Hey All,

I am considering getting my first corvette, but wanted to confirm my budget. I was wondering what your take was on buying a new 2027 LT1 maybe mag ride and center exhaust C8 in Red Mist vs leasing given my financial situation? If I were to buy one I would put $15-20 grand down plus the sales tax and title so yes a partial loan on it. I have a 780+ credit score, work 100% remote and a home owner including that the car would sit in the garage if that matters. I plan on driving it 5,000-10,000 miles a year as my daily (really weekend driver) until around when the C9's come out. I live in the southwest so snow and rain isn't an issue. How would this compare to leasing options? I never leased a car before.

Thank you,

 

IMHO
Leasing is usually good for a Business Owner to use as a tax right off for milage for business use.
You must keep a log ( at least here) seperating business from pleasure and only use the business use as a deduction.
you might consider taking a Home Equity Loan on your house to buy the car and use the interest as a deduction.
Every state is different, you you might want to talk to your accountant as to what is best.
Others will chime in for more advice

 

Always buy, leasing is a f---ing.

 

There are cars that lease well. However a C8 isn’t one of them. Buy one and enjoy it👍🏻

 

Given your financial situation, low mileage driving, and that you plan to in the future switch to a C9 it makes sense to buy not lease. With leasing many folks forget that when you turn your car in at the end of the lease, and this depends A LOT on the dealership you lease from, you could get dinged for any wear and tear on the vehicle. Stuff happens that is out of ones control but that end-of-lease cost can bite ya if you did not factor it in ahead of time.

 

GM is doing subsidized leasing at the moment for at least 2026's. They probably won't for 2027. Typically it's supply vs demand thing. So I agree that original release years didn't lease well, but when the supply exceeds the demand, most car manufacturers come back to subsidized leases. I would suggest looking for a 2026 unless you are only interested in all the changes coming to the 2027. You should be able to find a great deal on a 2026 as a lot of buyers are holding for 2027 releases. Worked for me.

 

Leasing also depends on what the residual buyout will be versus the average wholesale market value at that time.

I leased a '95 BMW M3, at least in part because the end of lease buyout looked low to me. As it turned out 3 years later, the buyout ended up being 10% below the average wholesale value . Even if we did not want to keep the car, we would have bought it and resold it. We eventually did sell it after 13 years and 169K miles, for the drivetrain as the rust monster got it after 13 salted road winters.

I explored leasing on a new 1989 T-Bird SC. I kept asking the salesman what the APR equivalent was and he kept coming back with 12.25% "lease rate". Technically he never lied, but he never answered my question and hoped I didn't know better. This was at a time when credit union loans were 13.25%. I told the salesman we had a deal on the price of the car, but I had to go home and "run the numbers" before deciding on lease vs purchase. When I ran the financial numbers, the 12.25% "lease rate" worked out to be equal to an 18% APR. I told the salesman we would finance. The finance guy asked if I did the financials right and I told him I know how to properly do time value of money, having done it on multi-million$20-year deals. He asked if he could finance it. I told him if he could give me a better APR than what I could do (and did not disclose to him), then he could do the financing. He did give a better APR than the local credit union, so I financed it thru the dealer.

The above points out that you need to listen carefully to what the lease deal is, be able to do the economics (or know someone who can) and then decide what is the best financial deal for you. Just looking at "monthly payments" is not enough, but a good trip that car salesmen try to get you hooked on.

 

When you say based on your financial situation there is really not enough data in your post for anyone here to comment on your ability to afford it. Or if a new C8 would make more sense as a daily driver than buying or leasing a new Honda Accord or Toyota Camry instead.

 

I hope you are taking into account the other expenses as well, Like insurance, maintenance, and repairs. A lot of people get into trouble by just considering the car loan payment. I would not consider a car like this unless you have a lot of disposable income.

 

Great advice here!

 

Leasing aka renting has its perks.

I learned from a long time ago.Leasing worked for me because I got tired of vehicles every few years. So I just rent them. Not my corvettes though. Those are bought.

If you're gonna do a daily, don't buy a new one. In my opinion, it 's stupid very wasteful, unless you have your retirement already set up (ie retiring with projected 2-3 mill) and at least a years salary liquid cash (somewhere i keep mine in hysa some regular savings and other hands on online investment type accounts). Just my .02 being around a long time.

Get a used 30k vette or Just get yourself a honda accord. Daily that for 5yrs.

Take the 600/mo less you'll pay for no vette and invest it in the s&p or a 100% aggressive set up roth. 5yrs



If you chose to keep goin at 600/mo after the 5 yrs.


So in other words? If you sacrificed for 5yrs driving an accord or a used vette for 30k and invested the 600mo and never added a penny again youd have 200k plus in 25yrs and you kept going?

Close to a million.

These are the things I hope you're asking yourself and seeing the forest for the trees so to speak.

 

Corvettes cheap enough to not lease, when you get into the euro supercar costs, a lot of ppl lease

I am also leasing a EV, cuz of the rebates and discounts that all stacked, sometimes leasing certain models the incentives are in your favor vs financing

 

You could say that for a lot of things, instead of going to college invest that $160k and in 45 years when you retire you will have $5 million at 8% return..... but for 45 years you are not enjoying the money you earn either.

 

Balance. But once you make that cut and learm to live with it the pain is mostly over as you climb the ladder. And you're set.

Too much instant gratification equals lesser in retirement. But what if you dont live that long?

Well. What if you do?

Balance. Do you NEED that corvette right now? Or do you want it? If you want it is it worth having way less money when you finally sit back and try to enjoy the last 15 20yrs of your life?

I'm getting up there. Only giving my advice from experience. I'm set well and no regrets. But I caught it somewhat early. Taught my kids even better and they will have millions when they retire. None are suffering for it now either. Earlier the sacrifice the better the payback.

30k invested before 30yo never to be added to again will be worth 2x investing from 30yo to 65k at an even higher amount.

 

I get it, the earlier you invest for retirement the better off it is. I am soon retiring in my 50s and that is what I did. But I still enjoyed life along the way, there is a point where you balance enjoying it now, or I have seen many in their 60s or 70s that can't travel the way they want due to health, or the money you saved goes to health care.....

 

May seem impossible to some but it is absolutely possible to enjoy life without owning an expensive two-seat toy car. If you are financially set in your 20's go for it. I was not and had to earn, save and invest to get there. The incredible part is that my wife and I somehow managed to find an endless amount of ways to live life and truly enjoy it.

 

Enjoy life without a C8? Crazy talk!

 

I can't imagine not buying outright (pay in full) at this point in my life.

Given any situation, leasing would be the last thing I would consider.

 

I thought that as well, but imagine for whatever reason the manufacturer offers more incentives for leasing than you could get with financing or paying cash and then end the lease after month 1 and pay the buyout remaining amount and refinance whatever way you like and still be cheaper then finance deal or outright cash deal at the dealer.

This happens way more often then you think, in fact there is a entire market of buying end of return leases before they return to mfg, the lease residuals are just that good

Leasing makes sense for the correct car, the c8 prolly doesn't lease well

 

I understand what you are saying but that's not leasing anymore than it is taking a loan on the car for 30 or 60 days and then paying cash in order to get a discount on the purchase price. When most people are asking whether they should lease or finance they are not planning to pay off the lease or the car loan immediately after taking possession of the vehicle.