essentially a legally binding agreement between a lessee (yourself) and the lessor (a leasing company) in which you commit yourself to pay a certain amount of money upfront and per month to gain access to a car while the leasing company commits itself to borrow the car to you for the agreed-upon period.
Your monthly payments in a lease agreement are mostly calculated depending on how much money you pay upfront, the interests and the deprecation factor every car carries which also includes special fees associated with the agreement.
The agreement itself also includes the lengths of the lease, eventual payment termination fees which only become relevant if you want to terminate the lease early, possible mileage limitations, wear and tear, eventualities associated with missed payments, and everything else that comes with the agreement.
All-in-all, you need to be aware that you don’t own the vehicle because car leasing is somewhat of a glorified more thorough version of car renting. This means that at the end of every lease usually have a couple of different options depending on if you want to gain full ownership of the vehicle or not.
Benefits of car leasing any why one should opt to lease a car
As previously mentioned, the two most popular ways how one can gain access to a car is either to buy it or go through car leasing. Comparing car leasing to buying a car through a loan, it is sometimes better to opt for car leasing because it generally carries a lower monthly payment.
Furthermore, car leasing agreements also tend to carry a lower down payment upfront when compared to auto loans. Leasing enables you to gain access to a brand new automobile even if you are not able to buy it outright which means that with leasing you will be able to drive a new car every three years or so.
Car leasing also comes with all sorts of warranties which are usually better and way easier to enjoy when compared to buying a vehicle outright. When you reach the end of your agreement you will not have to worry about selling the vehicle because the car was never yours to begin with.
Drawbacks of car leasing any why one should avoid it
If you are someone who tends to keep a car for a long time, then it’s better to just buy the car because financially it makes more sense to do so. Leasing a brand new car means that you will have to carry the burden of brand-new car depreciation even though leasing does lower that a little bit.
Leasing comes with various fees and penalties which are non-existent if you just go ahead and buy the car outright. All of this means that leasing has the potential to cause many headaches because you are never too sure about what you can or can not do.
Car leasing has all sorts of limitations that make the ownership experience inferior in almost every regard. If you want to get out of a lease early, you will have to pay large termination fees. Furthermore, many leasing agreements will not let you drive the car out of state or even cross more than a designated few thousand miles per month.
All in all, you don’t own the vehicle because you are simply renting it, and that’s the main reason why people generally avoid leasing.
FAQ Section
How does credit score affect car leasing?
A credit score affects your leasing agreement substantially because it can limit your access to a certain type of car. Furthermore, if you have bad credit, your leasing deals are likely to be considerably worse when compared to someone who takes upon an identical agreement but has a superior credit score.
This means that leasing high-end brand-new cars is almost impossible if your credit score is not superior to most people out there.
What’s the difference between a private lease and a business lease?
In essence, these two agreements are the same, but they differ when it comes to monthly payments and the number of cars you want to lease. Business lease agreements are cheaper because you can claim certain tax benefits.
You can use business lease cars for personal use, but the specifics of each agreement are what separates them, and these differ substantially from one case to the other.
What’s the number one rule when it comes to car leasing?
The most important aspect when it comes to car leasing is determining the best monthly payment. You can do this simply by multiplying the MSRP of the car by 1%. For example, if the car in question costs $25k, you need to multiply 250 with 0.01 which means that the monthly payment is $250.
The 1 percent rule is gaining more and more traction lately, so be sure to consider it if you want the best deals possible.
