Even at 3% financing over 48 months on a loan for $20K (half the purchase price of a BMW 3 series),
over a 6 year period of ownership the total ownership expenditure per mile is $0.39.

Leasing same car for three years costs nearly $0.72 per mile. Therefore leasing costs over 80% more than buying and keeping the car for at least 6 years.

Over 13 years, including incidentals like a new transmission ($4K) that my Dad put in his 1995 5 series, per mile cost of ownership ran $0.30 per mile.

The aggregate of the annual cash savings in purchasing over leasing, in the case of the 13 year old 5 series, comes to….would you believe $47,000. Enough to buy a new 5 series for CASH.

I recently submitted this analysis on a thread weighing purchase v. lease. Initial responses from other contributors were tantamount to denial. (I gather 99% of the contributors were lessees).
A few had the gonads to remark that at least with leasing they got the “New Car Smell” every few years. I proposed stopping smoking, dropping fast food and spilling soda pop in the car and try cleaning the car interiors every year.

I think I’m one of the few that views leasing as a way to cut expenses rather than getting myself into something better. Leasing a cheap car is okay if you don’t intend to drive it more than 10,000 miles per year. But if you are looking to use the vehicle a lot, you must buy, because in the end, it costs more to lease.

But again, just because the dealer doesn’t offer leases doesn’t mean your bank won’t. There is always 3rd party options.

I’d never lease a car because I like life without car payments. We keep cars six to twelve years, and the longer you can keep ‘em going without major repairs, the cheaper the vehicle gets on a per-year basis.

If they cut back leasing, though, it will reduce the number of good two-year-old imported cars on the lot at knockdown prices. I’d never buy another new Volvo again, for example, because of the initial value hit… I would buy a two-year-old one coming off a lease with 25k miles on it and drive it ten more years, though, laughing all the way.

Leasing is generally a less wise choice unless you suffer from an inferiority complex which compels you to continually get something new to, in your mind, impress other people who in raelity could not care less if you are alive or dead. That describes about 95% of “luxury car” drivers.

posted by drc

unless you plan on keeping a vehicle for the full term of a purchase or drive more then 30k miles a year or keep your cars 6+ years it almost always makes more sense to lease, that is with a good lease program. Why ‘buy’ a depriecating item, especially considering the majority of people trade in every 3-4 years? and tell me this, for those who have to ‘own’ your vehicle: if you stop making payments to the bank, you don’t think they will come snag it from you? leasing is just another way of buying a car and for most people it makes more sense to do it, if they just spend some time educating themselves on it.

Am I paying more? Sure, but in 24 months (it’s been a yr now), I’ll just purchase (or lease) another Bimmer and let someone else love this Z4.

bmw R nit POS junk.
I weood notr wajt my worst NME in a Camryn or accord

2002tiis Forever!

http://www.leftlanenews.com/bmw-finds-it-difficult-to-reach-cost-cutting-goals.html

However, those figures just goes to show that every tool acting toolish driving a BMW does not actually own said car. There is a big difference between buying and leasing.