So I'm thinking about leasing a 2013 Ralliart and then purchasing it after the 2 years is up. I know there are times when the buy your lease option is more than a similar used car, but Im looking at planet Mitsubishi which are selling their 13's new for 24990, so if I can't afford to finance and even if the leading company put the residual a little over market value, I'd still be saving a lot of money. Thoughts? Anyone lease a ralliart now?

 

I would just buy it now if you plan on buying after the 2 years. If you're on the fence about owning then lease. If you buy now, you're putting money towards the car actually and not so much just paying to drive it a certain amount of miles and getting penalized for it.

Plus, they do give the option to buy after the 2 years, however dealerships will often try and screw you on a price.

Say you lease it for 2 years/24 months. You pay like 400 a month to lease it.

400 x 24 = $9600

After 2 years average mileage is 24-30k miles for a daily driven car. You'll get less miles than this under a lease for 2 years.

So at that point it'll be November 2014 so you'll be buying a 2 year old car with that many miles on it. Most likely the dealership will still want like 18k for the car so they can still make their money.

24990 - 9600 = 15390

So just off estimation and that's not including paying for other things like maintenance, insurance, tires, etc, etc, etc the dealership is gonna charge you on avg like 2-3 grand more so they can get some more money out of it.

 

I know that I'll be paying the difference between how much the final price we agree on is and what we negotiate the final price of the car to be at the end of the 2 years, then the monthly payments will be based on that. Still if we agree on 18k for the buy out price it'll be far less than the amount I've found for 25-30,000 miles used cars which are at 21,000 on average, plus the fact that they are selling them from 4-5k under what other dealerships are. This would be only if I couldn't afford to buy, but it seems like a good second option because if I buy it I wouldn't have to worry about the 12-15 thousand mile a year limit, they don't make you pay that at the end of the lease if you buy the car and I drive only 10k a year anyway, road trips included. I'm going to talk to them today about buying and see what happens

 

Buying is definitely my first choice though, even if I have to wait

 

Not to mention, under lease I don't think you're allowed to do any modifications to the car.

 

Yeah I thought about that but I'm only planning on wheels and possibly an exhaust and I could definitely wait for those anyway. The car pretty much has everything I want already

 

Leasing now, with the full intention of purchasing later, simply because you can't afford to purchase now is generally a bad idea.

You are, in effect, spending more money because you can't afford to buy what you want at the moment, so you are, instead, attempting to spend MORE money on the same purchase, spread out over more time for the instant gratification of buying the car you want right now.

The smart, but not immediately satisfactory, thing to do in this case is to save up money to put towards a down payment until you have enough saved up that you can actually afford the purchase you want at a payment that makes sense for you.

At least, that's what the voice of reason sitting on your left shoulder is whispering in your ear. The devil on the right shoulder is saying "F-it man, lease that bad boy right now, worry about the details later!"

 

I understand, but the money you pay monthly for a lease is the depreciation of the car plus some extra fees and tax right? So say i lease it at 24,990, then they say itll be worth 20,000 on the contract before negotiations are done. Then the monthly payments are based off of that 4,990+tax and some fee's. Then at the end of the lease you can try to negotiate that price down even further, since the dealership would loose money sending it to auction. So finance it for 20,000 and if my driving is consistent as it had been under 10k miles a year it would technically be worth more than that since the estimate would be at 24-30k miles. That's what I'm getting from all of the financial websites that go through all of the inner workings of financing and leasing

 

I'm not disregarding your advice, I really appreciate the feedback,I'm just confused because everything I've seen about leasing tells me that it's not always the money pit people say it is (all of the time, it can be, but an educated person can see that before signing the paperwork once everything is talked out), plenty of people buy their leased cars for a good price, plus Mitsubishi offers some good cash bonuses and rebates for previous mitsubishi owners. Being out of town from them I just want to see what the numbers are over the phone which they said would be fine. I was just hoping someone on here is currently leasing to give me an idea of what the end price was

 

Realize and understand that with leasing you do not get the rebates or dealercash, the only thing you will get it the $500 loyalty rebate. The end price will determine based on the residual value... You are more than welcome to call me on thursday and I can go over all the options for you ...
I do run a dealership I can tell you all the options.
PM me if interested and I will give you my number.
Travis

 

Let's see... you lease for $400 a month for 24 months. Then finance 18000 for 48 months at 3.7%, which is $400 a month. (Mind you, you're limited on mileage for the first 24 months)

Now, if you were to finance. $25000 OTD, with $3000 down, 60 months @ 3.7% is $400 a month for 60 months.

