Rant: Why I will never again lease an automobile

[Towncrier]

I used to think that cell phone contracts were impossible to understand. Well, they don't hold a candle to lease contracts.

Nearly 5 years ago, we decided to lease a brand new 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan. What seemed like a good decision at the time turned into a gotcha when we realized that our older child would start to drive just about the time the lease ran out. The buyout price on our lease was $13,500, but the wholesale value of the van is only about $8000, so purchasing the van was out of the question.

Fast forward to last month. We get a letter from the leasing company (that is not associated with the dealer) asking us to please contact them to discuss our options with regards to the end of the lease. I put the letter aside. At about the same time, we got a letter from the dealership where we rented the van. They wanted us to come in so that they could "inspect" our leased van. Yeah. Right. So we went to the dealership with the letter from the leasing company in our hand. That turned out to be a wasted effort. The dealership didn't even look at our leased van. Instead, we were shown a cherry 2002 Grand Caravan Sport with only 7700 miles on it. It had all the options that we wanted. True to form, we drove out of the dealership with a "nearly new" van.

Fast forward to this morning. I finally decided to call the leasing company to find out where to turn in the van. The voice on the other end of the phone asks me if I would consider purchasing the van. I told him that there was no way that I would consider that. He told me that they would be willing to lower the buyout price. Here's where I made a big mistake. I told him to go ahead and tell me how much the van would cost to purchase. When he said $7800, I dropped the phone. Sue and I had discussed the wild idea that, if the dealership offered us the van for $8000, we'd take it. That way we could possibly afford a third car when James starts driving.

I am now officially sick to my stomach. I guess this is what happens when you don't realize that the leasing company and dealership are not really affiliated in any way, shape, or form. Sue and I really like the new van, but it sure would have been nice to put off spending all that money on the used van and to possibly purchase a third car for James and Sarah to use. I know that it's a small thing to worry about, but I feel like I just messed up big time. Why do these things have to be so complicated?

 

[Mskanga]

I don't know John , in fact I still don't quite understand sometimes why people lease instead of buying, I know that some people say it's because they want to keep their monthly payments low but then at the end of the lease you have to come up with X amount of money to be able to buy it or be left with nothing.
I know it all depends on the people's situation , and I know some people do it because they trade cars every 2-3 years but I just can't see ourselves ever leasing. I guess you just had one of those Lessons in life , I'm sure this won't happen to you again.
{{{{{hugs}}}}} , it happens to all of us!

 

[December99]

Oh my gosh John.....I would be sick to my stomach too. And dd is not that far away from driving either and do I even want to think about a vehicle for her?? NO WAY!!!! I'm afraid to!!!!

 

[SuiteDisney]

EEK!

I wish I had known what you were going through. I might have helped since we just went through the same thing ourselves. Fortunately, we negotiated a lower price on our leased van and purchased it.

 

[FOJMO]

I'm sorry you went through what you went through, John. Although I have to say, we have been leasing all of our cars for over 10 years now, and wouldn't have it any other way.

We were really tired ofo being burned by buying cars, paying them off in 3-5 years, and then spending enormous amounts on car repair bills (some of which we are still paying from over 10 years ago).

We turn in our leased vehicle each time and get a brand new vehicle. We usually put down about $1,000 each time we lease another vehicle, and we always have a lease payment, but we figured we would never not have a car payment anyway, since we don't have cash to buy a car. We haven't had ONE CAR REPAIR BILL in over 10 years. And, if we do, the leased cars are always 3years/30,000mi warranties, so most everything is covered.

When our daughter turned 16, and got her driver's license, she borrowed our car(s) until we finally went with her to a dealer last November and she has her own leased car now. We, of course, had to put some money down, but we made sure the lease payments were something she had to be able to handle with working part time. And she's been doing fine so far. She's even chipping in towards her car insurance, which comes out to more per month than her actual car lease payment! She got a 2003 Toyota Echo.

The insurance is where you're going to pay out the wazoo for your teenagers! Hers is about $2600/year!!!!!

I just got a brand new 2003 Nissan Xterra and I love it! My DH's car lease is up soon, and we'll be looking for him soon.

Good luck with your upcoming choices.

 

[ahutton]

What a bummer that you had a bad experience. We also had trouble with a lease, on the "front end" at the dealership. We will never go back there, but since we moved to another state we dealt directly with the lease company at the end. Had our situation been any different we would have bought our vehicle, but we truly couldn't afford 2 car payments at the time. It was a great deal for us, I had a very reliable and reasonably priced car that I drove for 3 years and turned in owing only $72.00 for a cracked mirror! My DH says never again on leasing because of how the dealership handled us, but from a "beginning to end" perspective it was a great experience.

 

[Pembo]

John-This is just not your week!