Well said. I have never leased. Everyone in my family has always financed, hence the reason I do too. I guess the idea of knowing that i'm always paying turns me off somehow. But you're right about "repair cost rape". It's unbelievable. At one point, with my present car, every time I would go in with a problem, I would walk out of there having paid a bill of a minimum of $700 to $1000!!!!!!!
The last car I financed was a 2002 Subaru Outback. After it came out of warranty, the engine head cracked. Cost me thousands of dollars to fix. When I traded it in I only got $8,500 against the lease cost of my BMW 328xi. After that I realized how car dealerships scam people into buying rather than leasing. When they do the lease vs. buy cost comparison, they never discuss repair costs on the buy side. As soon as you add that in, with many vehicles, the leasing of those vehicles becomes a no brainer. All my cars since then have been leased new 3 years or earlier because I am not going to willingly submit to car dealership repair cost rape.
Hondas are very reliable, and they have no need to offer a $50,000 bumper to bumper warranty as part of the sales pitch, because their cars do not break down and spend a ton of time in the shop. Thus you can get away with leasing a Honda and going slightly over the warranty without purchasing the extended warranty package, as long as you are properly servicing the vehicle.
I became leery of Hyundai because their aggressive dent into Honda's market share derives from that bumper to bumper warranty covering everything except gas and tires for 50,000 miles. But do you want to buy a car that will need to be constantly in the shop, which has its own costs?
It should be noted, however, that Honda is putting some cheap-ass tires on their cars, which I think must be made at a rubber company staffed by monkeys.
I have never owned or leased a car that handled quite like the BMWs. The Beamer hugs the road, especially when you take turns at speed, like an incredible rocket that is glued to its trajectory.
