New Car - Lease vs Finance
 

Thanks to the excellent advice on this forum I'm looking at some sort of finance arrangement to get our family car when we move over to N California next month...

I'm now trying to decide between Leasing and Financing (which seems to be American car-dealer speak for a loan).

My main reason for doing this is to get a US credit rating - does anyone have a view on how the credit agencies view leasing vs financing? For the specific cars I've seen the monthly costs basically double for financing (which seems reasonable, as you end up with a car...). From a cashflow perspective I'm tempted by the leasing route - unless I find it is going to make the whole credit thing harder.

My goal is to be in a position after two years (ideally one) where I can buy a house, should I want to.

Answers on a postcard please!