I'm 50, and I've never leased a car in my life. If I've purchased a new car, I've usually financed just a small part of it and paid off the loan more quickly than when it was fully due.
So now, as I'm considering an electric vehicle for my next car, I am stuck in this quandary:
Buy or lease (which I know is the perennial question for those who can make that choice, but it seems even more challenging with electric vehicles)
My inclination is to buy, even though the salesman I spoke to today after test driving the 2017 e-Golf SE (which I found so much more luxurious and better riding than the Bolt I test drove a month ago) really encouraged the leasing option.
My usual pattern with cars is to keep them a long time. My current Golf (2001 model) has 180,000 miles (and yes, the check engine light is currently on). Not sure keeping a 2017 e-Golf that long is wise or even possible, esp. if replacing the entire battery pack is a necessity at some point beyond the 100,000-mile / 8-year warranty, and that may cost $15,000 or more (or less?).
Still, even if I keep the car up to the 8-year battery warranty, that is five years beyond the three-year lease. And if I do the lease, and I opt to pay the residual in three years, I'm basically paying the full MSRP of the vehicle today over a period of three years, making it a $31,000 car.
However, if I get that same vehicle for $29,000 plus tax and license (which I would expect I can do in a month or two when VW dealers are more willing to negotiate), then I'm paying about $32,000 total today, getting my $2500 California state refund at some point, and my $7500 federal tax credit next year, making this a $22,000 vehicle (which I know will have greater depreciation over the same number of years than an ICE vehicle). But still, I would be in better shape assuming I'm still liking the vehicle in 3 or 4 or 5 or longer years.
And if I lease the vehicle, then in three years I'm back to square one, hoping there is still the $7500 tax credit, and hoping that whatever new e-vehicles are out there are that much more efficient and cost-effective (which I imagine they will be).
I really don't like shopping for vehicles, and the thought of having to do that in three years again does not weigh in the favor of my choosing to do a lease.
I imagine there have been plenty of other stream-of-consciousness ramblings about this same issue over the years in this forum, but I hadn't read of any of you contemplating *buying* the 2017 e-Golf outright, and I wondered I was crazy to think about doing so.
Thanks for any feedback.
Chris
So now, as I'm considering an electric vehicle for my next car, I am stuck in this quandary:
Buy or lease (which I know is the perennial question for those who can make that choice, but it seems even more challenging with electric vehicles)
My inclination is to buy, even though the salesman I spoke to today after test driving the 2017 e-Golf SE (which I found so much more luxurious and better riding than the Bolt I test drove a month ago) really encouraged the leasing option.
My usual pattern with cars is to keep them a long time. My current Golf (2001 model) has 180,000 miles (and yes, the check engine light is currently on). Not sure keeping a 2017 e-Golf that long is wise or even possible, esp. if replacing the entire battery pack is a necessity at some point beyond the 100,000-mile / 8-year warranty, and that may cost $15,000 or more (or less?).
Still, even if I keep the car up to the 8-year battery warranty, that is five years beyond the three-year lease. And if I do the lease, and I opt to pay the residual in three years, I'm basically paying the full MSRP of the vehicle today over a period of three years, making it a $31,000 car.
However, if I get that same vehicle for $29,000 plus tax and license (which I would expect I can do in a month or two when VW dealers are more willing to negotiate), then I'm paying about $32,000 total today, getting my $2500 California state refund at some point, and my $7500 federal tax credit next year, making this a $22,000 vehicle (which I know will have greater depreciation over the same number of years than an ICE vehicle). But still, I would be in better shape assuming I'm still liking the vehicle in 3 or 4 or 5 or longer years.
And if I lease the vehicle, then in three years I'm back to square one, hoping there is still the $7500 tax credit, and hoping that whatever new e-vehicles are out there are that much more efficient and cost-effective (which I imagine they will be).
I really don't like shopping for vehicles, and the thought of having to do that in three years again does not weigh in the favor of my choosing to do a lease.
I imagine there have been plenty of other stream-of-consciousness ramblings about this same issue over the years in this forum, but I hadn't read of any of you contemplating *buying* the 2017 e-Golf outright, and I wondered I was crazy to think about doing so.
Thanks for any feedback.
Chris