Afternoon,
I just got my lease contract and for those of you that are curious on costs of leasing versus buying. My build total cost is about $120,000 and my rent charge (basically leasing language for interest charges) is $17,500. The leasing credit of $7,500 means that my cost versus buying is about $10,000. I don’t pay sales taxes on purchase because NC charges on monthly payments (the total over 36 months in taxes is $1,860).
If I financed the vehicle at 5% over 5 years my interest charges would be about $16,000 versus net $10,000 above and monthly payments would be about $500 per month more for the loan.
If I invest my $120,000 and $500 per month at 6% average return over 5 years…I would have about $196,000 in future value.
I can decide to buy car at $68,500 (57% of MSRP) 36 months at 10000 miles per year.
To me it doesn’t make sense to pay cash because if I invested $2250 monthly at 6% I would have $157,000. If I invested the $120,000 at 6% I would have $162,000.
Lastly, if I paid cash and invested at 6% and made payments from money over 5 years…seems like bad math because the rate paying is higher that rate earning.
In summary, leasing over financing seems like better math to me in almost every way.