GetOffYourGas
Well-known member
evnow said:Obviously we don't need both to be long distance cars.GetOffYourGas said:Do both of your cars really need to do all of the above? Or rather, between the two of them, you need to do all of the above? If the former, I'm amazed that you even considered a Leaf in the first place. I know Seattle has decent infrastructure but even so, your "long distance" must be much shorter than mine.
No offense, but this is not obvious. If it were, I wouldn't ask. I do know people who are married, have children, and frequently go on long trips in opposite directions as their spouse. It's rare, but that happens with me at times. For example, I go camping with friends (the mountains are out of my Leaf's range - and I'm meeting people coming from the opposite direction), and my wife takes the kids to her parents' house for the weekend (again, out of the Leaf's range). I've been fortunate enough to be able to borrow a car. I could also rent. Many people are not willing to do either.
evnow said:Myth. Depends on the exact lease terms. You can trace my calculations and posts/threads on this over the last 5 years here on MNL.Regarding leasing, that's a good way to keep your car relevant to your lifestyle. But it also must get pretty expensive over time. Not that buying is a free lunch - monthly payments and/or down payments are higher. But with leasing, you are always paying for the steepest part of the depreciation curve.
No thanks! You currently have over 10,000 posts on MNL. Help me out here. I assume you are referring to the latter part (depreciation) of my statement as a myth rather than the former (relevance). So how is it a "myth" that the steepest part of the depreciation of a car is in the first 3 years? Nissan uses a standard 44% residual for their 3-year lease calculation. That means the car has depreciated by 54% of its original value in years 1-3. How is it possible to depreciate more in years 4-6? That means at year 6, the car would have negative value. You would have to pay someone to take it from you. And keeping it to year 9 would mean you have to pay more than half of what you bought it for in order to dispose of it. In that case, people would just be abandoning cars. Or selling them to chop shops. Clearly not the case.