We often face major decisions, and one major decision which many of us may eventually face is whether to buy or lease a vehicle. Would you benefit more from buying a car rather than leasing one? If you can’t make up your mind which option is best, it pays to do your research and find out what advantages you can get with each. One apparent advantage of buying a car, for instance, is that once you are finished with your car payments, you own the vehicle outright. But one equally obvious advantage with leasing is that it gives you the chance to use a new car without a hefty monthly payment, and you don’t need to have a large deposit, either. So which option should you choose? In the end, it’s up to you, but here’s why leasing may be a better option.
How the entire thing works
When you lease a vehicle, it’s similar in concept to leasing a flat. You have to sign an agreement and put down a deposit. The agreement will provide the precise details of what the lease entails, including what you have to pay per month, what you can and cannot do, and other information. And often, when you lease a flat and you have a pet, you will have to pay an extra deposit which will cover the additional cleaning the landlord will have to do if your pet’s hair gets into the carpets or it decides to gnaw on a door. In the same way, when you sign a lease agreement, you will have to pay extra charges if you exceed the mileage limit stated on the contract.
Why it may work for you
The primary advantage of leasing rather than buying is this: it will usually be cheaper. You still have to pay a deposit, but it will undoubtedly be less expensive than if you were to buy a car. But one brilliant fact about car leasing is this: if you lease a car, you can easily drive your dream car. If you’ve always imagined driving around in a sleek and shiny BMW or Jaguar but did not dare fulfil your dream because of the car’s cost, you can achieve your long-time dream with a car lease, since you’ll only have to pay for the car’s use per month. At the end of the lease, you can just give back the vehicle to the leasing firm.
A changing mindset
Mindsets are changing when it comes to leasing a car, especially since you can now easily find some of the cheapest lease deals around. In the past, people compared leasing a car to renting a house rather than buying one. Property is an asset, after all, and if you buy property, you will have an asset which can appreciate over time. But what most people realise now is that real estate is different from vehicles. Vehicles will always depreciate over time, no matter how expensive the car or how reputable the maker. This is just a fact of life. So, do you want an ‘asset’ which isn’t really an asset? People’s minds are changing in regard to how they view vehicles – vehicles are not assets since they depreciate over time, whilst property will most likely appreciate as time goes by.
Here’s the thing: if you want to pay a lower monthly payment and don’t want to spend your hard-earned cash on a car’s deposit, you should lease. If you like the feeling of driving a new car every two to three years, you should lease. And if you feel that your circumstances may change in the next two to three years (for instance, if you’re planning to start a family and would need a different car), then the leasing option is definitely for you.
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