Buy or lease a car?

[Slumdog]

I am looking at buying a car (A3 or BMW 1 series).


Two options:

1. Spend 10k(though not 1 series) on a diesel outright, drive for two years, probably about 15k miles a year and then hopefully get back 5k when it comes to selling it 2 years later

or

2. Go lease option, and spend, say 250-300per month and return the car in two years, hopefully still losing (paying out) approx 5k over the 2 year period.

What are peoples thoughts on this. what is the best way to go. Is leasing the way to go?

[swamp]

The biggest factor as always is depreciation, and right now used car prices are holding up quite well. Leasing make good sense when cars were suffering heavy depreciation but may not be such a good option now.

OTOH if you buy and sell a car at a main dealer you may be paying up to £1K sales commission on both sides of the transaction. For example a £10K car at a main dealer will probably be similar to a £9K private sale, and when you trade it in you will get £1K less than it's worth. Leasing does away with this as you will get a new car and hand the keys back in two years' time.

Just my 2p.

[Board Game Geek]

I'm not sure if they lease, but you can certainly buy a cat at a number of pet shops.

HtH