Five Reasons Why I'll Lease

Usually everyone is told
- Leasing is more expensive
- Leasing is only when you want to drive a car more expensive than you can afford since the lease payment is smaller than finance

But, Leaf is unlike any other car you could buy in the last 100 years. So, first thing to do is to throw out those thumb rules and go back to basics.

1. EVs are a new technology just on the cusp of new inventions / rapid development.

Yes, we all know EVs are a hundred year old technology. But the battery technologies being researched now are new. There is atremendous amount of research money that is pouring into battery research and at least some of them will bear fruit. So when this happens do you really want to be left holding a car you can't unload on anyone ?

2. In 3 years every major automaker is lanunch an EV - Toyota, BMW, Infinity, Audi, Mercedes, VW, Hyundai, Volvo and even Honda.

We have exactly one highway capable, affordable EV now. Yes, I know about Coda. But we are being serious here. In 3 years we will have real, wide choices. Even Leaf gen 2, perhaps. I know we can sell the car even if we buy & get a new one. But, atleast in my family that would be a tough sell ...

3. Battery

Yes, we all know about the 8 year warranty. But we don't know what that really means. Do we really want to fight with the dealers over the small letters ? I'm not looking forward to any such conversation.

4. Missing Features

There are some features I miss in Leaf - Heated seats, 6.6 KW charger, an elegant exterior for eg. You can pick your favorite missing feature.

5. Range

While 100 miles is more than enough for me now, with a larger range that I expect will be available in 3 years, I can potentially roam up and down the I-5, atleast. Currently a 80% charge in 30 minutes essentially reduces our distance travelled to 70 or even less miles every 1 and 1/2 hours. It would be difficult to reach Portland, let alone San Francisco.

Cost :

So what do we lose if we lease - apart from the ability to mod ? Some money.

Comparing Lease vs Buy for disposing the car after 3 years, using NPV method, the buy & sell method is cheaper by $700 (See the financial thread linked below). But even in that there is big a risk that you won't be able to sell the car for the same price as the residual.

Financial Comparison Thread : http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1640&start=0

But I consider $700 a small price to pay for this good insurance policy called Lease.

Well... personally... I just want to own the first mass produced electric car. Own it. Not lease it.

My goal is also to one day add a "no car payment" to my "not gas payment". (not to mention eventually extremely reduced or eliminated energy bill if I ever install solar)

cdub said:

Well... personally... I just want to own the first mass produced electric car. Own it. Not lease it.

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Yes, I understand the sentimental reason. Are you planning to just keep it - even after you get a new EV 8 years down the line ?

My goal is also to one day add a "no car payment" to my "not gas payment".

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Yes, I hope to buy the next EV - and replace our other ICE with a PHEV.

I am now starting to consider leasing as well. If I lease, I could have also dropped the quick charge option I added last month.

I'm leasing mine...

mossyleaf said:

I'm leasing mine...

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What percentage of your customers are leasing vs. purchasing?

evnow said:

cdub said:

Well... personally... I just want to own the first mass produced electric car. Own it. Not lease it.

Click to expand...

Yes, I understand the sentimental reason. Are you planning to just keep it - even after you get a new EV 8 years down the line ?

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Maybe. I really like this car. Who says I'm replacing it with another EV 8 years down the line?

Well ideally I'd like to replace my other car with an EV 8 years down the line. Hopefully we'll be at a point where that is possible by then.

cdub said:

Maybe. I really like this car. Who says I'm replacing it with another EV 8 years down the line?

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You would have to either replace the battery or be ok with reduced range.

cdub said:

Well... personally... I just want to own the first mass produced electric car. Own it. Not lease it.

Click to expand...

Since you can buy the car at the end of the lease for the residual, leasing does not preclude owning. Owning however does preclude leasing.

I'm going to draw the line somewhere around $1500. If Leasing+Buy is more than $1,500 over buying outright, then the insurance is too expensive.

Works out to about $40/mo for the three years to have the Plan B option of giving it back after three years and trying a different EV.

Selling any car via private party is a hassle. Selling an EV, well, you have to find a special buyer. There are more unknowns than any other car I've ever bought, so the safety-net of a lease is worth something.

GroundLoop said:

I'm going to draw the line somewhere around $1500. If Leasing+Buy is more than $1,500 over buying outright, then the insurance is too expensive.

Works out to about $40/mo for the three years to have the Plan B option of giving it back after three years and trying a different EV.

Selling any car via private party is a hassle. Selling an EV, well, you have to find a special buyer. There are more unknowns than any other car I've ever bought, so the safety-net of a lease is worth something.

