gstrouse

One thing to consider on top of all the good points here. And I've done this twice. At the end of a lease, if you are under miles, you have equity in the car and it might make sense to purchase and sell it yourself. Why give that equity back to the dealer. I did that and ended up keeping the car for a total of 12 years. (2000 A4 1.8tq with all sports options). I also just purchased my latest a 2012 VW Tiguan. It was way over miles and it made sense to purchase and forgo the hit in excess miles charges. The down money I saved up front leasing I used at the end to purchase. In my Audi, I leased through a credit union and was able to negotiate my buyout and drop it another $2000.00.

snagitseven

I'm not sure what you mean you would have been covered with a lease after the warranty ran out unless you mean the lease would be up and you turned the car in before the warranty expired.

eric strauss

… I have had eight Audi's and leased them all, save for a 2009 A4 Cabriolet Sport Pkg that was so heavily discounted it made sense to buy. From my perspective, the rapid depreciation of Audi's is even more reason to lease as you are protected from the bottom falling out at trade-in. My experience has also been that I rarely finish a lease as my dealer will buy out my lease and offer some other interesting deal - such as the new RS5 that we have now. The Audi Loyalty money is always good (1-3K), plus other incentives. As far as modifications, I tend to stick with Cat-back systems, wheels and maybe brakes - all unbolt at turn-in time. The high sales tax in CA is further incentive to lease. As a result, my car is always under warrantee, I have gap coverage and I am driving new cars every 2-3 years.

Happy Motoring

Eric

A4Driver

Sorry for the confusion, but I meant that my warranty would still have been in effect by the time I turned the car in.
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Cprtrails

I must be the odd man out on this topic. There are plenty of resources to compare leasing vs. buying on the web and although leasing is a great option in certain cases, it is generally not cheaper. If you are considering the tax savings on a lease then you also have to consider the higher finance charges. Since you are only paying the depreciation, the principle amount remains high that the finance rate is amortized against. If you are disciplined enough to invest the difference between payments this could be off set, but most people are not.

My wife and I just bought a 2015 CPO A4 with 11K miles. I saved about $9K under the original MSRP so the initial depreciation hit is not out of my pocket. The car is CPO so it comes with the 6yr/100K CPO warranty. If we bought new, the warranty would only be 4 years, but now owning a CPO that's only been in service for 9 months, we have 5 years and 3 months of warranty. Saving almost $9K on a car that's practically new and getting more than a year added to the warranty is the way to go in my opinion. Most people I know that lease due so because they can't afford the higher payment of a loan or just want to convince themselves they need a new car every few years. If the latter is where you're at and you don't mind spending the money to have a new car every few years then leasing is your best bet, but i'm not sure it is a smarter financial decision.

I'll add that i'm a mechanic by trade and perform my own maintenance. I'll also tackle small to mid size repairs, so buying always appeals to me since I am able to save money on the service costs. I can certainly understand why someone that doesn't do their own work would consider leasing. I'm certainly not a financical expert so maybe i'm missing something.

irenesbob

I agree that leasing a brand new car vs. buying a heavily discounted used (CPO included) car is quite another matter. It may well be that your approach makes very good sense in terms of a financial decision, but I will likely keep leasing unless I see a really good 1 or 2 year old CPO. I think leasing a CPO/used car brings much higher implicit financing rates than on a new car, so then would buy the CPO.
However, even with only 11,000 miles on the clock, a CPO might need tires and brakes (usually not covered by warranty) within the first few years, which leasing new for 3 years likely will not.
Being a mechanic by trade helps with your decision. At the age of 73, financially able to “waste” some bucks and with parts and labor so high in NYS I really want to shy away from any repair/maintenance charges that I would have to pay out of pocket.
The fact that Audi would discount a current model year A4 with only 11,000 miles by $9,000 hints at something about the inherent resale value of an Audi (exactly what though I am not sure lol). It could be that with the A4 nearing the end of the B8 run, they are discounting even the new ones pretty heavily and so $9,000 off on a CPO falls within the same range. Do you know if the car you bought had been owned by an individual or was part of the dealer’s “loaner” fleet as is frequently the case with Audi models that are missing some in-demand options or has a not so popular color. I would personally be wary of loaners because a lot of people beat the hell out of them. The warranty the CPO offers helps, but small things like scratches on the dash, worn seats, etc. would hair me off.
I believe you can get a new 2015 A4 for 8-9% off MSRP. Assuming a $43,000 MSRP, the buy price for the new one would be discounted by about $3,600. That’s a delta of $5,400 compared to the $9,000 off on your 2015 CPO. That delta narrows when considering the 11,000 miles on your CPO that amounts to about $2,750 based on $.025/mile (conservative), down to $2,650 which might be the “real” savings inherent in buying a ’15 CPO. The plus of your approach is that in 3 or 4 years the resale value of the CPO is likely to be the same (assuming total mileage is the same) as if you had bought it new. A buyer 3 -4 years down the pike really won’t know or care that someone had bought it CPO for $9,000 off back in 2015.
In any event, good luck.

FWIW I am looking into CPO 911’s as a second “fun” car and almost every one I see that is reasonably priced has some accident record (non-structural) and that puts me off. Would you be worried about that or should I just assume that every car has a random chance of being hit by some idiot in its lifetime and just make the decision on what my brain and eyes tell me about how a 6-9 year old car looks and seems to run today?


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irenesbob

Does this take into consideration the $2,100 less sales tax I paid with easing compared to buying?

snagitseven

The way I look at it as if you are leasing, you are paying sales tax for renting the car for only that period of time. If purchasing, the car is yours and if you keep it for a longer period of time, a portion of the sales tax you paid is offset by the remaining equity, which is yours as well.

Also, keep in mind that with a purchase, if you trade your car in (not sell to a private party), you get back a significant portion of sales tax paid since the tax on the new car is calculated only on the difference.

There is no right answer as to which is better. It depends lots of variables and your individual situation. There is also a personal state of mind component for owning rather than renting. For example, some people prefer to pay monthly for a streaming music subscription and others prefer to buy their music as their own to keep. Pride in ownership vs. pride in renting? Maybe there is something to that for some folks.

Cprtrails

Our A4 was a loaner, however we looked at several and this was in great shape. There is only one paint chip about the size of a pin head that a dot of touch up paint will hide, but otherwise I couldn't find any scratches unlike others we considered. The color is Glacier white metallic with black interiror which is a desirable color combo (colors we wanted) and it is a Premium Plus, with tech package, and Bang & Olufsen speaker system so it had all the options we desired.

The original sticker on our car with options was $44.9K and we paid $36,125.00 so I would estimate I could get the same car new with incentives for about $42K so I figured the delta to my price was about $6K. When combined with the extra year and 3 months of warranty this seemed like the right buy for us. We did have several months to find the right car which helps.

If I were in your shoes, I would not touch a 911 with known paint or body damage. I'm sure you can find one that is clean and that would be my choice. Good luck finding one, wish I could afford one.

SFV A4

Leasing is good if you like a newer car, that cost more than what you would have been able to buy.
Leasing is bad because you never really gain any equity in the product and you have to keep coughing up a down payment every few years. When you add all that up, say over ten years, sometimes it's more costly than if you just bought the car.

Look at your longterm goal. What is more important to you? The nice car now or getting out of the trap of long-term payments? It's really your call what suites you best.

For 15 years I leased because there was no way I could support my new car habit. Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I've settled on a reliable Lexus which I am holding onto and completely paying off. I never would have thought I'd be in this position now, but the idea of not having a car payment has won out over everything else.