{"id":1631,"date":"2016-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.simplifimoney.com\/blog\/you-lease-your-next-car\/"},"modified":"2022-10-21T09:37:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T16:37:41","slug":"you-lease-your-next-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/you-lease-your-next-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Before You Lease Your Next Car"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Friday, Chrysler Group began offering leases on all 2010 Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler vehicles. The automaker also said in a press release that it plans special leasing deals for certain models, including the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, Ram 1500, Journey, Jeep Wrangler, and Liberty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leasing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Leasing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Should you consider what Chrysler is offering? Or, more broadly, is a lease ever a good idea for your personal finance? Not typically, says Dani Lunsford, Internet Sales Manager for Napleton Chrysler Jeep Dodge, in Kissimmee, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only reason to lease is if you are young, without children, and normally have low mileage amounts a year,\u201d Lunsford says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even then, the expenses pile up. New tires, cleaning costs, and mileage penalties or other fees can add hundreds or even thousands, Lunsford says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may be why Chrysler wants back in the game. But leasing has its risks for dealers, too. A lease is like a credit card; customers pay little upfront, allowing them to (ahem) buy cars they may otherwise be unable to afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade-off comes at the end of the lease; \u201cbuyers\u201d have paid for a car they don’t own and which their dealers plan to resell for a net gain above what they would have made selling the same vehicles off the lot as a new model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dealers had profited from this sort of deck shuffling for years, right up until the economy tanked. Consumers chose to return vehicles they couldn’t afford, and trade-in values plummeted when shoppers stayed home. Car dealers were left with dangerous levels of unsold inventory and desperate times called for desperate deals, even on leases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to do before you lease<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those days, and deals, are mostly gone. What if you decide to look into a lease anyway? Katie Smith of Warrensville Heights, Ohio offers some money management<\/a> advice to her clients to keep costs to a minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeasing is not for everybody and in the recent market has become more difficult,\u201d says Smith, owner of Diamond Auto Sales & Leasing. \u201cYour credit [score] usually needs to be 700 or above.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith also advises care when signing up for what dealers call \u201cgap insurance,\u201d a policy designed to cover the difference between what an insurer would pay in case of a theft or accident and what you’d owe the finance company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I tell my clients is that gap insurance is important, but it should not go in a car loan where you pay interest. It can be purchased through your insurance company,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, shop before you commit to a lease. Like anything else, comparison shopping for a car can lead to lower expenses, which is a key part of wise money management. Edmunds.com has a handy lease calculator for those doing their own shopping, while leasecompare.com provides a bird’s eye view of deals based on credit score, down payment, and zip code. There’s also LeaseTrader.com, which matches those who want out of leases with those looking for a deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, buying is your best option thanks to the Web and non-profit services such as CarBargains, which pulls bids from local dealers on your behalf. A good buy has never been easier to find, and a good buy almost always beats a good lease.?Says Lunsford: \u201cEven if you lease a Lexus, or Mercedes, in three years it will not be worth what you can buy it for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Chrysler Group began offering leases on all 2010 Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler vehicles. The automaker also said in a press release that it plans special leasing deals for certain models, including the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, Ram 1500, Journey, Jeep…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Before You Lease Your Next Car | Quicken","_seopress_titles_desc":"On Friday, Chrysler Group began offering leases on all 2010 Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler vehicles. The automaker also said in a press release that it plans special leasing deals for certain models, including the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, Ram 1500, Journey, Jeep Wrangler, and Liberty.\u00a0","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-relationships"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/jeep-cherokee_2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4710,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions\/4710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}