Opinions on cars?

[Dynamic]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

why buy though? lease is almost always your best option.

i dont know about any of you, but why turn 20k into 15? You can lease the same 20k care for 10k. People seem to think having equity in a car is good? Screw that, let the bank own it, your money is better used elsewhere.

For many people thats not even an option. If you do any highway driving where the km's add up you gotta buy.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by Dynamic

For many people thats not even an option. If you do any highway driving where the km's add up you gotta buy.

fair enough, but you can lease based on an extended km's.

my point remains, too many people are caught in the old school way of thinking about paying for cars and it is for most part mistaken.

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by me_dennis

have you considered a VW rabbit?
it's about the same price as a civic, but it comes fully loaded with power everything, a/c, and you can even get heated seats and side view mirrors.. the heated seats are awesome in the wintertime!

i have a 5door VW rabbit and my sister has a 2door civic lx-g.. she paid like 500 dollars less than what i paid for my rabbit (~$23000) and i've got a lot more standard options than she does.. my dad likes my rabbit better because he says that the ride is quieter and smoother than the civic.. plus the VW interior is a lot nicer than the civic..

another bonus is the rabbit has more power than the civic.. as for gas mileage, the rabbit is a 2.5L 5 cylinder engine, so the mileage isn't as great as a civic, but i still get 550kms per 50L tank, so it's not a gas guzzler by any means..

anyways, just thought i'd give my input.. good luck on the car shopping!

I was going to recommend this. Although I would get that bit more and get the GTI (personally I am thinking about it in a years time along with an A4).

Also, if you do want to spend the extra money, buy German. Although this can get pricey so I won't list many (The new A4 is what I am getting in a year's time)

While the Astra looks better than the Civic, which looks good, the civic is a better car. Also, it may be a Euro car but Opel isn't that good of a badge in the first place, and they are owned by GM. Just like the British Chevy's are actually Korean.

I would say go with the Astra, if you had to choose between the two. I say go buy a Rabbit (or GTI ), if you want a better vehicle. Toyota Aigo is quite good, and the Suzuki Swift is a good little car as well.

[Machiavelli]

Does leasing still make sense if you would be using a credit line to pay for a car and have say, more than 100K at prime in this credit line?

[Ayrahb]

If they brought the 6-speed, 1.3L diesel Astra to Canada I'd be all over it.

[C-Four]

i am going to have to put in another plug for the subaru's recently got an impreza and I absolutely love it. Price may seem higher at first but it's base model already has a lot of options included so it kind of evens out. 750 grad rebate too. Gas is going to be higher than the two you got there but it's also AWD....

[AFireInside]

As far as the subaru's go. I do like them. However, financing, higher price, and shorter terms make the payments more than I care to pay.

The saturn comes in just under 300 if I put down about 500. The honda comes in around 300 if I put down 2000.


That is where I'd like to stay to tell you the truth. I can afford more, but don't really see the point when these two cars meet my needs... Plus gas mileage is important as well..

[Machiavelli]

^ Actually, if you can afford to dish it out, the 2008 Subaru Impreza (2.5i) has a $4000 cash rebate.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

why buy though? lease is almost always your best option.

i dont know about any of you, but why turn 20k into 15? You can lease the same 20k care for 10k. People seem to think having equity in a car is good? Screw that, let the bank own it, your money is better used elsewhere.

Can you qualify that statement with any facts? It's not true what so ever.

Even your example shows that buying will save someone $5000

Over the long term leasing is always more expensive. There are reasons to consider leasing, but it's rarely to save money.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Have you considered going 1-2 years old and getting a better car, or the same car for less money? Brand new is throwing away a large amount money.

A lot of dealerships such as Acura and BMW have good financing rates on used cars too. For example, Acura will give you 3.9 on 3 years, so if you got a good price on a 2006/7 civic from there, you could save a lot.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Have you considered going 1-2 years old and getting a better car, or the same car for less money? Brand new is throwing away a large amount money.

A lot of dealerships such as Acura and BMW have good financing rates on used cars too. For example, Acura will give you 3.9 on 3 years, so if you got a good price on a 2006/7 civic from there, you could save a lot.

Wow I didn't realize the financing was so good on those used. I will definitely check them out. I was at a dealership mazda I think, and they wanted over 5% for just a 2008. I had to get a 2008.5 to get 0%..

