RudeBwayz

what should I do????

Looks like I'll have the S4 next week sometime.

Thermal

Question 1) How long will you really keep the car. Be honest. If its less than 4 years then you should lease.

Question 2) How much can you spend on your monthly payment? If its less than $700 you need to lease.

Question 3) Do you live in a state with crappy lease laws, and you've decided to lease. If so, then you need to do premier instead.

Question 4) Are you going to mod the hell out of it. If so you need to buy and never look back.

RudeBwayz

keep for maybe 3 years at the longest.

want to spend under 700 a month

want to do some mods, like short shift, tint, 19's, maybe a chip & exhaust, maybe a body kit.(do you know if I could do all this to a leased car??)

digital dog

If you lease, you'll have to return the car "stock" after the lease. Chipping, that may be fine (lose the chip at lease end). But other modifications that alter the body or so forth will not fly with a lease.

Another important consideration; how many miles do you put on a car each year? You will have to sign a lease with a certain mileage cap (10K a year, 15K a year), the more miles you want, the higher your costs for a lease. And if you sign a lease for say 12K a year and go over that (total miles over the length of the lease), you'll likely pay as much a 20 cents a mile OVER what you agreed to. That can really hurt!

Leasing works well for business (for tax reasons). It works great for people that baby their cars because you need to return the car in great condition. It's great for people that "need" a new car every 3 years or so. It's great for people that can keep the total mileage down. It's great for people that want more car then they could afford if they purchased. You are not purchasing a car when you lease, you are purchasing the use of that car. You can't do anything you want with that car because technically, its not YOUR car. If you can live with these issues, leasing can be a great deal.

Thermal

If you buy a second ECU and chip then you'll be ok, then then you've spent $1200 that you cannot really get back when you turn in the car... unless you want to take a chance on ebay.

Just remember that with a lease you don't own the car and the dealer dosn't have to pay you for any cosmetic mods you make to it that are permanent, some dealers even charge you for altering the car. Tint is ok, 19's are a bit much, but ok as well. I don't know much about short shifters... but it falls into the same category as exhaust changes that some dealers will have an issue with.

I wouldn't risk it past the ECU upgrade for performance changes with a lease. But of course this is all my opinion knowing what dealers in my area will work with. Your mileage may vary.

But if you want to turn it into an asphalt spitting lean race machine, you may really want to consider buying it and finding a tuner that will warranty the work. But you are looking at least an $800 payment on the car for five years. Where you can lease for three for about $630 or so. Really depends on how serious you are into modding it.

RudeBwayz

exhaust would probably be a bad idea, but I would go for the chip. The 19's (maybe 18's) I would just keep at the end and put the stock wheels back on.

Do you know of any tuners that will warranty the car if I buy it and mod it?

How about coilovers do you know how that would fly with a lease??

dr. leases

If you mod it past the point of no return then buy the car out at the end of the lease or sell it near the end of your lease and pay it off.
Lease = you own your car
buy = you own your own car
pay in full with cash = you own your own car

just lease it, mod it, when lease is up turn in back to stock as much as possible, have garage sale, thats it. You can even find an Audi dealer to BUY your car at lease end.

jackstraw

Remember, you only have to worry about how many miles you put on the car if you hand the keys back to the dealer at the end of the lease period. If you sell the car or get out of it (and maybe into a new one) before the lease is up... mileage doesn't matter (other than affecting the KBB value).

Thermal

But if you start doing web searches eventually you'll run across a few. Try some APR affiliates in your area if there any.

Then again, even if you are in SW Ohio I couldn't really help. The only place I know is in Columbus and they warranty their work for the remainder of the Audi Manufacturers warranty.

Just search the web. They'll turn up eventually.