Tips on Buying Cars: Leasing a car, lease companies, john thanks

Question
Can it be advantageous to lease a car with the intent to own it? Is it possible that before my negotiated lease is up and I now have enough money to pay off the car, I might be able to negotiate a good price on the car to buy it?

Answer
John,

Thanks for your question.  It can always be advantageous to lease a car, but if you plan on owning, why not just buy it instead of leasing it?  The reason I would suggest this is because once your lease term ends, you will have to finance the residual balance, usually for another 4 or 5 years in order for your payment to stay the same or go down a little bit.  That would mean that you would be financing the vehicle for upwards of 6 to 7 years, not always the best idea.  Now, in your case if you have enough money to buy the residual off then it would be just fine.  A very smart idea in fact.  As far as negotiating the price of the residual, most lease companies will NOT do that, because with the used car market the way it is, typically they can send the vehicle to auction and make more money on it at that point.  

Hope this helps.

Thanks - JB