[Coach]

I would go for the Astra. Thats a car I really wanted but was just a tad out of my price range. (I ended up with a Nissan Versa sedan which is awesome)..sounds like the better deal.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I would go for the Astra. Thats a car I really wanted but was just a tad out of my price range. (I ended up with a Nissan Versa sedan which is awesome)..sounds like the better deal.

Yeah I would probably be driving a versa today if I found that I fit well, I found the seat didn't go back as far as I would have liked... I'm surprised its out of your price range though, based on the quote I got from nissan I'm only saving about 30 bucks a month by going with the astra. Although I drove the versa hatchback not sure if there is a price difference.

I'm going to go and test drive both again. The day I drove the astra I had driven 4 other cars I did not like so it may have seemed a lot better than it really is. So I'll test each again I guess. My only real concern with the saturn is resale. Otherwise I think I like it more than the civic as I was in the market for a hatch to start with, and the fit doesn't really appeal to me. It comes down to the saturn dealership offering me 750 for my old car, two free months of payments (600 bucks), 750 off the price, plus a $500 gas card. Honda gives me absolutely nothing. Plus Saturn called me today to see if there was anything they could do to earn my business.

Regardless it comes down to one more test drive for sure..... See if the astra has enough pep...

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Can you qualify that statement with any facts? It's not true what so ever.

Even your example shows that buying will save someone $5000

Over the long term leasing is always more expensive. There are reasons to consider leasing, but it's rarely to save money.

sure i can ... and using more accurate #'s from my real life experiance, sorry the earlier post was just off my head.

how do you not see that spending 25k on a car and is not more expensive than spending 14k on the same car.

i just leased a 2008 JEtta. Here are details:

1) i could have purchased. either give them 25k outright from my bank or $550 per month.

2) i could lease at 300 per month, 0 down.

Now who wants to OWN a VW without a warrenty? this is a 4 year proposition.

option 1 costs me between 25 and 26k and after 4 years I have a liability (not an asset because it continues to depreciate AND now i have no warrenty) worth say 13k at most.

option 2 costs me 14k and i can pocket the difference of about 250 per month. after 4 years i have 12k in cash built up and its liquid. in option 1, all that equity is not only tied up in metal in my parking lot, its going down every month.

i see no reason to not lease a new car every 4 years.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by AFireInside

Yeah I would probably be driving a versa today if I found that I fit well, I found the seat didn't go back as far as I would have liked... I'm surprised its out of your price range though, based on the quote I got from nissan I'm only saving about 30 bucks a month by going with the astra. Although I drove the versa hatchback not sure if there is a price difference.

I'm going to go and test drive both again. The day I drove the astra I had driven 4 other cars I did not like so it may have seemed a lot better than it really is. So I'll test each again I guess. My only real concern with the saturn is resale. Otherwise I think I like it more than the civic as I was in the market for a hatch to start with, and the fit doesn't really appeal to me. It comes down to the saturn dealership offering me 750 for my old car, two free months of payments (600 bucks), 750 off the price, plus a $500 gas card. Honda gives me absolutely nothing. Plus Saturn called me today to see if there was anything they could do to earn my business.

Regardless it comes down to one more test drive for sure..... See if the astra has enough pep...

Well its because the Astra had JUST came out here and price at around 21 000 while the Versa is about 15 000 I pay 200/ month for the sedan with a/c automatic windows and locks. Standard transmission

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

sure i can ... and using more accurate #'s from my real life experiance, sorry the earlier post was just off my head.

how do you not see that spending 25k on a car and is not more expensive than spending 14k on the same car.

i just leased a 2008 JEtta. Here are details:

1) i could have purchased. either give them 25k outright from my bank or $550 per month.

2) i could lease at 300 per month, 0 down.

Now who wants to OWN a VW without a warrenty? this is a 4 year proposition.

option 1 costs me between 25 and 26k and after 4 years I have a liability (not an asset because it continues to depreciate AND now i have no warrenty) worth say 13k at most.

option 2 costs me 14k and i can pocket the difference of about 250 per month. after 4 years i have 12k in cash built up and its liquid. in option 1, all that equity is not only tied up in metal in my parking lot, its going down every month.

i see no reason to not lease a new car every 4 years.

If you're going to compare, you must do so fairly, and not remove the most important element of option 1. Resale

Keeping with a 4 year plan, option 1 you would resell the car after 4 years. This costs you 25-13 (12 K total) and you have 13K liquid when all said and done. (going by your numbers)

Total cost is $2000 less than lease, and cash in pocket after 4 years is $1000 more. Pretty simple

In most real life examples, the differences won't even be this close. Your total 4 year cost on a purchase will be much less then the lease. The VW your bought has exceptional lease rates right now that keep the differences close, but this is not the case with most cars.

