Model 3 - Makes more sense to Lease vs Finance...here's the numbers

[Robert A]

FWIW, my cousin leased his Model 3 two years ago. COVID struck, he's not accruing many miles on the ODO, and used car values have shot up. When his lease is over, he has no buyout rights and zero participation in the high resale value. Good reason NOT to lease with Tesla.

 

[psychoace]

FWIW, my cousin leased his Model 3 two years ago. COVID struck, he's not accruing many miles on the ODO, and used car values have shot up. When his lease is over, he has no buyout rights and zero participation in the high resale value. Good reason NOT to lease with Tesla.

He could look into selling it to a dealer and see if he can get any money off of that especially since it's low miles.

 

[CheezyNachos]

He could look into selling it to a dealer and see if he can get any money off of that especially since it's low miles.

Maybe I read the post you were replying to wrong, but the car is leased. He can't sell it.

 

[psychoace]

Maybe I read the post you were replying to wrong, but the car is leased. He can't sell it.

Leases can't be bought out by the owner but they can be bought out by a dealership. I've seen plenty of people say how they sold their leased Tesla to a dealer and got $5000 for it. Even on Tesla's website it mentions this. I believe they have to do it by law. Probably something dealerships lobbied for awhile ago.



"Model 3 and Y are not eligible at this time, unless a third-party dealership is purchasing directly."

Lease-End Options | Tesla Support

If you’re looking to return your vehicle and upgrade before the end of your lease, we offer several options to end your lease early.

www.tesla.com

 

[CheezyNachos]

Leases can't be bought out by the owner but they can be bought out by a dealership. I've seen plenty of people say how they sold their leased Tesla to a dealer and got $5000 for it. Even on Tesla's website it mentions this.

Interesting. I learned something new today. That just sounded odd to me as you can't even do an end of lease purchase.

Not that I did too much research on it. I can't do a Tesla lease in WI.

 

[psychoace]

Interesting. I learned something new today. That just sounded odd to me as you can't even do an end of lease purchase.

Not that I did too much research on it. I can't do a Tesla lease in WI.

Yeah I learned about this a month or so ago. It usually wouldn't matter since most of the time since lease deals are meant to be a bet made by you and the dealer. The dealer is hoping you pay off more of the car then they will resell it at while you're hoping for the car to be worth more then you payed. Because of the current market leases are turning into being a great investment which isn't always the case.

 

[pcmike]

Just doing some really rough math via the Tesla calculator… the difference between a $0 down lease 12/36 and a 72mo finance at 1.24% with about $7K due at signing… the difference at 36mo is only a few thousand (~$4K). Still gotta worry about mileage. I see it as a wash, personally. I’m sick of saying “eh, I don’t want to drive that far as I may come up short on miles.”

 

[brandon8387]

Just doing some really rough math via the Tesla calculator… the difference between a $0 down lease 12/36 and a 72mo finance at 1.24% with about $7K due at signing… the difference at 36mo is only a few thousand (~$4K). Still gotta worry about mileage. I see it as a wash, personally. I’m sick of saying “eh, I don’t want to drive that far as I may come up short on miles.”

Going over on miles isn’t the end of the world. Especially at just .25c a mile .

 

[DBV1]

Going over on miles isn’t the end of the world. Especially at just .25c a mile .

You are correct. I think that is still cheap, especially considering renting a car is so much more.

 

[john5520]

Generally, long term ownership, better to buy. However, while a lease might make more sense short term, a serial lessee is always making payments towards something they'll never own.

As for cash. Investing it wisely could bring enough gains to buy several Teslas over a 5 year period.

 

[DBV1]

Generally, long term ownership, better to buy. However, while a lease might make more sense short term, a serial lessee is always making payments towards something they'll never own.

As for cash. Investing it wisely could bring enough gains to buy several Teslas over a 5 year period.

Totally disagree. I lease , as I like a new car and warranty every three years. I would dislike owning a Tesla, BMW or really any high end car out of warranty.

When leasing BMW’s I can do two 36 months leases and still be ahead of anyone that bought the BMW.

Also - not sure where you are investing, where you are earning enough gains to buy several 90k plus Teslas over 5 years. Maybe a day trader, but market performance is not even close to that. And even day trading will eventually catch up. If you are doing that, awesome, but that would be a rare, extreme, circumstance.

 

[dhrivnak]

Makes sense, but to be fair, you must add in the cost of maintenance and possible large repair bills that come with owning a car that is 5 years old, not to mention 7-8 year old car.

With Tesla, wouldn’t be surprised if you end up spending $4,000-$6,000 in repairs from year 4-10

I owned a Tesla Roadster from years 4-9 and drove it as much as you are planning to and on that rare hand built car I was out less than $2500 in maintenance. EVs are low maintenance. Much lower than ICE cars.

 

[john5520]

Totally disagree. I lease , as I like a new car and warranty every three years. I would dislike owning a Tesla, BMW or really any high end car out of warranty.

When leasing BMW’s I can do two 36 months leases and still be ahead of anyone that bought the BMW.

Also - not sure where you are investing, where you are earning enough gains to buy several 90k plus Teslas over 5 years. Maybe a day trader, but market performance is not even close to that. And even day trading will eventually catch up. If you are doing that, awesome, but that would be a rare, extreme, circumstance.

I'll use the model 3 as an example. If you drive 10k miles year then the 50k basic should cover 4-5 years, and the powertrain warranty a lot longer. Even if you drive 20k a year, the powertrain warranty will cover the expensive parts for at least 5 years. And I would have already owned my car for a year by the time you finished your 72 months worth of leases. For me that's about 7-8k worth of payments in my pocket. And I usually keep my car for 10 years or more. So, do the math.

