VTECLuvaLuva

(sorry for the length...i actually tried to be brief)

I'm trying to determine what I should do about my car once my lease is up in April of next year. I plan on going to Graduate school full time in the fall of 2007. Because of this I want to limit my expenses to the bare minimum.

When I thought about it I figured i had a couple of options:

1) I planned on returning my car at the end of the lease and purchasing an older used car so that I won't have a car note while i'm in school. This sounds good but by the end of my lease I think that i'll be about 10,000 miles over on my lease...that equates to about $1500.00 not to mention the small scratches that I may have to pay for due to everyday driving.

2) Purchasing my car for my pay off which will be about $15,000.00 at the end of my lease. I would put maybe $3-5,000 down and then finance the remainder over 5 years to make the car note as small as possible.

3) Trade in the car at a dealership and see what they offer me. Then purchase a less expensive car.

What is troubling me now is that I went on Autotrader.com the other day and saw that my car with similar mileage is going for around $25,000.00. I paid $27,700 back in 04 with Navi...so over the last 2.5 years the car has only lost about $2,700 in value.

Now i'm wondering if I should sell the car pay off whatever I owe Honda Finance Corp and if I have enough purchase another vehicle with the $3-5,000 I would have used as a down payment.

What do you all think???

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

I say you either sell the car off private party and get a used car or trade the car in before the end of the lease.

The high residual and resale values of the TSX make it pretty easy to get a good price if you sell it private party. Also, do not use the inflated sale prices that the dealers are using. Use edmunds and KBB as references for where you're setting your sale price if you go with the private sale route.

drunkenbuda

I only have 7k left on my 05/with nav. CAn't wait till i pay that off!

CobaltForge

Listen to CG, he has really good tips to give. I was in your same situation a few months ago, but instead of going lower, I went with a higher payment

In any case, depending on what you're looking to get, buying a used car can be a good option. But also, take a look at some of the great financing deals that some brands offer. For example Honda Finance has some great financing offers on Hondas and Acuras: http://www.hondafinancialservices.co...pec_offers.asp

If you're looking for new, I would recommend going to the manufaturer's website, and look for any link that says "special offers" You'll be able to see what they're offering for the month, etc. You can also go to edmunds.com and find the "Rebates and Incentives" section as well.

Also, what I would recommend is when you've decided on what car you're getting, go over to the dealership. Basically, you can negotiate a pretty good deal (buyout) on your TSX because it retains a really good residual percentage. You're headed in the right direction with the downpayment that you've saved. I think your best goal would be to have the new car manufacturer pay off your car (buy it out) and then you can use the money that you've saved up towards the downpayment of the new car.

Hope all this makes sense. Post your questions here if they don't and I would be more than happy to elaborate.

VTECLuvaLuva

I didn't want to get into a new car after this one because I didn't want to have a high payment while i'm in grad school. I wanted to either have a car payment between $150-200 on a "nice" used car or not have a payment at all.

From what I understand a dealer might be willing to do the buyout for my car if I was buying a new car. If i'm looking for a used vehicle would they be willing to work with me?

The one advantage of keeping my TSX is that I know what this car has been through and how it's been kept up. If I get a used car i'm at the mercy of the previous owners maintenance history.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

The dealer should be willing to work with you on the "trade-in" no matter if you're buying new or used. It's in their best interest to encourage you to buy from them without regard to which type of car you're buying.

And my thought is that if you're going for a lower monthly payment or no payment at all, you should get something that is pretty much a beater, so something like a civic or a Mazda Protege, as opposed to a car like the TSX. I would also try to look for used cars that are still within the warranty period if possible. But, dependent upon interest rates, if you're looking for a payment of $150 to $200 a month, you have somewhere in the neighborhood of $8000 to $10,000 to spend on a used car.

Also, cobaltforge's suggestion of looking at some special deals that manufacturers are offering might not be a bad idea. If you're still interested in a new car, you can always lease something less expensive. I think that leases on Civics are in the range of $160/month and they are pretty nice cars.

So you have quite a few options. Just figure out which one makes the most sense for you.

VTECLuvaLuva

Thanks for the advice!