Am I crazy? Wait, don't answer that :) Thinking about Leasing...

[Gavin]

Ok...the quick and dirty...

Never have leased a car in my life.
My Prima might or might not be considered a "collectable"...but if you do think of it as collectable, leasing is insane.
My Prima will be A) Garage kept at home and work. B) driven less than 4k a year...maybe way less.

So there are three reasons not to lease. The fourth is that I am buying out of state and it might not be an option :) , in which case this thread is moot. But the finance guy is checking it out.

So why lease?

 Well the Prima was always a stop gap car for me. I love the style and size and fun of it, but I really really want the 500 electric that is coming end of 2012 (probably 2013 is more likely). So I lease the Prima for 3 years (would love 2 years, but there is no 2 year lease option it seems) and then grab the Electric when the lease is up. The upside is I don't have to try and sell my Prima or deal with all that trade in stuff when I want the electric...also the payments should be less I guess...not sure how much.

Not sure yet...heck I'm crazy to be buying the Prima at all...should just wait for the Electric (or get the LEAF that I have coming in April...but the LEAF, while a great car by all accounts, is just a bit boring and a bit "family"...I want small commuter...so I will, once I buy the 500, cancel my LEAF, sadly....I'm sure my LEAF will go to the next buyer quite quickly...if I was smart I would get my LEAF and sell it for a profit, but I am not that type of person--too lazy--hate dealing with other humans and such, nor do I have much free time at the moment).

Well tomorrow is the big day and I don't know if I will finance or lease...or bag it and get the LEAF or a Lounge or wait for the electric 500...gah...

Actually not going to bag it...but not sure why not...I don't need a car, haven't owned a car in years, haven't test driven a 500 and yet I will be giving Fiat 20 plus K tomorrow...now that is Crazy :)

Gavin

[FiatGal]

Hm... I'm very curious what others have to say. I haven't purchased a car in a very long time, and never a new car. Like you, I really have my eyes and my heart set on one of two models, and so far don't even know if and when Fiat plans to introduce it/them: either the TwinAir or the Diesel.

[5*(10)^2]

Gavin,

There's a way to avoid dealing with buyers that waste your time: consignment. Get an independent dealership that deals with classic, vintage, exotic and unique cars. They have a good customer base and have ways to sell an unique car like the Leaf.

[sjmst]

Someone cancelled their Prima claiming that they could not lease the car  

[Giallo Edizione]

The best reason to lease is that you know for a fact what your total cost of car ownership is going to be. The monthly payments are fixed and you do not have any risk at the end that you will be able to sell the car for what you need to sell it for to make ownership financially competetive to leasing. The caveat is you need to be prepared to own the car for the full leasing period or pay a significant premium to get out of it early. That could be a problem in an economic pinch.

A new model car with no test of its resale value in the market is made for leasing because you have no downside potential. If it turns out to be a dog, then the leasing company eats it. If it holds its value more than expected, well ok, maybe you left some money on the table. But better to have left money on the table than to lose big on the resale, in my book. Please don't sk me how I know this.....

My wife and I generally own my  daily driver ( because I am fickle) and lease hers. In all cases, but one, the trade-in value of her cars at the end of the lease was measurably lower, and in two cases far lower, than the assumed residual (end of lease buy-out option). So had we owned the cars and traded them in at the end, our cost of ownerhip would have been substantially higher than it was under the leases. They were vehicles that were "hot" when we bought them but no longer in vogue or market was saturated by lease end.

If you think you will be happy with the FIAT for 3 years, can get a lease and are economically comfortable that you would not have to bail out early, that might be a good choice for you. Important to understand leasing and how to transpose its economics to a loan-like deal so you can compare estimated overall cost to getting a bank loan instead ( or paying cash and assuming you loaned yourself the money). The two factors you need to know are the residual ( end of lease buy-out) and the effective interest rate that is built into the lease. The latter is easy to calculate, it's the interest rate applied that would reduce a loan principal equal to the purchase cost of the car, net of any upfront payment, down to a loan principal balance equal to the the stated lease residual value at end of the lease ( minus disposition costs).

[CaliberSRT4]

I think I found the perfect lease deal for you Gavin.

It is mentioned on this episode of autoline daily:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDA-tbEi3p8

The segment starts at around the 1 minute mark.

[jonsibal]

For those who opted to lease these cars,  what's the Money Factor and Residual value have you guys gotten?

Thanks in advance.

[Giallo Edizione]

jonsibal wrote

For those who opted to lease these cars,  what's the Money Factor and Residual value have you guys gotten?

Thanks in advance.

I asked my dealer about leasing and they said they are not leasing 500's yet. My guess is becuase there has not been a determination made on the residuals.