When it’s time to upgrade your old car your first thought is likely whether you should buy a new or used one. The second thing you should ask yourself is if you should even buy at all or if you should lease a car instead. People often overlook leasing since it seems like buying is always the best option.
Although buying is the best option for some, that doesn’t mean it’s the best option for everybody. There are a lot of advantages to leasing that many people don’t realize. For some people with the right circumstances, it makes total sense to lease and little sense to buy. In this article, we will go over what you need to consider to understand if leasing or buying a car is your best option.
Lease Advantages
These days, you can walk into a Heber Heber Utah car dealer or whichever one you choose and be able to lease a car. Just about every dealer leases cars now so you don’t have to go to a special dealer to be able to find a car to lease. And they have just about every make and model available as well.
Besides availability, one of the biggest advantages of leasing a car is the fact that you will be able to drive a new car every two or three years for as long as you want to continue to lease.
If you are unsure how much you are going to like a certain make or model, you will only have it for a few years. If you love it then you can actually buy the one you were driving from the dealer, or lease the latest model when your contract is up. Unless you like the idea of trying a different type of car every few years. Then you can have fun driving a variety of cars for every contract.
Since you are always driving a new car, you never have to worry about paying for repairs. Your warranty will always cover repairs since they are going to be a manufacturer’s failure and covered since the car is new. In fact, some dealers even include routine maintenance like oil changes and tire rotations as well.
Lease Disadvantages
There are going to be some factors that are not going to work for many people when it comes to leasing. For instance, one hidden thing that not many people realize when leasing is that you are allotted only so many miles to drive. If you go over your limit then you are required to pay for every mile you go over. How much depends on your contract so read the fine print carefully.
Something to also realize is that the car is not yours while leasing. If you want to do any modifications then this is not allowed. You have to return the car exactly how it was when it left the lot or you will pay a penalty.
In fact, if you scratch it badly, or it gets damaged from hail or something similar then you will often have to pay for the damage when you return the car.
Infographic created by O’brien Toyota
Buying Advantages
The biggest advantage to buying a new car is that you have far more control over it. You can drive as much as you want and never have to worry about hitting a mileage limit. You can also do whatever modifications that you like whenever you like.
Perhaps the thing that sells people on buying rather than leasing is the prospect of not having a car loan to pay once you finish paying off the car. If you take good care of it, it can last many years past the final month of the loan and be very economical.
Buying Disadvantages
The biggest problem with buying a car is that at some point there are going to be repairs needed. This can end up being quite costly. Not only will you be paying when something breaks, but you have to do routine maintenance that costs a lot over time. Changing a timing belt for instance is your responsibility.
Your car will get old if you don’t sell it first. This means that by the time the car loan is finished, you are driving a car that is a bit worn down. Not only does it not have that new car smell anymore, but you are also looking at worn-out upholstery, stains, and even broken bits and bobs.
Have you leased a vehicle before? What was your experience in doing so? My husband and I are thinking of leasing so let us know in the comments below.
