mas

ToyBoy, you obviously have a bias against leasing. :-) It's really not as bad as you make it sound. The trick is to not tell the dealer that you wanna lease and bring him down on the price of the car. Once you get a bargain then go for the lease. The S2K is actually a good car to lease cause of it's higher re-sale value. Also, there's a good chance the car won't be worth what you think it would in 3 years so why'd you wanna own it. Most leases these days are closed end - the finaly buy-back price is fixed, so you don't have to worry about it. Honda (don't know about others) also gives you a $1500 allowance for wear and tear at lease end. If you have damages more than that than that's what the insurance company is for and even if you own the car you'd wanna have them fixed. With leasin you don't have to worry about how you'd sell the car and if the car would have a market in 3 years or not. Once more thing, you can have a little more fun for less guilt - Vtec as much as you want. You also don't have to get an oil change every 3500 miles cause you want the car to last a lifetime and can do it every 7000 miles instead ......

ToyBoy

For some good examples of the games that can be played on you, check out "Leasing Secrets" parts 1 and 2 on www.carinfo.com (an old site, but the cautions remain valid).

Particularly galling is the game that dealers play in which a HIGH residual value -- as mas points out we all hope S2000's will command -- actually results in significantly higher finance charges.

In short, unless you can make money -- a lot and consistently -- doing things like selling pork belly futures, car leasing isn't good for your wallet.

It's just too stacked in favor of dealers -- who do it every day -- and against consumers, for whom it's a mighty complex fianancial transaction.

bradkarma

Hey guys,

I'm actually trying to get out of my lease right now since I'm in the market for a house. You can see the details on lease trader... mine is the black. Basically, you can get into the car for less than $500 with no money down. The car is only 8 months old and has about 7K miles.

A great deal if you consider all the extras that I've installed... front and rear spoiler, Rick's center console, improved speakers from H&A, 2002 shift knob, Rick's 7/8 windscreen etc.

I'd really like to get this car to an enthusiast... preferably someone from this board. Anyone interested/know of somebody that is?

https://www.leasetrader.com/e/results.asp?b...pB=%20ZIP:90024

hallerma

I leased mine and got a pretty good deal as well with HFCA...nothing down, including taxes, license etc., 15K/ yr, spoilers (f&r), 42 months, $32,500 and monthly at $475.00.

I have leased for the past 15 years and have only had 1 bad experience and that was with Bank of America(they are no longer doing leases)...just read all the fine print and ask questions if you don't understand and if you don't get a good answer, be prepared to walk...Good Luck!!!

FCGuy

Note, I've never leased a car, don't plan to, but am not going to say it doesn't make sense for some. Having said that...

Hmmm, I don't see how a high residual could work against you in a lease. If you run their calcs, you'd see that the higher residual results in a lower payment. Also, if, as you say, they percieve the residual as being higher than it actually will be 3 yrs down the road, you win out by getting the lower finance rate and not having to sell the car for less than you had hoped at the end of the day. They take the loss.

Rather, the article you mentioned is saying that the difference between leasing and loaning gets larger (not that the actual payments get larger) as the residual goes up. I do see how their calculation supports this. But there's a fallacy in their approach. Without getting too detailed, it is all about time value of money. And what you could (at least in theory) do with the money you saved on each months payment leasing vs loaning.

When might leasing make sense? Here's some I can think of...
1) If you want to buy more car than you can afford right now (but you'll pay in the long, long run)
2) You have the money, buy want to keep it liquid. Say for a house down payment.
3) If you want new cars every 2-3 years and don't want to deal with the hassle of selling them on your own (or risk getting screwed on dealer trade-ins)
4) You have a can't miss investment at a higher rate than the lease (or loan) rate. In that case, take the lowest payment and invest away (good luck!)!
5) You can work the business/tax tradeoffs to your benefit (or so they say, I have no knowledge here)

But you do risk a lot more in that there are a lot more potential gotchas (dealer hidden charges, high miles, excess wear...)

jjanicke

It all depends on where you buy it. For instance when I got mine it had a $10K markup. I'm in the Bay Area (CA). Of course I wasn't going to pay that and looked around, finding cars in Mass (which meet CA emissions requirements) for MSRP. Fortunately I was able to get the dealer down to MSRP. Many people in the Bay Are still pay anywhere from MSRP to $5K over.

dizzy

DOH! Yes they are (at least they were when I got my lease thru BofA in april 2001) What was your bad experience?

-David

bobatimez

thank you all again very much. i think leasing is the solution to any sports car. c'mon, at 9000rpms, it sounds like it''s gonna blow up... maybe, just maybe. my friend at honda service said he saw a s2k with 15 k miles on it, but what looked like 100k of wear. even he shakes his head at long terming this car.

verone24

3 years/15k a year lease. $875.22 drive off, $521. a month with tax.