Ttma leasing a car

[sandandsea]

We are looking for an electric commuter car for dh so he can use carpool lanes. He can charge at work for free. We are considering leasing a Nissan Leaf (cheapest option) and can get it for $2500 down and $60 a month for a two year lease. An alternative is buying outright a few years old Leaf with low miles for about $10k.

We have always paid cash for cars and I've only heard that leasing is the most expensive way to buy a car. What are the gotchcas of a lease? Given the range limit and commute we wouldn't go over on miles.

In this case if we bought used at $10k and sold at $7k (best case probably) in 2 years it would cost roughly $125/month. The lease would be $164/month. But with the lease we wouldn't have any maintenance costs and it should be more reliable. I don't think the lease includes insurance but haven't gotten that far yet. I guess if it does it suddenly becomes cheaper.

It wouldn't be our primary vehicle and we would pay cash either way so a lower monthly or upfront payment doesn't matter to us.

[gt7301b]

I think the leafs have pretty low maintenance and good reliability ratings. This would make me lean towards buying, since those costs will be minimal anyway.

[LoveTrains]

Why would the lease include insurance?

I would buy.

[sandandsea]

From what we have heard the batteries in the leaf don't last all that long in hot climates. So if we bought a 2014, in 2 years it would be 5/6 years old with at least 50k miles and I don't think we could count on the battery lasting forever at that point. And replacing the battery is pricey (for a cheap car).

A friend had two inexpensive electric Honda Fit leases that included insurance so i didn't know if this was common or just that particular deal.

[y4m]

A gotcha we experienced: we paid full sales tax and full annual property tax on our leased vehicle...even though we didn't own it. Would never do it again because of that cost, which we didn't understand fully at the time

[halfpint]

I would buy. We bought a used Leaf for less than $10k with 13k miles on it. Minimal maintenance - there are no oil changes, etc. We've had for about a year, and it's perfect - battery still holds a full charge, even though it's several years old.

I don't remember what we researched with the batteries - but had the same concern about battery life, and the determination was that it was still an excellent value, and we'd likely have many years of use left. There's not that much more mileage in the new EVs - we plan to drive this until we can afford a Tesla

[aurora]

Are you sure you've looked into all of the incentives for buying a new Leaf in your area? I have a couple of friends who have gotten brand new ones for ~$12k recently due to incentives from state, federal (I think), and the utility in our area. Then you could keep it for longer without worrying about the batteries.

[sandandsea]

Sept 15, 2017 13:38:24 GMT -5 aurora said:

Are you sure you've looked into all of the incentives for buying a new Leaf in your area? I have a couple of friends who have gotten brand new ones for ~$12k recently due to incentives from state, federal (I think), and the utility in our area. Then you could keep it for longer without worrying about the batteries.

Yes. We don't qualify for state incentives and the federal is $7500. Leafs are all over in our area.