Buy or Lease?

Should you lease or buy your car? Use this calculator to find out! We calculate your monthly payments and your total net cost. By comparing these amounts, you can determine which is the better value for you.

Buy or Lease Results

Your lease payment would be MONTHLY_PAYMENT compared with a LOAN_PAYMENT loan payment.

Your lease payment would be MONTHLY_PAYMENT compared with a LOAN_PAYMENT loan payment. This is based on a price of CAR_PRICE and a TERM month lease vs. a LOAN_TERM month loan. Details of your cost of leasing and cost of buying are shown below:

Buy		Lease
Price	CAR_PRICE	Price	CAR_PRICE
Interest rate	INTEREST_RATE	Interest rate	LEASE_INTEREST
Down payment	DOWN_PAYMENT	Down payment	DOWN_PAYMENT
Other fees buy	OTHER_FEES_BUY	Other fees lease	OTHER_FEES_LEASE
Rate of depreciation	RATE_OF_DEPRECIATION	Residual percent	RESIDUAL_PERCENT
Sales tax	SALES_TAX	Security deposit	SECURITY_DEPOSIT
Loan amount	LOAN_AMOUNT	&NBSP;	&NBSP;
Loan payment	LOAN_PAYMENT	Lease payment	MONTHLY_PAYMENT
&NBSP;

Net cost of buying Net cost of leasing

Total loan payments
+ TOTAL_PAYMENTS
Total lease payments
+ TOTAL_LEASE_PAYMENTS

Lost interest on buy option
+ LOST_INTEREST_ON_BUY
Lost interest on up front costs
+ LOST_INTEREST_ON_LEASE

Down payment
+ DOWN_PAYMENT
Up front costs
+ TOTAL_UPFRONT_COSTS

Market value after TERM months*
- MARKET_VALUE_AT_END_OF_LOAN
&NBSP; &NBSP;

Ending loan balance
+ ENDING_LOAN_BALANCE
&NBSP; &NBSP;

Net cost of purchase
= NET_COST_OF_PURCHASE
Net cost of lease
= NET_COST_OF_LEASE

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Definitions

Term in months

Term in months for your auto lease or your auto loan.

Down payment

Amount paid as a down payment, which for leases is often called a capital reduction.

Other fees

Any fee, other than a capital reduction or down payment, required to be paid at the close of the lease or loan. This may include license, title transfer fees, etc.

Purchase price

Total purchase price. Price should be after any manufacturer's rebate.

Interest rate

Annual interest rate for your loan or your lease.

Sales tax rate

Percentage sales tax to be charged on this purchase. Sales tax is included in each lease payment. Sales tax for buying is charged on the total sale amount.

Rate of depreciation

The rate of depreciation gauges how fast your new automobile will lose its market value. A high depreciation rate is about 20% per year, medium is 15% per year and low is 10% per year.

Residual percent

For leases, this is remaining value after the lease term expires. The higher this amount, the lower your lease payment will be.

Market value of vehicle

Value of your auto after the lease term is over.

Investment rate of return

Rate of return on investments. This is the return that you would make if you were to invest your down payment or security deposit instead of using it in your auto purchase or lease.

The actual rate of return is largely dependant on the type of investments you select. From January 1970 to December 2005, the average compounded rate of return for the S&P 500, including reinvestment of dividends, was approximately 11.4% per year. During this period, the highest 12-month return was 61%, and the lowest was -39%. Savings accounts at a bank pay as little as 1% or less.

It is important to remember that future rates of return can't be predicted with certainty and that investments that pay higher rates of return are subject to higher risk and volatility. The actual rate of return on investments can vary widely over time, especially for long-term investments. This includes the potential loss of principal on your investment. It is not possible to invest directly in an index and the compounded rate of return noted above does not reflect additional sales charges and fees that funds may charge.

Lost interest on buy option

This includes any interest you would have earned at your investment rate of return on the buy option's down payment and other fees. If the monthly payment for leasing is less than the monthly payment for buying, this also includes any lost interest due to the higher monthly payments. If leasing is more expensive than buying, your interest costs for buying are reduced by the amount of interest you would earn on the difference.

Lost interest on lease option

This includes any interest you would have earned at your investment rate of return on the lease option's down payment, security deposit and other fees. Please see the definition for "Lost interest on buy option" for an explanation on how we account for any interest you might earn by having a lower monthly lease payment.