R I C H

C'mon Mike, have you lost the ability to think for yourself?

Try here

and autotrader.ca too.

lifeisajourney

Also you might want to consider a lease takeover - where you take over some one else's lease that they need to get rid of for whatever reason, job loss, boredom, looking likely to overshoot the max mileage at the end of the term etc. Want you really want is someone who put a large wedge down as a deposit to make their (and subsequently your) monthly payments lower, or someone offering a cash incentive to take it over (sometimes up to a couple of thousand dollars. Once you've seen the car, checked it out etc you go through the a third party/dealer to officially take over the lease pay an admin/transfer fee. I don't know how this would work immediately upon arrival and therefore having no credit history, but if you're employed straight away, an employment contract and a payslip might suffice.

We went through www.leasebusters.com

London Mike

That's funny RICH! Yes, I have been a bit lazy on this one, so apologies. I think it's because I have a head full of a 1000 things at the moment that I thought I could offload one on to BE.
Thx anyway.

Oakvillian

There's another consideration to leasing vs buying, especially if you are renting a property to begin with and not taking out a mortgage: a vehicle lease is a reasonably good and quick way to build a credit history in Canada, which could potentially help you when it comes to getting unsecured credit cards, etc (see countless other threads on credit cards, security deposits, etc).

We leased a Honda Odyssey minivan on arrival. We bought out the lease last summer (at a vary unfavourable price, unlike RICH, but still cheaper in terms of monthly outgoings than the options for leasing again or buying another one). Monthly lease costs were around the $470 mark for a 3-year lease term.

My commuting vehicle is a not-quite-base-spec Hyundai Accent, bought new last year. It has a/c and a couple of other mod cons (the base has manual window-winders and no central locking) but a manual transmission. It cost less than $15k to drive off the lot, including all taxes and other charges. It's basic but functional, and considering the only journeys it ever does are up and down the 403 or a parallel route between Oakville and northeast Mississauga, it doesn't need to be any fancier than that. The radio works, the heater's effective, it sips gas (I get <6.8 l/100km - about 34.5 mpg US or 41.5 mpg (UK) on a real-world commute) and has cost me nothing beyond the price of an oil change so far.

Oink

Apart from your dignity and sense of manhood.

Oakvillian

Well yes, obviously! But is is a shiny red colour, does that redeem it at all on the bloke-o-meter scale?

Or perhaps the fact that I bought it shortly after discovering Mrs O was pregnant meant I didn't need any reassurances in the manhood dept....

Butch Cassidy

ERM, I was going to comment (but since I consider you a decent guy and an almost internet buddy I will refrain )