crofty82

Taken from a blog post the wife was reading about life in Canada:



Is this true? Can’t recall car leasing discussed on here much, if at all.

We get let out of quarantine on Monday and getting a car is pretty high on the priority list.

scilly

No it is not true!

Lots of people do lease cars, especially young men wanting to show off. They lease very expensive cars for $200 or $300 or more a month, then turn them in every year. That also means that they have to have some way to pay that amount of money per month .......... here in BC it tends to equate to IT workers or gang members.

Our accountant told us years ago when we asked him about leasing a car instead of paying for a new one over time ........ it's only really worthwhile leasing if you can write off the lease payments against a business, otherwise you're just throwing your money away.

True or not, I don't know ........... but it seemed to be true for us, as we keep our cars for at least 10 years!

I actually don't know anyone who seems to be leasing a car, ie a new one every 1 or 2 years ........... we all seem to buy and keep, whether that be buying a new car or a second hand one.


BTW, we've always bought our cars using a Line of Credit with a bank, they've always had a lower interest than the deals offered by the car dealer's insurance group. We can also pay of the LOC as much as we can afford every month instead of being limited by an agreement of number of years or whatever.

bats

there are plenty of rust buckets on the road that's true but we've had decent second hand cars.
We lease now. Sums were done and it works out cheaper than purchase especially if you're older and withdrawing RSPs for downpayments.

R I C H

I think you’re a bit out of touch regarding the monthly cost of leasing something ‘very expensive’. $2,000 p/mth upwards gets you into German or Italian sports car/luxury territory.

dbd33

I've had a dozen or so leased cars and lots of owned/financed ones. Leasing makes sense to me if the car isn't driven much and is driven in a low wear and tear environment so, when we lived in central Toronto, it was a good option. In the country where typically one drives 40,000+km per year on gravel roads it doesn't work because the mileage is over (and that's expensive) and the gravel tears up the paint meaning that the car cannot be returned in reasonable condition. As scilly says, leasing was more of an option when there were better write offs, it may be good for rural dwellers again if the corona virus means that offices never reopen and there's no commuting.

It's a matter of personal choice, leasing is a way to always have a recent car at a reasonable cost but that's not as cheap as buying a car and keeping it until it rusts out. Note also that lease payments are an obligation, not a debt, they don't count against you when qualifying for a mortgage; that could be important if you're at the "first time buyer, scary debt level" stage of life.

On the used car/rust bucket thing. I bought a used car in April. It's from 2011 and has no rust at all, That's not rare if you buy someone else's summer car, you don't have to limit usage to summer.

HGerchikov

We go the buy new and keep them until they rust out (or our youngest son writes them off). Our first two cars when we arrived were both used and they were fine, we got them from a dealer that offered a few months warranty for peace of mind. We really don't care what we drive in terms of status - just needs to be practical, cheap to run and capable of dealing with Canadian winters. As a result we have 2 Fords - a Fusion for regular driving and an F150 for the farm. Both were purchased new - the Fusion is a 2013 and is beginning to show some rust spots on the bonnet, but to be honest we abuse it (rarely washed and gravel roads), the F150 is from 2017 and doesn't leave the farm that often. If you want a new car every couple of years - its probably worth looking into the leasing option and doing the sums.

DigitalGhost

I'm not sure I like that generalisation.

I never realised IT was so lucrative in BC though, I might have to give that a look. I've always ruled out Vancouver in the past due to its distance from the UK and what I'd heard was a high cost of living versus crappy wages.

DMajor

I've bought a few 'used' motors, mainly Jeeps.
It would be fair to say the engines and gearboxes outlive the bodies unless you're very lucky.
Have never leased in my life, maybe something to consider.

CanadaJimmy

Not really true, I bought my car, a mid-2000s Honda Civic, for about $5000. The BS part is the fact you have to pay sales tax on used cars.

Photoplex

FTFY

R I C H

Danny B

Thanks to COVID and the lack of brand new cars, the used car market is HOT right now. Dealers are now paying retail prices at auction.

If you need a car under $10k, my suggestion is to get it inspected and buy privately until things settle down.

scrubbedexpat091

From the constant comments people in the Vancouver IT market say, the pay does suck, at least compared to what is found in Seattle and California..... but the wages in the tech world still tend to be above median so your still gonna do better then your typical Vancouver worker not in tech.

I leased a car once in 1999, and never would again, seems like a waste of money, but I'd rather keep a car for a decade or more, and we tend to drive more then leases permit, so that wouldn't work either very well.....and I wouldn't want to be in the cycle of payments, while we financed out car, at least when the last payment was made, we got to keep the car....

Siouxie

Getting a vehicle that has been undersealed can help with rusting issues caused by salt on roads.
https://cansumer.ca/rust-proofing-cost/
https://www.mightyauto.ca/myths-and-...rust-proofing/

Piff Poff

I'd say no the the statement everyone leases cars. It's more of buying on finance or buying second hand if you have the cash. There are lots of rust buckets. Almost every used vehicle we have bought needs a new windshield, new brakes and new tyres. My current vehicle is 20 years old and is starting to show a few rust bubbles, I really like it but it's time to move it along, we have a puppy now so something that has more pup room than an audi TT is needed, I think I'm getting the mini OH is working on.

you can find very good used cars you have to look hard, be prepared for lots of wasted journeys. We 2 weeks ago, went to look at a crossfire, I was taking the pup for a wee walk while hubby was looking around the car prior to texting the owner we were there, he hopped back in the truck, texted the owner to say it wasn't for us. When you can see you need to spend 1500 bucks before opening the door you know the deal isn't that great. 3 hour round trip.

edited to add, the used car market at the moment is hopping due to the short supply of new vehicles. People are expecting even more than they were for their junk mobiles.