Originally Posted by GrussGott

ha. Yeah, once I started getting cars with electric gizmos I stopped "buying" and more/less leasing is just plain cheaper unless you're going to keep the car forever and work on it yourself which I'm not.

The last car I bought was a 1999 Audi A6 that was a rock solid really really nice car. After that platform they started cheaping out on everything which is why I didn't get another one ... and that's when I decided I'd only lease these spendy cars.





Yeah, I had a 2005 B6 S4 and 2002 Allroad, both of which were fantastic, but just like my A6 above both of those models went downhill with the next versions. The Audi quality drop from my 1999 A6 to 2006 Audi models is stunning: plastic everything, nice little touches gone, loss of fabrics, door bins gone, under seat bins gone, I could go on and on.

BMW on the other hand has gotten better for me. I had a 2011 M3 and now a 2015 M4 and the quality has really gone up; the M4 has a WAY nicer interior, the electronics are way better, and the fit and finish is really a step up.

I looked at Audi and Benz in '14 but Audi had shockingly dropped off and the interiors of the benzs were I drove an AMG SLK just to get a feel for things and couldn't believe how cheap everything looked and felt. Back at the dealership while I was looking around the salesguy wrote up a "great deal" for me: $1850/mo lease

I'm thrilled to hear Benz may be back - I'm looking forward to checking them out soon.

Final note on leasing: of course it doesn't get a better car, but it limits your risk if you get a bad one, or you get into an accident or something: "if this car is so great, then show me in that residual number"