Toyota Prius lease vs. buy?

Question

I'm thinking about leasing a Prius at $499 mo. for 36 mos. is this a good deal or should I buy?

Answer 1

Never lease.  It's their way of selling the car twice.

At the end of your three-year lease, you've given them $18000, and then given back the car!  You would have NOTHING to show for all that money.  And then what will you have to do?  Get another car!

The money-smartest way to own a car is to buy it and drive it until it disintegrates from old age.  Take good care of it and that'll be a long, long time, and the most possible miles on each dollar of your original purchase.

Answer 2

Without knowing the MSRP, the selling price, the money factor, and the lease-end residual value, it's impossible to say if this is a good deal or not. But regardless of whether it's a good deal, leasing is good for some people and not for others.

If you drive only average miles (about 15K miles a year), and normally trade cars every three or four years, and take good care of your cars, then leasing might be fine for you. You should also understand how leasing works because it's more complicated than buying with a loan and easier to make mistakes. Here's an article that might help:

http://www.leaseguide.com/lease01.htm

.

Answer 3

$499 a month for lease. Holy cow! Major rip-off. Why don't you just BUY it on a 60 month plan for the same monthly payment. Then you own it.

Answer 4

You can estimate your payments through the calculator at:  http://www.toyotafinancial.com/consumer/...

This tool from Toyota Financial Services can help you determine what your monthly payments will be, and the amount due at signing, so you can compare the difference in costs if you either buy (finance) or lease the car.

Are you getting a Prius at MSRP, or has the dealer added on an "availability surcharge" over MSRP or tacked on some unneeded extras like pinstriping or paint/fabric protectant?  MSRP will also depend on what option package are you getting...

Your FICO (credit score) will also help to determine your actual payments, as will your choice in annual mileage allotment.

Using the calculator, a $499/month 36month lease with a 15,000 mile option on a base $22220 MSRP Prius is if you have an "extremely poor" credit rating (which they define as no credit history or a FICO score of 579 and below).  Same Prius with an "excellent" credit rating (long, established, positive credit history, FICO score 720 and above) is $337/month to lease.  

(For comparison, a 60 month finance (buy) option with a 6.5% APR and excellent credit is $435/month for the same $22220.)

If instead you used a Touring edition Prius with packages (#6) at $28864 MSRP with an "excellent" credit rating your payment is estimated at $504/month at same interval/mileage.

You can also use http://www.toyotafinancial.com/consumer/... to determine if buying or leasing is better for your circumstances.

Financially, for most people it works out better to buy (finance) the vehicle rather than lease it.  The Toyota Prius holds its value very well (little depreciation - currently used Prius are selling at about new prices), so you might as well sell it yourself in 3 years and get the money (if you owned it) rather than giving it back to the dealership (if you leased it).  Either way, in a 36 month timeframe you would be covered by the 3 year/36,000 mile basic new vehicle "bumper to bumper" warranty from Toyota anyways.

Answer 5

leasing is just long term rental.  When you are done, you don't have a car.

I have 94 Civic AND 2000 Audi all paid off and don't have to worry every month for loan money.  

===

Buying is always better.

Good Luck...