Keithb

Mine is leased

taylor192

Now consider the advantages:
1. When I start a business I can write off my car payments, making back the loss on the lease.
2. You've paid higher payments over the same period while I took the extra cash and bought houses instead to support my newest business venture which allows me to write off my car - money in your hand is sometimes the best investment you can make, it allows you to jump on opportunities when they arise rather than wait for savings.

tuscanraider

HOLY CRAP!!!!

I agree with Taylor......

jo17jC230

good point...

tifosiv122

I don't make payments...I put $500 down to order and brought the rest in cashiers check to pick up the car. Actually I lied, I paid $800 the day after I ordered the car for the C7 package ($750+tax).

tuscanraider - I understand your stock point...but you could still sell your $74,000 S430 after 39 months and get more then $31,000 so your not loosing anything. The more you sell it for the less you paid for the car. If you leased it you paid $43,000 and thats it.

Erik

yeloaw

I bought mine and paid in full. NO financing is a relief.

Mike T.

Well, that's a really bad example.

Aside from its market value, an automobile also has a utility value.

You can't drive your Disney stock certificate to work now can you?

Ergo to view a car as ONLY an asset is myopic.

Yes, cars depreciate, but unless you're not driving it at all, you are deriving benefit from it, which should be roughly equal to the depreciation. If you are not deriving that degree of benefit from using the car, you bought one that's too expensive for you. Indeed, that IS simple, my friend.

As a case in point, my daily driver is a ~200,000 mile Peugeot 405. No major repairs, regular maintenance only, timing belt changes at 100,000 km. I've owned the car for a decade and it's depreciated a total of $1000 per year, assuming it's worth $2000 now. Canadian dollars BTW (call it $780 US depreciation per year, value of $1500 US). It's a fine car, more reliable than our Benz so far (the Benz broke down after 6 months, the 405 after I had owned this (used) car 8 years, both repairs were identical (blown coils). It's worth virtually nothing, but it still has utility value, which far exceeds its market value. When something is worth virtually nothing, it ceases to be an asset according to conventional economic criteria, but an asset this old car assuredly is.

If a car has depreciated to zero, does it cease to exist?

My classic car on the other hand, is an appreciating asset, but that's another story. It's also nicer to look at and drive than either of my two other cars....

Guest0001

Great Discussion everybody.


Great to hear from other peoples perspectives on this.

oggle

An accountant told me you're not supposed to write off the entire amount of the lease for tax deduction purposes, but only part of it. I forgot the details, but is there any truth to this? Maybe someone who's more familiar with the tax code can explain it better.

MJ50

i bought it cuz i intend to keep it 10+ yrs.
i try to keep payments (auto, insurance, mortgage, etc...) to a minimum...
the only car i would lease is hybrid.

tifosiv122

I agree...that I would consider leasing...not sure how she'd hold up after 3 years and I wouldn't want to get stuck with a dead battery, lol. It doesn't seem like a problem because the only alternative fuel car i'd buy would be hydrogen.

Erik

session

Just to clear things up, the dealer never gets the car back after a lease. When you lease a car, the dealer sells the car to the leasing company, i.e. MBCC. You then pay the leasing company for the use of the car. This payment includes the estimated cost of depreciation, interest and taxes.

I bought my MB, but I'm leasing my 350Z. In doing research for my Z, I read the guide on this site and I found it to be an excellent resource:

www.leaseguide.com

PS - It is a myth that if you finance your car, you own it. The bank owns it; you don't get the title until you pay off the loan in full.

tifosiv122

Thanks but I already said both of those points.

&
I said MBNA gets it however your correct it goes to MBCC and then to MBNA who auctions the cars out, sometimes to the dealers.

Erik

Lynn

Wrong. The buyer of the financed car owns the car. The title to the car is never in the name of the bank. The bank places a lein against the titile of the car and since the car is easily moved or hidden , the banks wants physical possesion of the title. This is the similar to a house mortgage, exept because the house cannot be moved, the bank doesn't require posssesion of the deed.

session

True, but have fun selling the car without paying the loan off.

Lynn

That is not legal anymore that it is legal to sell your house without paying off the mortgage. It isn't legal to sell anything with a lein against it.

tifosiv122

Also miss a payment and see who's car it really is...well maybe not one payment, but miss several and a Repo man will be at your door to take 'your' car.

Erik

moomeh

but if you get 0% (ok, the computer doesn't take zero so its actually 0.01%) financing IS a relief. hehe

moomeh

btw, i would think that many would have gotten their cars 0% finance. over here, several ohio and michigan dealers had a month of 0% financing going on. sure it is only on the c240, c230k, but its still a good deal IMO. guess we midwesterners are cheap lucky *******s.

Blake P

bought

Pancham

Even at 0% financing, somehow, someone's gotta pay even if MB is trying to push the cars out the door. You can be sure that it's us consumers paying in some form or another.

If you're a business owner, it's better to lease if you're reinvesting money to grow your business. But if business is slow like it is right now I'd rather pay the car than incur interest.

I bought mine this time -- less papers to sign -- and a great feeling that it's yours as you drive out the dealer lot.

Guest0001

Bump for more votes...

vyse

Paid full. My family's against borrowing money, except for small(er) charges on credit cards. However, we don't have such good deals such as 0% financing on MB's, the lowest is 0.9% for a year on C230/C240, at least, that's the lowest i'm aware of. I'd finance a car, however, it seems every car I want doesn't have 0% financing.

shtatc

I originally leased my 01 C240. Just finished converting the lease to a purchase. I dont think I will ever lease another vehicle again - especially a primary driven vehicle.

Guest0001

Bump