The question if you are a candidate to buy a new car or lease your next vehicle is one that should come up early in the buying process. Often times however it gets overlooked by some of the more attractive steps in the car buying process, namely checking out all the shiny new cars for sale. Doing so however can keep you from finding the best new car prices early.
Why is it such an important step? It is because many new cars under 20k have completely different offers for people looking to lease rather than buy. These separate buying models have often very separate incentive circles. Identifying which direction is best for you can help you zero in on which deals offer the best new car prices earlier in the process.
So how do you figure out which is best? To start with, many leases offer a very limited amount of mileage per a year; often 12,000 miles give or take. Decide if your normal driving habits allow you to stay within that range or not. Also unlike new cars for sale, lease vehicles generally must be returned in stock condition. So if you are into heavily modifying your vehicle that may also help you make your decision.
Once you have decided if the terms of a lease vehicle are at least something you can abide, its time to talk turkey. Or more accurately, money. Using a car buying vs auto leasing calculator like the one on LotPro.com can make this next step easier and can help you identify the cost differences between getting a loan for new cars under 15000 or leasing say cars under 20k.
Using the car buying vs auto leasing calculator, input the purchase price of the vehicle and the sales tax, as well as the terms of the loan. You can then quickly and easily compare it to a lease on that same vehicle, or against the cost of a different vehicle that maybe on special. In this way you can easily compare the loan cost for new cars under 15000 compared to say a more expensive model which has a very good lease special. The calculator will then help you determine the monthly cost as well as the net cost to make the choice even easier. Once you crunched the numbers, making the affordable choice should be a lot easier.