Hi Everyone - New member and first time poster. I have to sell my current ICE car and currently have an early-ish reservation for the Tesla Model 3 (which I am sure is a curse word on this site) which I expect to take delivery during Q2/Q3 2018. I found some very low priced used 2013/2014 Leafs in my area (SoCal) and am trying to figure out what to do for a car for the next 18-24 months. I went to a local Nissan dealer over the weekend just to learn more about Leafs (other than what I have learned on these forums) and the guy basically told me that a used Leaf will essentially be worthless by the time I would be going to sell it, which I have to take with a grain of salt considering he was trying to sell me a lease. Knowing that there will be Leaf fan-boy bias here, what would you do given this scenario?
Buy a used Leaf - 2013 or 2014 Leaf S, lease return, 11/12 bars, 30-40k miles, out the door for less than $7500 including taxes/fees. I know about Leafspy and the ODBII. Sometime in mid 2018 i would be selling my used Leaf, then 4-5 years old with approximately 40-50k miles. This scenario, out of pocket I would be out $5k, minus whatever I could sell it for in 2018, which at this point is a huge question mark for me. Flexibility in that I could sell the Leaf whenever my Tesla arrives
Lease a new Leaf for 24 months - approximately $3-$4k out of pocket (after the equity from selling my car) that would just be gone, and I would be forced to keep the car for the entire 24 month period
Lease a super cheap ICE car - approximately $2-$3k out of pocket (after the equity from selling my car) that would just be gone, and I would be forced to keep the car for the entire 24 month period
Drive my Father-in-Law's 20 year old dirty gas-guzzling SUV with no A/C or heat or functioning radio, save about $500 based on my current car's equity.
With Leafs prices falling drastically over the past few years, how much more are they going to fall? The breakeven point for buying a used Leaf vs leasing would be that I would have to be able to sell the Leaf in 2018 for somewhere around $2-$3k, but I would hope that I could get more and reduce my out of pocket expense. What do you think?
Buy a used Leaf - 2013 or 2014 Leaf S, lease return, 11/12 bars, 30-40k miles, out the door for less than $7500 including taxes/fees. I know about Leafspy and the ODBII. Sometime in mid 2018 i would be selling my used Leaf, then 4-5 years old with approximately 40-50k miles. This scenario, out of pocket I would be out $5k, minus whatever I could sell it for in 2018, which at this point is a huge question mark for me. Flexibility in that I could sell the Leaf whenever my Tesla arrives
Lease a new Leaf for 24 months - approximately $3-$4k out of pocket (after the equity from selling my car) that would just be gone, and I would be forced to keep the car for the entire 24 month period
Lease a super cheap ICE car - approximately $2-$3k out of pocket (after the equity from selling my car) that would just be gone, and I would be forced to keep the car for the entire 24 month period
Drive my Father-in-Law's 20 year old dirty gas-guzzling SUV with no A/C or heat or functioning radio, save about $500 based on my current car's equity.
With Leafs prices falling drastically over the past few years, how much more are they going to fall? The breakeven point for buying a used Leaf vs leasing would be that I would have to be able to sell the Leaf in 2018 for somewhere around $2-$3k, but I would hope that I could get more and reduce my out of pocket expense. What do you think?