nvsocr7

Hey everyone, what's your take on leasing or buying a 2018 Q7 prestige @ $78k custom ordered. Miles don't matter to me as I doubt i'll hit the limit in these first few years, I don't see cars as an investment so I know leasing may be a little more than buying in the long run, and I am someone who likes tech and would like to upgrade every few years/as major advances occur.

1. With this scenario, is leasing or buying better? I'd assume leasing, but what about purchase->trade after 3 years?
2. How much more am I "wasting" by leasing vs buying say over 10 years, assuming I'd be staying in this car pricing segment.
3. What to look for when leasing? Specifics to audi?
4. Downsides of leasing an Audi?
5. Any other advice or tricks?

I know there are a lot of generic lease vs buying guides, but I'd like to know your personal experiences with this as well as with audi (one dealer mentioned if you hit your miles, you can break your lease early? how does that work? I assume you'd have to break it and lease another audi?)

mrp0rky

i have that same dilemma too when i ordered the vehicle. but i ended up financing it.. lease offers for the prestige is about $890/month with a $7K down.. where if i would buy mine with my specs MSRP $71k after the discount and taxes and fees out the door would be $73k, that puts me at around $1200/month with the same $7k Down.. so there is a couple $$$ difference but is not big.. if the lease rates was around $750 then i would go lease it.. also since you would go over the miles might as well just purchase the vehicle..

BigKutta

You can read as many comparisons as you'd like and most will say leasing is a bad idea, unless of course your company is paying for it. Now, if you want to lease that's up to you...but dont try and make financial sense of it.

Me personally, I keep cars for 8 years or so, and having 3 now, there is always a new, or somewhat new car in the mix, along with one that's getting long in the tooth.

juventuss

We went in planning on leasing. But after reading through the comments here and running the numbers, it made more sense to finance. Plus we keep our cars for quite a while (had my Golf for over 14yrs).

rcq7

Honestly, I've never leased and prior to this Q7 my youngest vehicle is 9 years old. That being said, I don't have confidence that the new tech infested vehicles will last as long as all my other vehicles with as many worry free miles. I'm starting to wonder if leasing may be the better route. This Q7 replaced a 1999.5 Nissan Pathfinder LE with 258,000+ miles on the clock and aside from a new A/C compressor and a couple of A/c actuators, everything else was original. I was able to get leaky gaskets and main seal repaired for reasonable prices and made the $1500 expenditure every couple of years (started happening the last 4 yrs) bearable. With all the new tech, I don't know if I will be able to keep them for more then the warranty time that comes with them.

nvsocr7

I know its not financially responsible, neither is owning an $80k car, however, I guess my real concern is: if I lease for 3 years vs buy then trade in, which is better? At the end of the day, no matter what I do, are we talking a 1-2 thousand or in the $10k range in terms of price difference.

I'll make things as equal as possible(correct me if that's not the way to compare)
Lease: 965$/month, 36 mo, 15,000 miles, 7735 down payment
Finance: 2,063/month, 36 mo, 3.9% APR, 7735 down payment
- so lets say in 3-4 years, I'll likely be wanting to upgrade/change to a new chicle. In this case, doesn't it make sense to go with the lease? Or does the difference in value come in the fact that I can sell/trade off my vehicle at the end of 3 years if I finance? I know I'm missing something in this equation!

nvsocr7

This is also a concern of mine. Cars are no longer built to last/the way they used to. I want to get all the bells and whistles but I can't imagine these things lasting 5+ years without issue, especially the adaptive suspension and dual clutch. Not only that, but the tech improves each revision and sometimes by a significant margin. Plus, you really only find out if you love or hate a car after a few months of driving, so leasing gives you an "out" although it will cost you-it's still less than having the entire vehicle paid.

rcq7

here is a lease vs buy calculator.

Lease vs Buy A Car | Bankrate.com

hope this helps.

mrp0rky

how long do you actually keep a car for? if you only keep your cars for 2-3 years and you tend to get bored driving it then by all means go ahead and lease. but most of us here keep our cars for 5 or more years so its better to purchase it.. also take into consideration how many miles are you going use in that 3 yrs time.. and what ever miles you go over after your limit multiply it by 0.25..

AudiFanFL

I already knew I would keep mine for three years only so leasing or financing was almost a wash.

I decided to lease because I got free maintenance and GAP-insurance with it.

Due to the bad lease deals on the Q7 at that time, financing wouldn't have been much more but in the end, there was no reason for me not to lease. It was still cheaper - although far less than usual.