NORTY

Sure,you can rent a Corvette.

DonSet

A few notes for those of you that are interested in leasing:

The lease payment is the sum of the total depreciation divided by the lease term, an interest payment and sales tax if applicable.

The depreciation is the capitalized cost (purchase price + aquisition fees - any down payment) minus the residual value. The residual value is the MSRP times the residual percentage.

The interest payment is the Money Factor times the sum of the capitalized cost and residual value. The money factor is the interest rate divided by 2400.

You can easily build a simple spreadsheet to compare lease deals.

Before leasing, always find out what the capitalized cost, residual and money factor that has been used in the calculation of your payment. If the dealer won't tell you, go somewhere else! Leasing can be a good way to drive the car of your dreams but you need to understand how they work or you can easily be taken advantage of.

Purdue

I have a simple excel spreadsheet that I created. I will send it to anyone who might be interested! Let me know and I will email it

Purdue

.........

Tight Lines

Purdue....My email is fishininsteadofwishin@yahoo.com
A spread sheet would help on my decision greatly. Thanks Scott

VET4LES

And then they go on the used car lot as a clean low mileage car only driven to church on Sunday by a little old lady in Pasadena California.

Tight Lines

I'm on the fence between buying a C-5 or leaseing a C-6 and haveing the option to buy at the end of the lease? Don't know what to do. Theres pros and cons both ways.

DonSet

I think if you are going to buy the car, if you look at the bottom line numbers, IMHO it rarely makes economic sense to lease and then buy. I lease my daily driver, have for years, but I do it with $0 down and get rid of it at the end of the lease. My corvette, which I plan to keep for quite awhile, I purchased outright. Also, when I looked into leasing a Corvette, it just did not seem to be a car that leased "well". The residuals aren't that attractive. Just my $0.02.

own2vettes

I've leased a few cars through my practice. My current 745 Li is a lease. Remember, leases usually only make sense if you can find some way to write off the expenses through some business. I don't think that you should lease just to have a more flash car than you can really afford but that is my opinion. You also need to keep in mind the other expenses that most people don't think about whe leasing: insurance is usually more expensive; mileage restrictions which can get pricey if you go over (and if this is a daily driver, trust me, you usually will go over), tires, maintenance on a car THAT YOU DON'T OWN (tires, etc. ain't cheap on this car).

The one thing that I don't see mentioned in great detail here is the actual negotiating of the deal. The only difference between leasing and buying a car is the structuring of the financing. Everything else is the same. I will repeat this again; EVERYTHING ELSE IS THE SAME. You should never approach the sales staff with the "I want to lease" line because most people just get ushered into these lease "specials", which are ALWAYS based on MSRP. If you want o lease a car, the first and foremost important item is the price of the car. Leases use the fancy term of "capitalized cost". Just like with buying, the lower this is, the better. I always negotiate the price first, like I'm BUYIING, and then after all is said and done do I start in with the "you know, I might be interested in leasing this car". Your payments are based largely on what the depreciation dollar amount of the car is. This is some arbitrary figure that is based on whatever. Since you are essentially paying this depreciation amount as your lease, the smaller it is, the smaller the payment. For example, you're looking at a $54K Vette. Lets say the residual value is $24K for your 60 month term. This is what Chevy says the car is worth at the end of the term and is calculated at the beginning of the lease and stays fixed. In summary, this is the price that you can purchase the car for at the end of the lease. If the actual value of the car near the end of the term is higher, then you can sell the car to a third party and pocket the difference. Usually though, the car is worth less than the residual value, in which case it wouldn't make sense to purchase the car for $24K if it was worth $19K. Your lease payment will be based on that amount of depreciation($30K in our example) divided by 60. Now, your payment also factors in interest and taxes etc but the bulk of it is this depreciationm that you are paying for. If you negotiate a price of, let's say, $48K, you've now closed the depreciation gap by another $8K less that you have to pay over the length of the lease.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT PRICE IS STILL THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR WHEN LEASING A CAR. IT IS NO DIFFERENT THAN WHEN YOU BUY.

Dealers know that most people don't know squat about leases and bait people into these "great" lease deals that sound good but when you examine them on paper, are based on full MSRP and long terms that make the dealers the most money. Dealers love these "sign and drive" lease deals because most people see a car that they probably couldn't afford otherwise, start to salivate, and then lie down without any resistance. What could be better than just signing and driving? No fuss. No muss. For the dealer that is......

