Am I crazy for wanting to lease a top-of-the-line 3-series out of college? - Page 9

I find it amusing that the OP is getting killed for considering a lease payment that is around the going SF rate of a pair of Lobbs or EG. Whats the difference between "blowing" your hard earned cash on either passion?

Huge. The car is a recurring monthly commitment that requires additional expenditure (insurance, parking, gas, maintenance) to get any enjoyment out of. Aside from a jar of Saphir here or there, my Lobbs don't need anything more.

Dude hasn't even started his job yet - what if he hates it, or is terrible at it, and leaves in two months? Do you really want to be saddled with a big lease payment with so much uncertainty in the near future?

I totally agree regarding the fun of manual vs auto. I have never driven or owned a Miata so I can't say too much about it, but they seem pretty small and compact. And if you're a tall guy it's gonna suck. Also, I'm guessing it probably doesnt too much of a trunk space either.

All aside from the negatives, Miata seems to be a really popular car used in auto-x along with the e36 M3 and I bet it is a fun car. Let's just hope you're not 7 feet tall or something

The Miata (especially the 1st gen.) has a lot of things going for it:

- RWD
- really fun, predictable handling
- no nannies of any sort except ABS
- hands down, the best shifter of any car
- really low insurance rates
- cheap and easy to maintain
- really light, and great gas economy

The only possible downside is that you're too big to fit in it, so test drive one. I've ridden in one for a 100+ mile trip, and it's comfortable enough.

If you get one, just refresh its mechanicals (suspension bits mostly), and enjoy it as it is. No need to mod it out. Get a 2nd set of wheels with snow tires, and you're set. Its appeal is its simplicity --- don't f#ck it up with extraneous stuff.

If you wanted something that's a bit bigger, can carry a bit more, and will be a bit more livable in winter, look at the RX-8. It's totally underappreciated, almost as much so as the E36 M3. The car is also very capable in stock form. It has pretty bad gas mileage, though.

--Andre

e36 sedan m3 are perfect imo. seats 4-5 people, 240 horsepower stock, and decent gas mileage. FWIW, my professor who is shorter than me, prolly like 5'7" has a miata and he looks awkward driving it =/ 6'1" might be pushing it lol. Like what A Y said, definitely test drive one before. Doesn't hurt to find a couple e36 m3 to kick the tires around too either and possibly test drive them.

Username79 is right on a lot of points. Username, check out the "Cars We Drive!" thread. A majority of them do drive beat up Japenese imports. A lot of their daily outfits cost more than their car, so naturally they value spending their money on clothing over cars. If this were an automotive forum, say www.bimmerfest.com, and I started a thread about building a professional wardrobe now that I just got a job out of college making ~ $75K/yr; they would rip me to shreds for spending over $150 for any article of clothing. Car forumites normally don't understand, or have a passion for clothing; but they do have immense enthusiam for BMW's. If they saw this thread they would probably suggest the OP do an ED on a Z435is (3 years 15k miles for about 350/mo). In a similar manner people here question anyone who would lease a car period. Generally they are correct, but they don't have the passion that the bimmerfest guys have about cars. The way the bimmerfesters don't understand what a goodyear welt means, or what constitutes soft tailoring; is pretty comparable to the average SFer not understanding subvented leases. OP, you are in your early 20's. I'm assuming you've never purchased/leased a car in your name. I'm also assuming you don't have much of a credit history either. Your credit score may be fine, but more often than not car dealers look at your vehicle credit history more than anything else. Odds are BMW wouldn't lease a vehicle to you w/o a cosigner or a hefty downpayment; and downpayments nullify the advantages of leasing. Get a loan on a cheap beater, pay the loan off. Build your credit, build your job history, buy a house (assuming the rent/buy calculation comes out in favor of BUY), then get your BMW

Real car enthusiasts don't lease BMWs. They drive an F250 to haul their car to the track.

This is a good point. When I bought the 911, I wanted to finance it because PCNA was running a really good deal (like 0.5% financing), but all the lenders declined my loan b/c I had never had a car loan before. It seemed very odd to be penalized for having saved and paid cash for cars in the past, but that's apparently the way it works. So I paid cash.

I know that some people praise leasing but - in my humble opinion - there's little point in leasing unless you can claim a tax advantage from doing so (ie you are using the car for your business and thus can claim leasing costs as a tax deduction).

Otherwise, you will be paying $7200 per year to rent a car, plus thousands more in other costs.

Again, this is just my opinion, but unless you can claim car expenses as a tax deduction, it's much better to buy a second-hand car so that someone else has already taken the initial depreciation hit. Sure, the car will continue to devalue, but will generally do so more slowly after the first few years and if you need to sell it, you will be able to do so as it will be an asset (albeit a depreciating one), whereas as a leased car is always and only a liability.

I know that some people think that it's a "hairdresser's car", but I bought an MX-5 (Mazda Miata) 15 years back and it has always received very positive reactions. It is light, with beautiful balance and handling, cheap to run, very reliable, and it looks great.

Agreed. I think cars coming off leases tend to be good deals to buy. Somebody else basically took the depreciation hit for you, and you end up with a two year old car in pretty good shape.

I understand why leases make sense for some people. Some people have a car allowance as part of their job, and those are usually leased. Some people really want a brand new car every two years, and for them, the economics of leasing probably tends to work out.

Otherwise, buy something a couple of years old with low miles on it and drive it into the ground.

I don't know about the lease situation because I've never tried it. But I got turned down on a loan for the 911 when I was 28, with 10 years of perfect credit card history (paid off every month), income in the high $100's, three years of mortgage payments (on a modest mortgage), plenty of savings, and a credit score in the mid-700s. And this was 2007 - probably the loosest lending environment in the history of credit.

The only reason (they say) it was turned down was because I had never had an auto term loan. I'm really not sure how it impacts the leasing side of the business, but I wouldn't just assume because your credit is good, you won't have a problem.

Just to calculate the numbers using Paycheck City: For Mass: Assuming a biweekly paycheck: Bi-weekly Gross Pay $2,884.62 Federal Withholding $516.35 Social Security $121.15 Medicare $41.83 Massachusetts $144.25 NetPay $2,061.04x2= $4122.08 This does assume any contributions to a 401k or IRA