Well I read the leasing "pros and cons" thread and seems like quite a few people who get stewie's brand new lease them. My question is to those of you who lease and modify your car or for those of you who know just how you are punished if you modify a leased car?

First of all I can't imagine me modifying a whole lot with this car. I love the way it looks, I love the stance and with roads and driveways in southern cali I can't imagine lowering the car anymore. And the factory wheels are pretty nice IMO.

Maybe throw on an exhaust and intake..simple bolt on stuff like that (more for looks and sound than actual performance gains)

So if I only plan on doing simple mods for my lease term then maybe doing something more for if I decide to buy the car in the end since any worthwhile mods would take me a long time to save up for anyway.

Anyway back onto the subject - If you lease and have modified your stewie slightly or heavily let me get your feedback and opinions!

I would finance but I would have to drop like $15K to get the payment to a comfortable payment (give or take) and I can't imagine myself just trading in my current car (2007 scion tc) and dropping X amount more if I can get away with a nice payment with a lease

Sorry if I sound like i'm going in circles and sorry if this has already been discussed so just to be safe *puts on flame suit*

 

i wouldn't finance a car if i was plannin on modifying it i mean with those 15grand you could get an ap1 payd off and not have to worry about anything

 

^ yeah pretty much my point exactly. I don't want to just dump that kinda dough for a down payment..If i was using that much money I'd rather buy a cheap tuner car or pay for the car upfront.

Any mods I do that may be worthwhile would take me awhile to save up for anyway.

Although I still have to ask, If i were to put like an intake or exhaust on a lease would that be an issue? I mean thats something that is pretty easily taken on and off. I have experience installing these parts as well so i'm not making assumptions just an FYI

 

To answer the question about mods- I leased and have changed the speakers and added a couple of things that I can easily remove- no issues there. DO NOT put a lot down on a lease- that is the whole reason to lease in the first place- to have lower payments and less cash outflow. Leasing an S2K can also be better than buying as the money factors are very low(mine is equivalent to 1.5% interest). Good luck!

 

I just leased a MY08 $349/36 months. My mods list will be short and sweet

Voodoo knob (keep oem)

a cat-back exhaust (saving the OEM) Magnaflow or Fujisubo

2nd set of OEM wheels (powdercoated) w/R-compound tires.

Hawk pads

.....and that's it.

Easy to unload after the lease is up in 2011

 

Leased my 08 and already modified.

I will just return back to stock, no big deal.
Put 8500 (traded in my old car) and $230 every month.
I like having low payments.

 

Modifying a leased car is no big deal as long as they're reversible, assuming you're returning it at the end.

Putting down money on a lease is a very bad idea especially for a hot target like the S2000. If the car is totaled tomorrow, you get none of that money down back.

 

Thanks for your replys and advice everyone! I posted a similar thread on scionlife.com and most of the dont' "lease" replies (which is about 90% of them lol) come from people I'm assuming haven't done any research or had bad experiences..


I've been doing my homework and cant find enough reasons to NOT lease a car like this lol

The hard part would be getting rid of my tC and of course I want to sit down and crunch #'s first to see what kind of deals I could get

I just might see a s2k in my near future

 

Kind of a bump but just wanted to say...

scheduled a test drive for tommorow so hopefully I'll make a decision =)