i know one of the disadvantages of leasing a car is that you cannot really put any aftermarket parts on the car

my question is whether a lease allow you to put an aftermarket alarm on the car and whether you are allowed to replace the stock speakers with aftermarket speakers as long as there is no cutting involved?

thanks

 

I would assume it's okay on the speakers as long as you return it to stock condition when your lease is over. You really need to read the contract for the alarm.

 

If you are planning to buy it at the end, do whatever you want.

 

the unfortunate answer to your question is that it depends on your lease. you will need to go through all the legalese and check it out for yourself.

in most cases, like an American Honda lease, you can do things like upgrade the speakers as the car has to returned in a condition that is reasonable for the mileage you put on the car. as a rule of thumb, anything that you do that will increase the resale value (better speakers, better floormats, etc) will not be a problem. Putting a veilside body kit and HKS exhuast is likely not going to be ok.

of course, if you buy the car at the end of the lease, you can do whatever you want.

If you haven't already bought the car and are considering doing a bunch of mod's you might really consider the wisdom of leasing. Best case is that all the money you put into the car disappears because you're going to turn the car back in and not get anything back for those mods. Worst case is that you mod the car and then turn it back in and the dealer and/or Honda makes you return the car to "as sold or better" condition.

 

sorry, forgot to add that if you really intend on buying the car at the end of the lease, just buy the thing now.

i would say that in more than 95% of the time you are going to pay much more for a vehicle (be it through additional taxes or finance charges) if you lease a car and then buy it as opposed to buying it outright the first time.

also, any financial planner will tell you that you shouldn't lease a car in order to make the payments fit your budget. in other words, if you can't afford financing it then don't lease it.

finally, never, ever, ever lease a car for a period longer than the warranty. despite the incredible reliability of modern cars the last thing you want to have happen is for you to put a ton of money fixing a car that just went out of warranty and you don't own it. bad ju ju.

something to keep in mind if you haven't bought the car.

of course, knowing all of this i leased my car. why you ask??? although i have owned a bunch of Honda/Acura cars and had a Honda CBR600f3 sport bike I was a little leary about the long-term reliability of this car. I knew that it was largely hand built and 9K rpm is a lot for my pea brain to absorb.

i willingly ate additional cost for the piece of mind. i figure that if the car continues to drive like new (or better) and honda doesn't offer a type R, I will buy the car at the end of the lease. on the other hand, if (god forbid) i start having a bunch of problems i will throw the keys back to the dealer and thank him for the great ride.

just my 5 cents.