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Makes sense.

I am a lease newbie. Can anyone tell me if I can select the number of years of lease as well as the number of allocated miles? Or is it fixed to 15k miles/year?

evnow said:

Comparing Lease vs Buy for disposing the car after 3 years, using NPV method, the buy & sell method is cheaper by $700 (I'll open a separate thread to explain this). But even in that there is big a risk that you won't be able to sell the car for the same price as the residual.

But I consider $700 a small price to pay for this good insurance policy called Lease.

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Please explain your math concluding that there is only a $700 difference, or add a link here to the other thread. All the other estimates I have seen are ranging from $1500-2500 difference between leasing and buying as far as overall cost goes. Like others here, this is the first car I would consider leasing rather than buying, due to the dynamic nature of the future market and the expected but unknown extent of EV development to take place in the next 3 years. If the difference is only $700, that is indeed cheap insurance and i would definitely lease.

Thx,
TT

ttweed said:

evnow said:

Comparing Lease vs Buy for disposing the car after 3 years, using NPV method, the buy & sell method is cheaper by $700 (I'll open a separate thread to explain this). But even in that there is big a risk that you won't be able to sell the car for the same price as the residual.

But I consider $700 a small price to pay for this good insurance policy called Lease.

Click to expand...

Please explain your math concluding that there is only a $700 difference, or add a link here to the other thread. All the other estimates I have seen are ranging from $1500-2500 difference between leasing and buying as far as overall cost goes. Like others here, this is the first car I would consider leasing rather than buying, due to the dynamic nature of the future market and the expected but unknown extent of EV development to take place in the next 3 years. If the difference is only $700, that is indeed cheap insurance and i would definitely lease.

Thx,
TT

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I am changing from buying to leasing. My income will not let me claim all the $7,500 to get the cost down so I have more plus to a lease all these ideas just adds to a lease is the way to go.

None of those reasons will budge me toward a lease
I am all in with a purchase

Can you really call yourself an early adopter if you lease?

Leasing seems more like fostering the car as opposed to actually adopting it and everything good and bad that goes with it.

Gonewild said:

I am changing from buying to leasing.

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What he said.

I think Nissan, Inc. has done just about everything but come up to each potential purchaser personally and said, "Are you sure you want to buy this car?" The decision to purchase or not will be much simpler in three years' time. A grand or so is cheap insurance against a potential $30K+ piece of lawn art.

Generally, I'm a little slow on the uptake but I get the message now, OK?

I'm leaning toward a lease as well. If I love the car, I'll buy it at the end. Also will have a chance to see how the charging structure around the bay area shapes up, how the battery tech changes, resale numbers...plus all the reasons already talked about here. I will probably do a 4 year to maximize the length of the HOV lane sticker .

I am only interested in buying as I want it to be mine with no risk of it being taken away. The range is way more than enough for my needs as I previously drove a 40 mile range electric and was perfectly happy with it. I also will find it interesting to see how many miles I can put on one of the first US spec LEAFs. When future electic models are released I will still enjoy driving my first generation LEAF and showing people where their new technology car came from.

My parents love getting a new car every 3-4 years, however they always purchased, never leased. Leasing would have made a lot of sense for them.

For my wife and I, we love keeping our cars until they just don't work anymore and are worthless to everyone except the junkyard. We don't see any reason why we would treat the Leaf any different, so we are definitely purchasing. There will be one big difference though, the Leaf will easily outlast the last two cars we last owned!

Well, I don't have to decide this for more than 16 months, since I am not allowed to even buy one until "Fall/Winter 2011", however, I would absolutley Lease it, it makes zero sense to me to be stuck with a Gen1 Leaf, believe me, I have been an early adopter many many times in the past [and been burned] (owned VHS and Beta, owned and still own multiple laserdiscs and LD players, anoyone remember those?)

I don't need to own the "betmax" or "laserdisc" of the EV world. In several years, there will be better battery pack technology (read: more mileage and possibly longer life as well), so no, I don't feel the need to "own" Generation 1 Leaf.
in fact, by the time I can actually buy a Leaf, there may be many more choices, so I may end up never buying/leasing a Leaf.

smkettner said:

None of those reasons will budge me toward a lease
I am all in with a purchase

Can you really call yourself an early adopter if you lease?

Leasing seems more like fostering the car as opposed to actually adopting it and everything good and bad that goes with it.

Click to expand...

Let me say I was a lease to buy so I get all the $7,500