ozbot87

Well. as I continue to visit these forums, my confidence of owning an RX-8 increases with each pasing day and my worries about maintenance and care of the car decrease. The 8 is a car I really want to replace my '85 Camry, but I'm just concerned about paying for it. What should I do?

The internship that I'm applying for pays about $2200/month (after taxes) and about $1000 will be dedicated towards living (rent, groceries, bills, dates, etc.) That leaves about $1200 to use on car payments and other stuff.

The question I want to ask is, should I lease the 8 for about four years then buy it at a lower value? Or would it be smarter to just buy it?

BTW, the down payment I would like to put down is in the range of $2500-$4000.

pelucidor

When I checked a few weeks ago there was little difference between a 3 year lease and a 6 year loan in terms of monthly payments (around $600-$650 each with $0 down for a $33k car). If you can wait a month or two better lease numbers might become available. If I had $1200 a month left after regular expenses I doubt I would want to spend too much of it for car payments and the cost of running it (insurance, gas, etc).

Puppy1

You will want to dirve and drive in this car, thereby racking up too many miles. You'll go way over your lease limit.

Unless you always change cars every 2-3 years, buy it!

Red Devil

I'm not a big fan of leasing. But if it can help you lower the payments for the moment, and it gets you in the drivers seat - than maybe it's not such a bad idea. As far as the miles go, if you have no intent on turning the car in at the end of the lease, then it shouldn't matter how many miles you go over the limit.

Squidward

I leased my previous car, and I bought this one.

The difference in cost between leasing and purchasing is nominal. Something like $2000 added to the total payout when you lease and buy out the car (or refinance), versus buying out-right.

Leasing allows you to keep your down payment low and lower monthly bill, but you won't actually own the car until you pay it off completely, and that means having to finance it for another 4 years, unless you plunk down a huge portion of cash to buy out the car immediately. If not, you will be paying the monthly pmt for a long, long time (2 or 3 years of leasing PLUS 4 or 5 years of financing).

The most important factors you have to consider when choosing between leasing and purchasing a new year model are:

1. Is the car reliable for long term ownship? If not lease it, then you have no obligations, and have spent the good years or miles of the car, under factory warranty.

2. Do you think you'll easily fall for another new model or brand car in three years? Probably? Then lease it. If you find yourself climbing the financial latter rather steadily and quickly, then leasing might be the option for you, that way you can BUY your next car or lease a more luxurious model next time instead of being stuck with a car you no longer are crazy about.

3. Do you mind empting out a big portion of your cash savings up front for your down, versus putting only a little down and keeping the rest over time (in case something happens), then lease it. Being financially stable means peace of mind, which I think is WAY more important than any car...

ozbot87

OK, now another question. Let's say I lease it for about 3 years and then decide to keep it. Will the monthly payment be significantly lower? And if it is lower, by how much will it me lowered?

eccles

It should be lower, because you'll only need to finance the residual value of the car. It seems that most 36-month leases are offering residuals of around 56%, so at the end of your 3-year lease, if you wanted to keep the car, you'd have to pay 56% of the original capitalized cost of the car.

Whether it will be lower will of course depend on the prevailing interest rate three years from now, and how long you finance the buyout amount for.

Wasy

Leasing is only a good idea if the dealer is providing a special promotion where the residual value is such that the lease payments are low. This has happened to me once with a Mazda Miata. The dealership and Mazda, however, want to push those cars off the lot. There is no incentive right now to do that with the RX8. I doubt there will be for a while.

The DOWNSIDE to the lease is NOT ONLY do you not own it but YOU are responsible for any returned defects like dents, scratches, etc. A bad/dented wheel rim will come out of your pocket when you return it.

Be warned! If you OWN the car you can drive it any way you want so long as you keep making those payments. It is also nice to know that you can trade it in later for its ownership value when you decide it is time to upgrade.

My 10 cents worth.

Tigster

Here is my 2 cents worth:

I currently have a 2002 Miata we leased, I did so because the dealer was offering 2.9 apr on buying the car at the time and 0.9 apr if we leased it. At the end of my lease I will have 7800 bucks left I could pay off or just turn the car in.

As for scratches dents etc. Leases state that normal wear is expected, Mazda even sent us a vinyl sticker that you place over any scratch, dent, etc to show what is acceptable for turn in.