Before you sign on the dotted line, post your proposed deal on the Forum and let us take a look at it. It drives me nuts when people lease without a haggle because, in my opinion, it is the sneakiest takedown that a dealer pulls on customers. The worst part is that you think you left with a good deal. Anyway, I could go on forever but I can't type any longer. Think things over before you sign.

BAD_TCR

So I run my own successful business on the side in addition to my own job...some accountant out there tell me how I can deduct my lease on my vette. Please?

Purdue

You have mail .

C6CPA

Of course. Leasing is simply another variation of purchasing, only you only are purchasing a portion of the vehicles useful life. Same factors are involved - time value of money, interest rate, etc. which go into a purchase financing. Just another way of slicing the same vegetable.

Tight Lines

Thanks guys for all the help. I've always bought new and have never least befor. I have some learning to do. I'm not sure how much my friends and fammily plan from GM will help on price. So 48,000 is a good goal to shoot for you think?

MSO4

I'm self-employed and I do deduct the lease payments on my car (G35). Actually, about 80% of the lease payments is deductible since about 80% of the time the car is used for business.

My lease payment is $425 on the G35. This is a three year lease with 12k/yr. A buddy also leases the G35 but he's paying close to $550/month. Why such a difference? Mainly because his negotiated price was about $1500 above invoice, I got mine for $500 under invoice. He also pays a higher money factor.

When I lease a car, I usually call up the dealership, ask them for the best deal on a car I want, once we agreed, I tell them I want to lease it. At that point, my focus will be on money factor, term, and residual value.

I learned all this from the website leaseguide.com Educate yourself before you lease a car. You should be able to sit down at the dealership, with a calculator and a paper, calculate your approximate lease monthly payment if given lease price, MSRP, residual value, money factor, and term.

So why do I lease? With a lease payment of $425 and after tax deductions, my effective cost is only $290/month. So if the money factor is low enough, this makes a lot of sense. Had I bought the G35, I only get to deduct the depression of my car, and that is not nearly as much as the entire lease payment.

Right now I'm thinking about leasing the C6 and write it off for three years. At the end of the lease, simply pay the residual value and own the car. Again, this only makes only if the money factor is low enough. And did I tell you that if I lease the C6, I can write off everything, and that include new rims, tires, maintenance, gas, and maybe even Z06 wide body kit

own2vettes

That's the way to do it. Again, price is the single biggest detrminant of payment that you, as the consumer, can control. Things like money factors (which is a fancy lease term for interest rate) and residual values are usually fixed. You typically can't negotiate the rate or what the car will be worth at the end of the term. You can, however, negotiate the price of the car exactly as if you were purchasing and this can make a big difference in your payment. Again, most people don't realize this and get taken.

The lowest price you can get is the best goal to shoot for. Again, don't ever tell them you want to lease up front. After you've come up with all of the numbers regarding price is the time to flip the discussion towards leasing.

Remember that this only makes sense if the car is worth more than what the residual value is at the end of the term. That rarely happens. These guys know what they're doing in terms of assigning residual values. They usually aren't going to give people a chance to buy a car worth $30K for $24K. If you plan on keeping the car, the best thing to do is purchase it and not lease. Again, the true benefit of leasing comes in the write offs, as illsutrated by our friend above with the Infiniti.

DonSet

own2vettes

You can only deduct mileage and expenses that are directly associated with any business dealings. What I do is keep a log book of every time I drive to the hospital to see patients or go to the post office to mail documents or go to the bank to make deposits for the practice etc. I log all of the mileage. My accountant then calculates cost per mile logged etc. It works well if you are set up as some type of corporation because it makes the paperwork cleaner. Sometimes it may look a little a little shady if you just have a home side business that "deducts" lease expenses because it becomes harder to seperate personal from business miles, especially if its your only car and you use it for leisure also. You may even wind up paying taxes because if you lease a car through some business that you own, the payments made to the lease through the "business"on your behalf to be able to drive the car can, in some instances, be considered compensation/income. Its like you're getting $800.00 a month to pay for this car. You can find creative ways around this for instance. In my case, I personally foot the bill for all the gas expenses on the car and don't pay for fuel through the practice. This helps negate any "compensation" factor in terms of the lease payment. The only thing I write off are practice related miles and this helps everything come out in the wash. In essence, the practice agrees to supply me with the car but I am responsible for its gas and upkeep personally. Keep in mind though, that this is not my only car so I can make a better argument towards not driving this car a whole lot for personal purposes. This is my "work" car. Remember, things like taking the kids to Busch Gardens or driving to a concert can't be deducted, unless you prove that these were part of a legitimate business endeavor. Its a lot more complicated than the scope of discussing it on this forum. Talk to your accountant.