lease or buy?
 

When is better to lease than buy? Would it be cheaper to lease and then buyout with the current $3500 rebate?

Some members here have claimed to get the lease, then refinanced it into a loan afterwards.

There was no lease incentive when I bought mine, so I just have a loan.

Lease is basically a loan but the car is not yours. Lease makes sense only when one does not have a down payment and can meet the strick mileage requirement, usually 12,000 a year. It also makes sense for a person who turns in a car every 2 or 4 years as long as they don't buy it. Othewise a lease is not good. Too many opportunities for a lease manager to move numbers all over the form to the point you can hardly follow what they did. The other negative thing about a lease car is you must keep the car is tip top shape for someone else. You are making monthly payments and you are the one who must keep the car looking great always. When you turn it in you can' t have door dings and you must put on new tires. New tire depth is allowable at 11/32 inch. You don't do this and the dealer gets to take more money out of you for the repairs and new tires. By the way they are not under obligation to fix and put on new tires either but they mostly just pocked the money. A lease relieve one of the headache of dealing with trade-in value and such. One needs to do some internet research to answer the question of "to lease or not to lease"

Thanks for the detailed reply. I do drive less than 12k a year but i can't prevent the car dings. Can i lease first then decide to finance it? Will i lose out on the deal if I do that? Right now, a dealer is talking to me about it ($3500 rebate) but I don't know if he's trying to scam me or not.

Go to http://www.carbuyingtips.com/car2.htm to give you some help and guidelines. Go to Edmonds.com to find out what the car is selling for, That 3,500 rebate is only a 1/2 truth. Mazda offers $2,500 and he is taking an extra $1,000 off the car. Check the VIN codes to see how old the car is as it might need the M flash computer codes and other recall notices. There is a VIN check thread on here. Go to search and they will tell you what VINs you need to be concerned about. You might get a better deal for an 04 that will beat the lease. Not sure. Hope this helps you.

Some business professions like real estate will favor leasing since u can right more off than financing it.