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Buy or Lease a Car (Vehicle)?

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When we plan to acquire a car, a truck or any other kinds of vehicle, we always wonder what cost the most between financing and leasing. Financing is like a mortgage; you make payments on the vehicle until the balance reach $0.00, and the car is yours at the end. In the case of long term leasing, you make payments to use the vehicle during the term. At the end, you don't own the vehicle but you have an option to buy it. The buying option is established on a lease contract and is call the residual value. The one who leases pay during the term the equivalent of the amount to finance minus the residual value, plus the other costs.

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Please change the suggested values with your own amounts in the blue text boxes.

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Vehicle Contract terms

		Leasing		Financing
Selling price of the vehicle				$
Vehicle taken in exchange Help Exchange value of an old vehicle with the new one				$
Vehicle minus exchange Help Net amount to finance after the exchange. In the case of financing, the taxes are calculated after the exchange, which is a way to save taxes.		$		$
% Taxes Help Taxes on the amount. There is no taxes on the amount if you lease since you don't purchase the product.	%	N/A		$
Other amortized fees Help Administration fees or others that you add up on the amount to finance for the leasing or financing services
Down payment Help Down payment available at the transaction	%		%	$
Taxes on the down payment Help In the case of a lease, the taxes are included in the down payment and are paid when getting the vehicle. We subtract the taxes from the down payment available before applying it on the amount.		$		N/A

		Leasing		Financing
Net amount to finance Help Net amount in which the payments are calculate on		$		$
Term Help Number of monthly payments		months		months
Interest rate		%		%
Monthly payments Help For leasing, the payments are executed at the beginning of the month and for financing, at the end.		$		$
Monthly payments plus taxes Help Monthly payments after taxes. You apply the taxes on each leasing payments.		$		N/A
Residual value Help Residual value at the end of the leasing contract. You normally have the option to buy the vehicle at that price when your term ends.	%		%	$
Taxes on the residual value Help Taxes on the residual value when you decide to buy the vehicle at the end of the term		$		N/A
Residual value plus taxes Help Total amount of the buying option at the end of the term		$		N/A

Total cost including interests and taxes

	Leasing	Leasing and purchasing	Financing
Interests Help Total interests paid during the term	$	$	$
Taxes Help Total taxes paid during the term	$	$	$
Other fees	$	$	$
Total interests and taxes	$	$	$
Cost of the transaction Help Selling price of the vehicle plus interests, taxes and other fees	$	$	$

Value of the vehicle at the end of the term

		Leasing		Financing
Annual devaluation of the vehicle in %		%		%
Value of the vehicle at the end of the term		$		$

Savings and investments

	Leasing	Financing
Monthly savings invested when leasing Help Monthly savings generated with a smaller payment when you lease, and invested each month. The amount cannot surpass the difference between the financing payments and the leasing payments.	Max:
Investment at the beginning (max: $0.00) Help Amount invested at the beginning and through the whole term. You can test to see if an investment on the side is better then the taxes and interests you saved with a down payment and an exchange. The amount shouldn't surpass the selling price of the vehicle.		$
Interest rate of return compounded monthly Help Interest rate compounded monthly. Interests revenues are capitalized and reinvested each month.	%	%
Future value of the investment Help Value of the investment at the end of the term	$	$

View results:

Leasing without exercising the buying option at the end of the term vs. financing
Leasing when exercising the buying option at the end of the term with the savings and investments

Taxes and interests saved with a down payment and an exchange
Are down payment and exchange the best option to save money?

Leasing without exercising the buying option at the end of the term vs. financing

▲ Back

The transaction as an investment

	Leasing	Financing
Total amount disbursed during the term Help Exchange, down payment, savings at the beginning, monthly lease and monthly investments vs. exchange, down payment, savings at the beginning and monthly payments	$	$
Assets (vehicle and investments) acquired during the term Help Value of the monthly investments at the end of the term vs. value of the vehicle	$	$
Net loss Help Net loss on a car investment	$	$
% of the lost	%	%

Leasing when exercising the buying option at the end of the term with the savings and investments

▲ Back

If in the case of leasing, you invest every month the money you save with a smaller payment, and then you buy the residual value with the investments you cumulated, would it be cheaper to lease then to finance?

Is there an advantage to buy the vehicle at the residual value?

		Leasing		Financing
Residual value plus taxes written on the contract		$
Value of the vehicle at the end of the term		$
Profit (loss) on the transaction		$

If it's an open-end lease, we don't have the choice but to buy the vehicle at the residual value and pay the loss (or gain a profit) at the end of the term. If it's a closed-end lease, we have the choice to bring back the vehicle to the dealership without any penalty, and the transaction stops there, as long as the user did respect the odometer limit and the maintenance.

		Leasing		Financing
Future value of the monthly investments		$
Price to pay for the vehicle including taxes at the end of the term		$
Profit (loss) Help Profit made on your investments after buying the vehicle at the residual value		$

Cost of the vehicle when you include the investments made on the side

	Leasing	Financing
Cost of the vehicle minus investments Help Total disbursement made on the vehicle minus the gain of interest made on the amount invested	$	$
Assets (value of the vehicle) Help Value of the vehicle	$	$
Net loss Help Net loss on a car investment	$	$
% loss Help Net loss on a car investment in %	%	%

Taxes and interests saved with a down payment and an exchange

▲ Back

	Leasing	Financing
Monthly payments without a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Interests without a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Taxes without a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Total taxes and interests without a down payment and an exchange	$	$

		Leasing		Financing
Value of the exchange		$		$
Down payment		$		$

	Leasing	Financing
Monthly payments including a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Interests including a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Taxes including a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Total taxes and interests including a down payment and an exchange	$	$
Taxes and interests saved with a down payment and an exchange	$	$

Are down payment and exchange the best option to save money?

▲ Back

If the down payment and the value of the exchange was invested instead, would the gain on interests form the investment would be higher then the taxes and interests saved with the down payment and the exchange?

Money invested instead of being applied on the transaction as a down payment and an exchange

	Leasing	Financing
Value of the down payment and the exchange in the beginning Help Value in money of the down payment and the exchange that would be invested at the beginning instead of being applied on the vehicle	$	$
Interest rate of return compounded monthly Help Interest rate compounded monthly. Interests revenues are capitalized and reinvested each month.	%	%
Future value of the investment at the end of the term	$	$

	Leasing	Financing
Gain of interests on the investment	$	$
Taxes and interests saved with down payment and exchange	$	$
Profit (loss) with an investment vs. down payment and exchange Help Gain in interests with the investment minus the taxes and interests saved with a down payment and an exchange. If the result is positive, then it would have been preferable to invest instead of applying the amount on the transaction as a down payment and an exchange.	$	$

To learn more about this chart, please read the chart section in our introduction.

Cost when purchasing the vehicle

Leasing A:
Leasing without cash down and exchange
Financing A:
Financing without cash down and exchange

Leasing B:
Leasing including cash down and exchange but excluding the investments (see extended version)
Financing B:
Financing including cash down and exchange but excluding the investments (see extended version)

Leasing C:
Leasing including cash down and exchange with the investments (see extended version)
Financing C:
Financing including cash down and exchange with the investments (see extended version)

Other pages that might interest you:

Intro to "Calculate Your Car Lease-End Options"

Intro to "When is it Profitable to End a Car Lease or Loan Contract Agreement?"

Intro to "Monthly Payments when Leasing or Financing a Vehicle"

« Back to Car Lease & Loan Calculators
« Introduction

Numbers in our calculators are rounded to two decimals.
The same calculations made in an Excel spreadsheet may differ slightly.

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