So you're looking at $400 a month for 72 months leasing vs $400 a month for 67 months (including the initial $3000).

That's all assuming you actually get it for 25000 OTD.

Also, not sure if you've looked at the maintenance.

I'll give you a breakdown of what I've spent so far @58000 miles.

The first thing you're gonna have to do is spend $800 or so for a set of winter or at least all-season tires. This is cause the car comes with summer tires.

Now, on top of that, synthetic oil every 3-5000 miles vs regular with your DE.
TC-SST fluid change ~10-15k mark, then again ~60k, recommended. The DIY price for fluid alone is $300 + $130 for the filter. At the dealer, even more. I do my own maintenance in the driveway, which is much cheaper than dealer.

Then you have the ACD fluid change (I did it once). Rear diff, transfer case. Brakes you're probably gonna wanna use more (this car is FUN), etc etc.

In the past 3.5 years, I've put almost 60k miles on the car. Combined with a set of new tires, a set of rims with winter tires, all the service on it, I think I shelled out an additional $4000.

Also factor in insurance. I'm paying $1400 every 6 months with Geico (I shopped around), or $2800 a year for full coverage. I suspect it's probably half of that with a DE.

Then there's the gas, premium only, which is a good 30 cents over regular. 19000 mi a year @ average of 21mpg (unless you have a lot of highway), vs say 25mpg with a DE (i'm assuming), means 140 gallons extra ($4.20 a gal) + 760 gallons at 30 cents extra = ~$800 a year in gas.

So... split the difference in maintenance and insurance down the middle, you're looking at ~2700, or $220 a month EXTRA over your DE.

Also, I've spent like 1500 on lawyers so far, no points, no moving violations

 

OP:
All good info for/against the decision.

But top-level view - if you are 'just barely able to swing the deal' because it is a lease (and factor in the loss on the DE sale too)... Then you are not ready to 'jump yet'. You need extra money for that 'rainy day'/emergent expense so you don't have to dip into credit/face credit crunch and possibly lose the car down the road.

Gloom/doom? Perhaps - but reality says 'schtuff happens' and the unprepared pay more when it happens...

Not a sermon - just a thought

 

ill add a little something here:

i lease mine, $270 a month after taxes, i think the invoice was $27.5k. 3 years, 15k miles a year, $2500 down, $1000 loyalty rebate. ive modded mine to the point where i can put it back to stock; springs, drop in, intercooler and pipes, bov, test pipe, flaps, tint, and a cobb accessport. all things i can reverse back to stock (minus the tint). i do not intend on purchasing my car after my lease. my dealership will more the likely just try to get me into another lease, at about the same payment. so what? im in the leasing pattern, i never own a car, but i do have a new car every 3 years....

 

+1

I always tell people that if they have to ask (or really mull over) about the finances, they can't afford it.

I've been there, done that, and being on the edge wasn't fun at all. You worry about every little thing. I could've bought an evo mr, m3, etc, but it's nice to know that I can total it at the track, walk away, and buy another one tomorrow without worrying about it. (Actually I won't cause I'm trying to save up a large down payment on a home).

Most of the time on windy back country roads, I'm only using about 50% of the full potential of the car anyway. So driving the DE at 90% probably brings as much fun. The one or 2 times where I did push the car to 90% on the road (not a track), I found myself hurling down a narrow desolate back country road at near triple digit speeds, not cool. AWD is nice in the winter though.

 

Are you crazy?! That's awesome! One of the best parts about owning one of these. You get like 85% of the perks of the Evo with only 70% of the cost and spirited driving such as you describe.

I live in Southern CA so the AWD is nothing more but extra grip for me, but I do like having the ability to go ANYWHERE and just change the AWC instead of changing vehicles. I've actually seen some of the more rally spec Evo's/Ralliart's go places where lifted trucks and off road vehicles won't go. It's pretty hilarious watching an Evo 9 drive into the sand at glamis and kick the crap out of drag buggies up a huge dune. Hell I used to do it in my old WRX