yahtzee

Bought a 2004 Land Cruiser about 2 months ago and got a pretty decent deal on it. Have had a 2003 TL-S, a 2005 TSX and a 2005 TL prior to this purchase and really miss the car feel (and Acura in general)....

The LC is paid for so my buddy (who owns an Acura dealership) will give me about 2500 less than what i paid 2 months ago to go into an RL for $500 over invoice. He will do the same for a TL but im not quite certain which route i want to take.

RL or TL? Also, would i be better served taking the $41k putting a little down on either car, setting some aside to make payments on and put the rest somewhere that it will make money? Or should i just slap 41k on either car? Thanks,

D

yahtzee

Also, what color is the RL in the first two pics here - http://www.edmunds.com/new/2006/acur...03/photos.html

2005rl

Meteor Silver

yahtzee

anyone have any thoughts?

vp911

That depends on the interest rate and your financial situation.

I owned both the TL and RL before moving to the IS. If I were to get another Acura, I would get the RL. They are both great cars, but the RL just had something about it. Drive both, see which you like better, inside and out. If you are going to use it for driving in the snow, get the RL + dunlop wintersport m3s for your snow tires and you will fly by everybody else stuck on the side of the road.

sotiri

GO for the RL, much better interior than the TL and AWD.

ArchiChris

I love my '06 RL. It is everything I've ever wanted to have in a car. I went in to buy it outright, but ended up doing the Honda Finance "special" Lease [$599/mo.] I figured that I could invest the money I was going to spend buying the car outright, and [hopefully] do better than the 4.8% interest rate in the lease. Don't know if it will work out to my advantage by the end of the lease or not, but at least I have a little more control over my money this way. Also, I've always heard: "Buy what appreciates; but lease what depreciates."

NorCalRL

Chris,

The old addage "Buy what appreciates; but lease what depreciates." was created by a car salesman who got a bonus for leasing cars. If it were true, you would lease the carpet in your house. I can't imagine many things that depreciate faster than that.

Even though they may have used a 4.8% rate to calculate your lease, the true price is determined by the residual value at the end of the lease and if you have the option to purchase the car or not (open or closed end lease).

Leasing works for some people and not for others.

My strong preference is to pay about 30% down and borrow the rest from my credit union. That gives me the best control of my money, keeps the total cost of ownership of the car down and gives me the most options for selling or keeping my car for as long or as short as I want.

YMMV

yahtzee

So, if you were to receive $40k from the trade of the Land Cruiser (in cash, as its paid for), you had a $325/month Toyota Sienna payment for the wife (put some good $ down on that also) and only had a delta of 6k for a brand new RL, how would you arrange it. We have no other debt outside of our mortgage ($2200/mo but have 130k in equity already). Should I put the 40k down on the car and only finance the 6k, knowing that it would be paid off in a couple of months? or do i stick the 40k down on my mortgage (i have a mortgage that recalculates the monthly payment everytime principal is applied). Or, last option would be to go for the $599 lease, prepay 2 yrs (more than likely, i wont keep it longer than that anyway) and put the remaining 26k towards my mortgage? THoughts?

ArchiChris

Unless you are able to write off your lease payments; or you are currently locked into a high mortgage interest rate, you would be better off not putting the money down towards your mortgage, as the interest on that is tax-deductable.

NorCalRL

Yahtzee,

Remember that this advise is worth what you are paying for it and this is what I would do. You need to decide if this works for you.

Chris' point that mortgage payments are deductible is a key point to keep in mind.

If the Sienna has a traditional loan from a bank, car company or credit union, I would pay that off first.

Depending on how much is left over after paying off the Sienna ($25K?), I would put $20K down on the RL and finance the rest through a line of credit on the house loan. That, perhaps surprisingly, makes the interest tax deductible, even though it is a loan for an automobile.

I would hang onto the remaining $5K just to have a little cash handy in case I decided to take a road trip in the new car or to upgrade the tires.

Good luck.