Cars - leased or buying?
 

My wife and I are emigrating to NS sometime this year, and it occurred to me that there are a number of options when it comes to cars.

Buying a car is one option with many advantages not least that you own the car - but potentially expensive in the short term, which will bite into our limited resources once we land.

Does anyone have experiences of leasing cars? It's not something we do very often over here in the uk and I was curious about it.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

If you don't have the capability to write-off the leasing costs then the consensus is that it is not the correct thing to do. However the financing costs/monthly payments are considerably less and that's what drove the leasing business up until a couple of years ago, and, of course, you can be driving a new car every 2-3-4 years. But, of course, you never own the vehicle, so you must ask yourself if it's money down the drain. If you decide to lease make sure you have an accurate estimation of what your mileage will be during the length of the lease. The penalty for exceeding will be costly. You should be aware that at end of lease, vehicle will be closely examined for any damages, however slight, and excessive wear and tear. You could, will probably, be penalized financially for that.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

I've done both here.

When I owned a business, leasing made sense as I could write off the monthly payments. The end of the lease happily coincided with the sale of the business, and I had a couple of choices to make. The cost of buying out the lease (and owning the vehicle) was lower than the vehicle's market value, so I chose to purchase it, to take advantage of the equity I had in it. If there hadn't been any equity, I would have walked away from it.

I subsequently sold the vehicle and used the equity towards the cash purchase of another one. Leasing doesn't make sense to me without having the benefit of being able to offset the cost.

Bear in mind that as a newcomer with no credit history, you may find that leasing isn't an option, or that a substantial deposit is required. Putting a large capital sum into a lease vehicle makes little sense unless you have a firm intention to buy out the lease at the end of its term.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

When we landed we leased ours thorough Ford and have since changed this vehicle and now lease through Hyundai. When we handed the Ford back we got a bill for two new tyres which they said would need changing within 6 months. I was not happy with this - my argument was that as a three year old vehicle with whatever milage it had on it (can't remember now) meant the tyre wear was not excessive, just normal wear & tear. We won (in a way) and only had to pay for one.

We do have a business so can claim a certain amount of the monthly payments back.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

We arranged a long term rent when we first hit canada, I think we negotiated down to about 800 bucks per month for a dodge nitro, which for a few months was great, obviously included all insurance (which would have been nearly 200 a month for that car) and no maintenance to worry about, in fact they even washed it for us every couple of weeks!. We ended up keeping it for about 6 months and when handing it back they offered a great deal to buy it.

We declined as we didnt really need a car over the summer. after a while we returned to renting, using cheap long weekend deals from budget and enterprise, we could pick up a car on thursdays and return it on tuesdays for about 80 bucks almost not worth buying.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

It would be handy to hear what people have paid for a car, what model and how old actually. I have absolutely no idea what to budget for a car when we do get around to buying one! Can you post your experience please? Thanks!

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

If you want a new car look at at least $30,000 CDN.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

I think the cheapest make of new cars price wise in Canada are the Hyundai's
http://hyundaicanada.com/

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

No, definitely looking for used ... What will 10-12K CDN buy you? This is in Toronto (if it makes a difference).

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

If it were the US I'd say quite a lot but used cars in Canada are very expensive. This might give you an idea.

Used cars for sale list

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

You can get a nicely specified small car on the road for less than $20,000. $2,000 - $3,000 less if you can do without A/C and Auto.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

In Toronto?

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

Oh, I don't know about Toronto. But a Nissan Versa 4 door Sedan starts at $12,698. Delivery and PDI to BC is $1,365. I can't imagine it will be more in TO. Add 5% + 8% and you are driving off the forecourt for less than $16,000 with no haggling.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

Come on, you need auto in Canada plus I wouldn't want to be without AC or ABS so with those, plus freight, it comes to $17,323.00 before taxes.

Re: Cars - leased or buying?
 

Eventually in 2008 we bought a 1998 jeep cherokee (3 door) for $5k. $1500 to insure annually in manitoba