You are an individual with personal driving needs. It will take an in-depth study of the vehicle you choose, the market, the offers from all the banks, and your input to say that financing, paying cash, or leasing is better for you.

Everything in life is a “value-to-value” trade… A good deal is determined by your Internet “weight & balance happiness scale.” To completely understand how this works, keep in mind that the essence of determining a good deal is considering “what you get – for what you pay.” Be perfectly clear about what you are setting out to accomplish by examining these three facts:

First, consider what you “get” with any auto acquirement. Where’s your benefit? Can you eat it – Nutrition? Can you live in it – Shelter? Can you buy it then sell it for a profit – Monetary value? Why are you getting this car?

During the last 28 years, I have heard – “… I’m going to drive it… good transportation, status, gas-mileage, find-a-soul mate (or keep the one I have), speed, safety, comfort, convenience, etc…” These are all use-values. All real benefits offered by a vehicle are use-values. That’s all that you can “get” from having a car. Why pay for any more than you can get?

In this analogy, one consistent, two-fold fact is; ”A car doesn’t know how it is being paid for, so the use–value to you is the same whether you pay cash, finance, or lease.”

Second, consider that since as a car depreciates, it becomes less useful to you and more expensive to maintain as time passes. Every automobile transforms from good transportation to bad transportation during its lifetime. You don’t want to be stuck in a bank contract for a vehicle that has lost its value to you. You do not want to pay for the bad transportation time-span. So another buy vs. lease analogy fact is, “You want to ‘get’ only the good transportation and have the flexibility to switch vehicles when necessary.”

Third, a myth believed by many is that you can buy a vehicle, pay it off, and enjoy good transportation without cost in the future. Those folks usually get a long-term finance contract to make it affordable… which forces them keep it, always owing more than it is worth.

Three bad things happen by the time it is paid off; One, maintenance and repair costs have doubled the cost of driving that vehicle, Two, Their personal use-values have depreciated to almost nothing, and Three, The vehicle has evolved from good transportation to bad transportation even though they ‘pre-paid’ it.

So, as a rule when dealing with any depreciating asset, “You cannot pre-pay for good transportation. It is impossible.”