[A4] Prospective A4 Buyer

[Nicholas Stock]

Rocky, you're right, you lose a lot of money when you drive the car off the
lot. But is you lease, you've lost more. This is especially true if you
intend to keep a purchased car for say 100,000 miles (approx 7-8 years) as
it's still worth *something* at the end of it all. Nobody buys a car under
the assumption that their equity in it will increase (unless it's an
antique...). From the links you post with your messages (I approve!!), you
ought to appreciate that getting a new car every 2-3 years (when leasing or
purchasing), is not only unnecessary, it (in my opinion) puts a needless
strain on the environment and is more of a waste of money than purchasing
and using that car for as long as possible.

Anybody who thinks this is a little too 'liberal' thinking or just plain
nuts...see 'An Inconvenient Truth' - scary stuff indeed my friends..

On 7/6/06, Rocky Mullin <caliban at sharon.net> wrote:
>
> At 4:48 AM +0000 7/7/06, docwyte at comcast.net wrote:
> >
> >Rocky makes some good points about leasing.  It works for him, but I
> >think he's the exception to the rule.  When you're leasing a car,
> >you're just renting it.  In general, you're upside down in a lease
> >and at lease end, you turn it in and have no equity and lose your
> >down payment.
>
>        i believe that is a misinformed perspective.  you lose so
> much value when you drive a car for three years that leasing makes
> total sense - you're simply paying for the part of the car that you
> use.  you have no equity
> because you've not wasted your money on equity that is lost as you own the
> car - thousands of it when you simply drive off the lot.  the notion of
> equity in a vehicle borders on asinine, but the car makers want us to
> believe
> in it because they want to sell cars.  a $35k car that is only worth $10k
> in 6 years is a poor definition of equity.
>
>        i have a $40k car.  the day after i bought it it was worth $35k
> maybe.
> at the end of the lease it'll be worth $25k, maybe.  i will have paid
> under
> $12k, including my $3k down.  how is that upside down?   of course, it's
> important to understand leases and get a good deal on one, and don't get
> suckered into buying it out.
>
>        not only that, but i can choose to drop another $4k and drive it
> another year, while it depreciates another $2k to $4k.  i'm still not
> upside down.
>
>        i'm driving a forty thousand dollar car for twelve thousand
> dollars.
> and i get to get an awesome new car in two years and start over again.  no
> hassle selling it, never paying a cent for service or repairs, always a
> chance
> to drive the newest freshest thing.  last thing i want hanging onto my ass
> is a car that is worth less than i still owe on it in four or five years
> when there are cars on the road just as good (likely better) that get
> better
> MPG, run on diesel, is a hybrid.  i plan to laugh at all the suckers who
> owe $30k on their SUV when gas is $6/gallon and you can't give away those
> pieces of shit.  the auto industry is going to change along with the
> world.
>
> >Take me as a counter point, I drive at least 20k miles a year on my
> >daily driver.  That doesn't include the miles I put on my track car,
> >on our beater Jeep or on my wife's car.  I live 4.5 miles from work.
> >I don't really leave the state (colorado), yet I pack the mileage
> >on.  A lease just won't work for me, besides the fact that I can't
> >seem to keep my cars stock.
>
>        mileage is the one reason IMO to decide against a lease.  a mod
> freak like yourself can even deal with a lease, if they're willing to do
> nonpermanent mods and if they have a sympathetic dealer.  mine's merely
> chipped.  i mod my bikes.  i'd definitely like to be able to afford
> another
> URQ to play with,
>
> >My answer is to choose cars carefully and buy "deals".  I owned my
> >S4 avant for about 1.5 years.  I played with it, had fun and sold it
> >for a net ownership cost of less than $300 a month.  That's cheaper
> >than leasing and I could mod the car and drive it as much as I
> >wanted with no worries.  I'm about to pick up an UrS4 that I could
> >part out for more than I'm paying for it.
>
>        reminds me of the old maserati biturbo.  the five thousand dollar
> car with the ten thousand dollar engine :)
>
> >The key is to try to minimalize being upside down in the car, which
> >is difficult since they're a depreciating asset.  When you lease,
> >you're immediately upside down...
>
>        see, that's just not true for the shrewd leaser and the right car.
> mini coopers are a perfect example.  they retain their value, so you can
> negotiate a high residual, which lowers payments drastically.  every
> thousand
> bucks you put onto that residual value is a great drop in your monthly
> payment.   subaru for instance has terrible lease programs
>
> --
> Rocky Mullin
>
> http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.008.gif
> http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=britt_23_2
>
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