Buying, erm, Leasing a New Car

[Richie]

Great news, guys! No longer will I have to rely on other people or the city bus for rides! I will be leasing a car within the next few months. I had a choice of any car as long as it was not above 25,000. I cannot decide whether I want to lease the 2005 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE or the 2004 Mitsubishi Galant GTS. What say you? Altima or Galant? Or do you recommend something else? I look forward to your suggestions, everyone!

[[AK]Hylander]

I'd definitely go for the Altima. Appearance is subjective, but I like the Altima better. But Nissan definitely has a better track record with quality, service, and warranty service.

Some tips from someone who use to lease:

1) Make sure you pay for enough mileage up front unless you plan to purchase the vehicle off lease. I did this with my Stratus, but it was because the lease rate was better than the finance rate I could get at the time so when I worked out the numbers, it actually was cheaper to lease/buy at the time.

2) If you plan to return the car after lease, keep ALL receipts. Oil changes, services, tire purchases, etc. My wife drives maybe 8,000 per year since she works so close to home, so leasing works out well for her (Although we purchase her 2004 Rav4 L). We had leased a 99 VW Beetle GLS and when we turned it in, it had 22,000 LESS miles than the allowance, new $125 per tire Dunlops, and the car was spotless. After turning in the car, they tried to charge us $1,500 in "excessive usage" which they billed as tires, brakes, air conditioning 'didn't work', and something else I can't remember. Well, I had documentation that the tires had less than 8,000 miles on them, and had receipts showing when we purchases them, how much, the warranty, and showing the car had an alignment at that point. Also, the AC worked perfectly, but we told them they better make sure the defroster button isn't on, because if it is.. the AC won't work. Well, sure enough that was the case. It royally ticked me off that they were getting a vehicle with 22,000 miles under the allowance and they were trying to screw me on 'excessive usage'. I only ended up paying $480 which included the $250 surrender fee (which I knew about and is in most leases) and for the brakes (which I also knew needed to be replaced so I didn't argue on that). Just document EVERYTHING and before you turn the car in or they pick it up.. take pictures with a digital camera that time stamps. Take pictures of every inch of the car.

[[AK]Nuts]

We just got rid of the wife's Mitsubishi. Although it ran good for two years, it had some cosmetic problems: Front emblem fell off, screw holding visor on came out, etc... The big draw back was the very low resell value. Mitsubishi's don't hold their value to well and the fact that you can buy one with no money down, no payments, no interest for x years really hurts when you try to get rid of a used one.