Minivan, leasing. Financing. Buying

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 10:18 am

I need a minivan, my car lease is up. I'm trying to decide how to go about it.
Here's my thoughts.. Please add, educate me, help me out and give me any advice or tell me if I am thinking incorrectly thanks so much!

I feel financing is best bc after few years the car is yours, but then the car wont be do new and might have alot of maintenance costs. Also I am little afraid I can't do long road trips with an older car.
With a car that I own I can pay less insurance so that's a big plus.
But when I gets so old and I sell for just a few thousand. I might loose so much money that maybe it's worth to just lease a car..? Like it's the same money?
And I guess this applies to buying as well. But at this point I don't have a chunk of money to put down.

Thank you for all your help!!

amother

Goldenrod

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 10:51 am

I just went through the same thing. We figured out that leasing is a grand waste of money. After three years of paying 350 a month its around 12500 down the drain. Financing a new car is also very expensive and not worth it because the minute the car drives out of the lot its value goes down like 5000. We felt it was the most economical to finance and car a few years old. We took out a 4 year loan and the amount is the same as the lease would have been. but after the four years are up we will own the car and it should have a few good years before it starts having issues.

frumPA

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 11:08 am

I agree with amother above. That's what we did, financed a van that was 3 yrs old with low mileage, was at least 8000 less. We got a sienna which I highly recommend it, its a great vehicle. I did a 3 yr loan @ $358 per month. I agree its the best option.

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 11:14 am

Thank you, yes sorry I wasn't clear. I was definitely only planning to finance a older car.
What do u think about paying the higher insurance for financing
?
And why do u think Toyota sienna is best? What do you think about Honda odyssey?

Amarante

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 11:19 am

Buying a car is always best financial except under extremely limited circumstances - I.e. if the car is a business item and completely deductible. Many people lease because they can lease a fancier car than they can afford to buy but then they will have car payments for the rest of one's life.

Your concerns have no basis in terms of today's automobiles which generally are good for years and years and many miles. You research thoroughly and buy a car that is generally viewed as well made - that is why many people opt for a Toyota or Honda for example.

Your car is paid off after four years and you then have many years with no car payments. As a car gets older, insurance is also less expensive each year.

Maintenance issues are really not an issue either if one has bought one of the reliable brands. You do the normal maintenance such as oil, tires, brakes. The more scrupulous one is about keeping a car well maintained, the longer it should last.

Then at certain times, there are items that need to be done but these are generally worth it because they are expected and once done give you more reliable time. One then always asks whether the cost of doing a repair makes more economic sense than not. I have good mechanics and now that my car is creeping up in age, I have had to make some expensive repairs but I have asked my mechanic - how does the car seem - I.e. if I make this repair will it then give me a lot of trouble free driving as opposed to some issues that a mechanic would say not to fix. When I bought my current car (a decade ago), my mechanic told me to replace my elderly car at that point because fixing the issue made no economic sense.

Regarding the value of owning a car, it's not how much you can sell the car for in the end. It's that you have not had car payments for six, seven or maybe even more years. During this period, you can pay that monthly amount into a car bank account and you would never have to finance a car again although financing a car sometimes can make sense if you have impeccable credit and can snare one of the very low interest loans. However, be aware those advertised often bait and switch and sometimes you can get x dollars in lieu of the interest rate.

Regarding reliability, I guess that depends on one's lifestyle. If one regularly takes long highway trips on isolated road, then perhaps one wants a newer car. However, most cars will be reliable for many many years after a loan is paid off. And I also know some people who live in the cities or even the suburbs who use a car for essentially short range driving. On those few occasions, when they are taking a long road trip, they rent a car because the cost of renting a car once or twice a year is still cheaper than buying a new car since all they need 99% of the time is a car that gets them around and they aren't going to be far from home and need a car repair.

frumPA

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 11:28 am

From comparing with all my husbands siblings the Sienna did better than the Odyssey. They hold up and last better from my experience. However it is also well rated. I am from Brooklyn. I bought from Lakewood auto sales and highly recommend it. A couple of my husbands siblings bought from them as well. MR. Minivan in Brooklyn is also well known and very good. My brother n law bought from there. Both can guide you with financing as well.

mha3484

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 11:39 am

We are financing a used SUV. We bought a 5 year old Volvo because its known to get over the 100k mark with no ill effects. The car had about 10k miles per each year old. I have three little boys it is too much pressure for me to have to keep the car immaculate at all times so it can be returned at the end of the lease. I also did not want to worry about going over the mileage limit.