Most dealers have much higher lease rates then finance rates and you pay much more interest by going lease.
There are advantages to leasing: new car every few years, don't have to go through the hastle of selling it, lower monthly payment (which could allow your to invest elsewhere), warrenty, tax benefit for some.
However, saving money overall is not an advantage to leasing.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

sure i can ... and using more accurate #'s from my real life experiance, sorry the earlier post was just off my head.

how do you not see that spending 25k on a car and is not more expensive than spending 14k on the same car.

i just leased a 2008 JEtta. Here are details:

1) i could have purchased. either give them 25k outright from my bank or $550 per month.

2) i could lease at 300 per month, 0 down.

Now who wants to OWN a VW without a warrenty? this is a 4 year proposition.

option 1 costs me between 25 and 26k and after 4 years I have a liability (not an asset because it continues to depreciate AND now i have no warrenty) worth say 13k at most.

option 2 costs me 14k and i can pocket the difference of about 250 per month. after 4 years i have 12k in cash built up and its liquid. in option 1, all that equity is not only tied up in metal in my parking lot, its going down every month.

i see no reason to not lease a new car every 4 years.

That may work in some scenario's. When I looked at the cost of leasing the Civic over 4 years, with nothing down it saves me about 50 dollars a month. If I drive this car for 8 years, I will have 2 - 3 years without payments (I figure I will pay the car off a littler earlier.) So if you lease two vehicles over 8 years and I pay one off in 5 I will save 500 a month for the extra 3 years. If you go 2 or 3 years payment free thats 12-15,000. Then lets say I sell it for 4 or 5 thousand. Then we're up to 16,000. Of course there will be maintenance as well, but if I drive 20,000 km a year thats only 160,000km. By that point the maintenance shouldn't be outrageous but you never know.

I am aware that money in the future is not worth as much as money in the present, but its still something to consider.

You also have to take into account any dings and scratches that will cost you when you bring the lease back.

In some cases I do think leasing makes sense, with the astra ,0% financing, leasing doesn't make a whole lot of sense, you aren't saving that much money. I think it all depends on the financing rates etc. My brother just leased an infinity G37, makes sense for him to do that.

I just don't like the restrictions of leasing, km, etc.

That said I will still be looking it into before my final decision. I honestly don't need a new car every 4 years. I drove my last car for 4 years and its a total piece of crap ,1992 pontiac le mans, doesn't bother me one bit. If it was more reliable I'd still be driving it. But its approaching 20 years old now as well.

To be honest if someone knew much about working on cars they could probably run that little car another 5-10 years. It only has 150,000 km on it as it is. Anyone interested in a little cheap on gas hatch back? Far as I know its just a new alternator, probably best for driving in spring and summer back and forth to work.

[Flames in 07]

Honda by miles. Even if they have similar sticker prices the Saturn will cost more the day you sell the vehicle off. Do some homework on how each car deppreciates, that is one of the most important costs of a car, and almost nobody factors that in.

[chummer]

Just bought an Accord....sweet ride.

If you're in the market for a Honda go to Okotoks.....best deal by far if you know how to negotiate.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

If you're going to compare, you must do so fairly, and not remove the most important element of option 1. Resale

Keeping with a 4 year plan, option 1 you would resell the car after 4 years. This costs you 25-13 (12 K total) and you have 13K liquid when all said and done. (going by your numbers)

Total cost is $2000 less than lease, and cash in pocket after 4 years is $1000 more. Pretty simple

In most real life examples, the differences won't even be this close. Your total 4 year cost on a purchase will be much less then the lease. The VW your bought has exceptional lease rates right now that keep the differences close, but this is not the case with most cars.

Most dealers have much higher lease rates then finance rates and you pay much more interest by going lease.
There are advantages to leasing: new car every few years, don't have to go through the hastle of selling it, lower monthly payment (which could allow your to invest elsewhere), warrenty, tax benefit for some.
However, saving money overall is not an advantage to leasing.

actually:

550 x 48 months = 26,400
minus resale of 13,000 = 12,400

vs

12k + accumlated interest.

so on that front its identicle EXCEPT:

the person with the cash is liquid and growing
the person with the car has to sell it, at a expense possible and the longer they dont sell it the more it depreciates AND if it has a repair need after the warrenty is over, its value is even less.

if you shop right, there is no reason to not lease (with some exceptions of course)