Pros and cons of leasing a vehicle?

I'm stubbornly opposed to leases. You usually pay a nice chunk up front which accounts for the depreciation that they claim you don't lose on a lease. And then the payments are a little less each month but you're essentially making payments for the next owner. The biggest problem for my particular scenario is they limit the amount of miles you can drive it and if you go over, they charge you above market value for the mileage. At the end of the lease, you usually have the option of purchasing outright at the market value of the car, so maybe that is where leasing might start making sense. I've never leased though, so take that for what its worth.

Leasing only makes sense if you are a W-2 employee and your employer will pay the lease. Then you can decide whether to buy it at the end of the lease term. Otherwise, it’s a rental.

Leasing a pickup truck will have a “wear & tear” component to deal with at the end of the lease that I personally would not want to face.

Why have a pick up truck and then not use it as a pick up truck is specifically designed to be used?

If you do that to a leased vehicle, they’ll be a prohibitive expense at the end of the lease for wear and tear.

(And I’m someone who takes really great cosmetic care of a vehicle)

All depends on you. If you take good care of a car, drive low mileage, and like to switch cars every few years, not bad deal at all. You can negotiate them far more than most people believe from down payment, residual value (what car is worth at end if you want to buy or sell and pay balance), factor (interest rate), mileage, etc.

If you're ok with a continual payment and having a car less than <3 years is a priority then there are worse ways to spend your cash. BMW, Mercedes and Maserati all have very attractive lease offers as long as you don't drive a lot of miles.

I would just buy used if you're looking to lower the expense.

Some people have this uncontrollable itch to switch cars every few years so for them leasing works. Other people know they will be stuck somewhere out of state for a fixed amount of time, like grad school, so they might want to lease there for the same reason they rent an apartment. A third type would be someone who has a job where clients routinely see them in their car or ride around in their car (like real estate or sales). For them it might be better to always have something that is new-ish as opposed to driving something until the wheels fall off.

There are times when a lease can make financial sense. Not just in the sense of if you trade in every few years. It's been 6 years since I looked at it, so I'm a little rusty. But basically, all a lease does is give you a pre-determined trade in value at the end of the term which is based on the limited miles you can put on it. They ask you to pay the depreciation for that term with a financing charge. At the end of the term, you return the vehicle, or you can buy it for the remaining value. The calculation of those monthly payments is different than a typical car loan. But once you understand and can compare to what you would pay with a traditional loan, you can evaluate if it's worth it. It's not normal that it works out better to lease, then buy your lease compared to traditional. But it can happen if interest rates are a little out of whack. And if you are unsure of if you would still want the same vehicle in 3 years, it locks in the trade in value vs. rolling the dice for what the value is in 3 years.

Looked at it briefly when we realized we were changing up my wife's vehicles more often than expected. Then realized it was mostly due to upsizing for kids which was a one-time thing, a wreck that totaled a car, and a strange buyback situation with a VW diesel. Ultimately realized it wasn't for us since it didn't make sense purely on the financial side. If you know you are going to get the itch to buy new every few years and willing to pay a premium for that, it's probably worth a look. If you are just trying to lower a note, you will pay more in the long run for the sake of making a monthly note work and that's poor financial strategy for sure.

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It’s time for a new truck and the prices and interest rates are still insane. I’m considering leasing one for the first time, I’m not interested in an $800 truck payment.

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Then you need to buy a cheaper vehicle not lease a more expensive vehicle

I’ve leased my last two vehicles and found this site to be a wealth of help

Leasehackr

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Tesla for $300/month with 1k down.

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Picked up two of the model 3s for two of our employees that need to start traveling about 6-700 miles a month. Rather than put that on their personal vehicles, got a super cheap lease, and in the first week we’ve saved 50% on our fuel equivalent cost. Pretty great vehicles when your travel is within the 300 miles on a single charge. Excellent for around town.