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 12:46 pm

Thanks everyone, how long do u finance for? How many years does it take to pay it off and what's the interest rate?

amother

Goldenrod

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 2:05 pm

We just bought 2013 Sienna for 14200. We financed through PenFed the rate was around 2.5 and it will take us 4 years to pay it off and the monthly payment is just over 300.

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 2:14 pm

amother wrote:

We just bought 2013 Sienna for 14200. We financed through PenFed the rate was around 2.5 and it will take us 4 years to pay it off and the monthly payment is just over 300.

Thank you, this was extremely helpful
What the mileage?

frumPA

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 2:40 pm

I bought 2 yrs ago. Penfed loan for 3 yrs with rate 1.49% I think. We borrowed 12k I think and payments are $358 per month. Btw keep in mind tax is high, you pay at dmv when u register it. Dealer can tell u how much will be but I remember mine was s/t like $1800 so keep that in mind.

frumPA

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 2:49 pm

Sorry is 1.99% not 1.49%.

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 2:52 pm

frumPA wrote:

Very helpful thank you, and u need new plates I can't use my old ones?
What year car? And what car?

frumPA

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 3:41 pm

I bought it in 2015, was a 2011 sienna 57k miles for $17,900. Even if u use old plates u still need to register the car and u have a bill of sale that says the amount the car was purchased for and u need to pay tax, that has nothing to do with getting new plates or not. Just telling u so u cheshbon that extra $1800 when calculating how much money u need....

amother

Cerulean

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 3:44 pm

frumPA wrote:

Thank you so much and this amount of $17900 is without the interest obviously,

Ruchel

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 3:50 pm

It may depend on country. I'd never lease a car. We sold our car and bought a minivan with that, adding a bit.

amother

Goldenrod

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 6:05 pm

amother wrote:

Thank you, this was extremely helpful
What the mileage?

90k miles. This car was a standard price. You can definitely get a better deal if you shop around.

Amarante

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 6:54 pm

You should check your credit score because interest paid is going to depend on that just like a mortgage.

Shop around for interest rates before looking a car. Sometimes you can lock in a rate for a specified period of time so you know exactly how much you can borrow at what rate.

Do not assume that the dealer is giving you a great loan. Dealers make very little money on the sale of cars as a general rule and make a big profit on loans and also on repairs as most people do take cars to the dealer for repairs unless they know a fantastic mechanic because dealer mechanics are generally trained very well and also specialize in the car brand - especially important now that cars are computerized and often hooked up to expensive machines to diagnose problems.

If you have never bought a car before, I would suggest going to edmunds.com and reading about how to buy a car - I.e. what dealer tricks to look out for to avoid. For starters, do not negotiate price of car, loan and trade in at the same time. Negotiate price and then negotiate loan and then compare with loans you have already shopped for. And run like h*ell if a salesman asks you what you can afford monthly because that is the way to get hooked into 7 year car loans.

nylon

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 7:06 pm

We bought our Sienna new.

At the time, Toyota was offering 0% finance (60 month term, but since it's interest free, spreading it out didn't cost us). We couldn't get a rate anything like that for used, and the Sienna and Odyssey hold their value so well that we felt like we weren't getting much of a discount for used--we'd have to look at vehicles that were much higher mileage than we wanted. This of course may vary locally.

I've never seen good lease rates on minivans in my area. (OTOH if you want a Corolla, leasing is fantastic!)

petiteruchy

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 7:22 pm

it always makes more sense to buy a car over leasing or financing. sometimes if you have good credit, you can get a better deal by financing and then paying it off quicker (watch for fees on that sort of thing).

we bought a 2012 kia rondo that was still under warranty and had decently low mileage. we got such a good deal by financing that even though we had the cash up front, we did that and then paid it off a few months later (the dealer was able to offer us a lower price through financing, but the interest would eventually have cost us more, so we paid off the loan when we reached the point where the interest was going to kick in).

we haven't had much maintenance costs yet, but we've hit 100,000 km so we're expecting a large bill soon. we will drive it into the dust as we did with our last car, a very trusty 17 year old toyota sedan. we automatically save every month for a new car and for repairs. these costs should never be surprises... we know they're coming, so it doesn't hurt when we end up with a 1K repair bill.