Car Leasing Question

[\/\/illy]

I am in the process of leasing a new car. The lease is through a "leasing company" rather than a car dealership. As such, it is an open end lease (I guarantee the residual value and have no kilometre restrictions) rather than the closed-end leases offered by dealerships. My question is this: In this lease situation, are you meant to negotiate the lease value? I have asked the salesman and he has said no but you can imagine my skepticism. Can anyone help?

[Northern Wish]

Check out www.leasebusters.com

You can score some really nice deals from people who overextended their finances a little.

Sean

[phishtaper]

My question is this: In this lease situation, are you meant to negotiate the lease value? I have asked the salesman and he has said no but you can imagine my skepticism.

by "value", I assume you mean monthly payment? ... everything is open to negotiation. the company may have a "fair price" policy whereby they do not negotiate. but then you'd 'negotiate' on extra's rather than the price itself, like floor mats, tinting, etc. go in armed with lots of data from other places before you sign, though. the unlimted kilometers sounds like a really great deal, but make sure they arent gonna ding you later for "over-use" when you bring it back, or a higher interest rate or whatever. check out the manufacturer websites - they have lease calculators which will provide some comparison pricing.

[Super Freak]

Leasing is fine until you get into an accident. At that point, you are screwed.

I would never lease again. Remember, you don't own the car--they do. I leased and got into a squabble on the 401 with a transport truck 10 days after I leased it. Ended up costing me 2000 for those 10 days and 1500.00 for a rental because they don't have a car waiting for you or anything (my insurance only covered what they felt was a reasonable replacement time). Not to mention, I didn't qualify for a loan because I still was outstanding with the lease on the car that was totalled. The insurance company negotiates with the leasing company--you have nothing to do with it and they do it on thier time, not considering your life is on hold with having no wheels or a rental on your own dime. It was a nighmare - totally backwards.

Anyway, happy leasing...I hope you have an accident free term!

[phishtaper]

Leasing is fine until you get into an accident. At that point, you are screwed

thats true. make sure you check for "gap insurance" too. its insurance on the immediate depreciation as soon as you drive that "brand spanking new" $20,000 car off the lot. you put even one kilometer on the car and its now "used" and only worth $18,000. the worst possible situation is to get into an accident on the way home from the dealer. insurance will pay you only $18,000 for your "used" car, but you still owe $20,000.

[\/\/illy]

Interesting notes. This will be my fourth lease and I've definitely had car accidents before and they didn't turn out to be any more of a hassle than car accidents normally are.

[Super Freak]

How many of those accidents were total write offs?

they will fix a dent or whatever.

I'm talking about getting smucked by a transport on the 401.

[\/\/illy]

I've never had a write-off but one accident was at highway speeds and resulted in about $9000 of damage as I recall.

[Super Freak]

I think the issue is when they won't fix it and you have to just accept what the leasing company accepts from the insurance company. If they take less than what you owe on the car, then too bad. Anyway, my experience is not the be all, end all--I just got screwed to the Max--doesn't mean you will get the same.

[secondtube]

i was going to lease my new Yukon.

i looked into all the options, and after talking with my co-workers (claims adjusters), i decided on buying.

[MoMack]

I think you'd negotiate the price of the vehicle that the leasing company would be buying from the dealer in order to lease to you. They may have deals set up to get it at the best price though... who knows.

[phishtaper]

my new Yukon

why on mother earth would you want / need a vehicle that big?

[Kanada Kev]

Why don't you just lease one of these?

[timouse]

last night on the news, i heard a couple things that made me go "grrrr..."

there were $50 billion worth of cars sold last year in Canada, and more than half of them were SUV's.

[Kanada Kev]

Yup, and no rewards for car owners who DON'T buy new cars every couple of years. Shit, why don't i get some sort of break for owning a 20 year old car??? I keep it tuned to minimize emissions. I could have gone through 6 or 7 "new" cars if I had been leasing. What's better for the environment?

[AD]

does having a 20-year-old engine that is 'tuned for emissions' produce less 'stuff' than a new engine?

(not being smarmy, i don't know shit about cars)

[phishtaper]

not at all, but it keeps 6 or 7 cars out of a landfill

[bradm]

not at all, but it keeps 6 or 7 cars out of a landfill

I don't think most cars go to landfills (the way most household curb garbage does). Don't most of them end up at auto wrecking yards, to be broken down for parts (that get re-used) with the remainder crushed and melted back into re-used material?

Aloha,

Brad

[ollie]

my new Yukon

why on mother earth would you want / need a vehicle that big?

How else are you gonna ship 25,000 glowsticks to a festival?

[Kanada Kev]

not at all, but it keeps 6 or 7 cars out of a landfill

That's right, even if a lot of it can be recycled. However, the bigger plus for maintaining an old car is that it decreases the need to PRODUCE so many new ones. The energy, resources, material, byproducts, from producing 6 or 7 new cars far outweighs any sort of evil that could come out of the 20 year old tail pipe.