I would expect to see from my experience (we have leased 4 cars before) that on a base model with a 6 speed (cost about 28,000) your lease payment should be in the range of 400 dollars a month with 2,000 down. These rates should come down a bit in a year or so.

Before you do either you have to realize with what you are being paid (which is pretty decent for an internship) this cars payment with insurance etc is going to own you!!

But you only live once! It is your decision. :D :D

PS Dont pay more than sticker, even with a lease check the price they are using to determine the lease payment and that they are not tacking any money onto the sticker.

Wasy

This is a dealer to dealer thing.... I leased two Miatas and a Nissan Maxima in the past. As far as the Miata leases were concerned, the salemanager looked out of the window of his office at my car(s) and said "Looks good to me." That was all there was to those leases. The Nissan Maxima, however, had a paid leasing representative come to my home and took 1/2 hour to complete a lengthy inspection where he even knelt down next to the car looking for waves in the metal... ANYTHING to discount the returned lease value.

Know your dealer. The Mazda dealership and salemanager had sold me two earlier RX7's, leased me two Miatas and was working on the sale on a Milennia S. This was an inspired dealer. The Nissan leasing representative was acting like he earned a commission on anything he could find wrong that would then represent a chargeback to me. I will never lease again with Nissan.

On the other hand, a lease can work nicely in the right (promotional) situation, but there is no incentive NOW to lease an RX8 whatwith the full MSRP and unknown residual price. The financial accountants are not going to take any chances. If you want to lease, I would suggest that you wait until you see an advertisement offering something special on the RX8. My guess is that you will NEVER see this happen. If the car is half as sucessful as the RX7 was, this will be offered about as often as the Corvette goes on sale.... when is the last time you have seen that happen?

ozbot87

So would it be a good idea to lease it while I have the internship with the possiblity of a full-time job afterwards, or should I just wait until I have a full-time job with a full-time salary to own the car? (Insurance, monthly payments, etc.)

Tigster

My advice would be this, first seriously look at your expenses

rent, utilities, heatlh insurance, etc....

Then I would add a hundred or two for unexpected expenses. Now take the lease payment or buying payment and (which will vary depending on your credit) call your insurance agent and get a quote on full coverage on the 8 (this depends on you age where you live etc). Then figure how many miles to you typically would drive and see what most say their milage is (I have seen many threads) and remember maintence, oil changes, tires, etc...

Now you know roughly what you will have left over if YOU feel as though you can swing it go for it. If it feels a little tight then maybe wait for the job where you will be making a little more.

Leasing is fine if you stay within the miles if you go over it will get expensive quick, and I never lease a car for longer or more miles than the warranty (my advice)

If you plan on changing the stereo, body kits, turbo or anything like that say screw the warranty issue cause some will be voided anyway depending on what it is you do. And definetly buy the car, if you plan on changing it.

Goldenhue22

To be perfectly honest, you have no choice but to lease. If you only put 4K down on this vehicle you will pay $500/mo if your credit score is over 730! If you don't have superb credit you are looking at around 600-700/month. You could lease the car for about 410/mo...that is assumming that you have owned a car in the past. Lease it for now if you want it. In order to keep your mo payments even lower, lease for 4 years and not 3. But don't buy it at the end of the lease, it isn't worth it as this car will not hold it's value in 4 years like an M3 or BMW 7 series etc... Just go buy/lease a new one afterwards.

ozbot87

Hmmm...well, from browsing these forums, I think that TerenceT mentioned that the residual value on the 8 is 49%. Now if the 8 I am supposedly going to buy is $31,100, and go for a four-year lease, then my payments would be:

$31,100*.49=$15,239 (Cost of car I would be paying)

Then,

$15,239/48 months = $317.47 + Interest

Estimated monthly payment = $350 (approximately(

Is this a reasonable approximation or am I WAY off?

BTW, I have good credit (don't know exactly what my credit score is, but it is pretty high).

Again, the down payment will probably be around $2500 -$4000

eccles

The residual is how much the car is worth at the end of the lease, not your total payments.

Check out http://www.leaseguide.com/calc.htm and plug in your own numbers to get a better idea. You can play "what if" to see what effect various downpayments will have on your monthly bill.

carnut

If you can swing the payments, I feel you are always a little ahead (sometimes a lot ahead) to purchase rather than lease. Whichever you do, do your homework. If you lease, don't let them hide the money factor (interest rate) deep within the calculations. With interest rates still fairly low, they shouldn't be sticking it to you with the interest. Good luck!