I don't know what the warranty is like for a BMW, but I'm sure there are extended warranties that can be purchased.

As for investments, I'll use an example: Moderna. Worth about $20 in feb 2020, now worth $450. My Tesla with FSD, taxes etc was about 60k. If I put 40k of that into that stock back in feb 2020. Do the math. And it's not even 2 years yet. Even if I invested $10k, again, do the math. Let's say I had put 10k in AMD. Back in 2018, worth $10, now $100+.

I'm not saying I did or didn't make those investments, but just illustrating that you don't need to day trade to make some decent cash. Sure, you may not be able to buy a whole lot of 90k Teslas, but you can surely buy several 60k ones. And that's just 2 stocks.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

When leasing BMW’s I can do two 36 months leases and still be ahead of anyone that bought the BMW.

Ohio is one of many states that allows your trade in value to be deducted from the sales tax of the new car so there's no inherent cost advantage to leasing. The only way you could ever end up "ahead" with a lease is if the automaker structured the lease to be a better value for some reason - and why would they do that?

That you're conflating leases with warranties and 3 year terms seems to suggest that you think they are somehow related topics - a common misperception.

• If you want a new car every 3 years it's almost always better to buy. Purchasing costs less, the paperwork is much simpler, and there's zero commitment.
• If you want a car that's under warranty it's almost always better to buy. Especially if you want to get your money's worth on a 4/8year warranty.
• If you want a car you can trash and unceremoniously dump back onto the dealer in 3 years it's almost always better to buy. You can dump it anywhere anytime and even shop around for the best sucker. No paperwork, no door ding counting, no tire tread measurements, no appointments - just throw your keys at the janitor and walk away with a fistful of cash. Heck, you don't even have to wear pants - just click on Carvana.com and the car disappears from wherever you last saw it and the money appears in your account.

 

[DBV1]

Ohio is one of many states that allows your trade in value to be deducted from the sales tax of the new car so there's no inherent cost advantage to leasing. The only way you could ever end up "ahead" with a lease is if the automaker structured the lease to be a better value for some reason - and why would they do that?

That you're conflating leases with warranties and 3 year terms seems to suggest that you think they are somehow related topics - a common misperception.

• If you want a new car every 3 years it's almost always better to buy. Purchasing costs less, the paperwork is much simpler, and there's zero commitment.
• If you want a car that's under warranty it's almost always better to buy. Especially if you want to get your money's worth on a 4/8year warranty.
• If you want a car you can trash and unceremoniously dump back onto the dealer in 3 years it's almost always better to buy. You can dump it anywhere anytime and even shop around for the best sucker. No paperwork, no door ding counting, no tire tread measurements, no appointments - just throw your keys at the janitor and walk away with a fistful of cash. Heck, you don't even have to wear pants - just click on Carvana.com and the car disappears from wherever you last saw it and the money appears in your account.

Correct on Ohio. I understand that Tesla is most likely better to buy than lease. Their lease numbers just do not make sense and their car values have been holding strong. Not sure it will stay that way, when market gets more competitive.

But, I have always leased BMW’s or even Mercedes and I always end up ahead leasing my BMW’s every three years. Your points don’t apply when leasign BMW’s, I have gone over the lease/buy on every BMW and it never makes sense to buy them, unless you are planning to keep it 10 years. Plus, when you buy you have to worry about trade in/deprecitation, which on a BMW is very poor. But, that is just me.

My wife likes to just pay cash and keep here cars, so she would be in the buy camp and with you.

 

[pcmike]

Correct on Ohio. I understand that Tesla is most likely better to buy than lease. Their lease numbers just do not make sense and their car values have been holding strong. Not sure it will stay that way, when market gets more competitive.

But, I have always leased BMW’s or even Mercedes and I always end up ahead leasing my BMW’s every three years. Your points don’t apply when leasign BMW’s, I have gone over the lease/buy on every BMW and it never makes sense to buy them, unless you are planning to keep it 10 years. Plus, when you buy you have to worry about trade in/deprecitation, which on a BMW is very poor. But, that is just me.

My wife likes to just pay cash and keep here cars, so she would be in the buy camp and with you.

This is because BMW props up the residual values on their current model year leases making them an attractive value proposition… and some models over others at certain times of the year as well. Tesla doesn’t play this sort of game on their leases.

 

[DBV1]

This is because BMW props up the residual values on their current model year leases making them an attractive value proposition… and some models over others at certain times of the year as well. Tesla doesn’t play this sort of game on their leases.

Yep - well aware, which is why I said it is great to lease BMW’s over owning. Glad they do that. Makes it great for consumer, who is knowledgeable about leasing. BMW also let’s you buy down the money factor with multiple security deposits.

I wish Tesla leased better, as like I said earlier leasing fits me way better than owning.

 

[Loco_Nomad]

Leases can't be bought out by the owner but they can be bought out by a dealership. I've seen plenty of people say how they sold their leased Tesla to a dealer and got $5000 for it. Even on Tesla's website it mentions this. I believe they have to do it by law. Probably something dealerships lobbied for awhile ago.



"Model 3 and Y are not eligible at this time, unless a third-party dealership is purchasing directly."

Lease-End Options | Tesla Support

If you’re looking to return your vehicle and upgrade before the end of your lease, we offer several options to end your lease early.

www.tesla.com

Not anymore

You may be eligible to purchase your leased Tesla. Review your lease agreement to see if you qualify.

Eligibility

• Model 3 and Model Y are not eligible at this time.
• Third-party dealerships and third-party individuals are not eligible to purchase leased vehicles.