Back in late 2002, it was pretty obvious that I'd wrung every last mile out of my beater 1988 Ford Ranger pickup. And I was also embarassing myself when going on sales calls in said pickup.
I did a "two-fer" by leasing a 2003 PT Cruiser and surprising my wife with it for Christmas. Best gift ever. I then inherited her 1991 Saturn SL1, which to this day still has just 83,000 miles on it. Neither of us drive much.
The lease on the Cruiser will end on April 1st of next year. We have the option to buy it for $8440, or just turn it in.
Right now the Cruiser has just over 13,000 miles on it. By April 1st, it won't even have 16,000 miles on it.
All of the above is preface to my question, which I further need to preface by saying that I stink when it comes to finances. I could screw up a free lunch.
As I see it, my options are to just turn it in and lease another Cruiser, or to take out a loan and buy it from Chrysler Leasing. Even if I did a three-year loan, the car would have less than 35,000 miles on it before I paid off the loan.
Going the loan route was always my plan, but there are some large bills looming ahead for next year: more medical expenses, personal and business tax payments, and a special assessment for reconstruction of our street. And there's more beyond that.
I called my brother last night for his advice, since he's the most financially astute person I know. He just has the gift for making money. He advised me to wait until perhaps February, and then see what the value of the Cruiser might be. He said that low mileage isn't a big factor in the value of a car, and that I might actually do better to just lease another car.
My take on the situation is that I will already have made 39 payments on the Cruiser by April 1, and by turning it in, will have nothing after that. If I take out a loan and buy it, I will have made something like 74 payments on it (lease and loan payments combined), but it will still be a low-mileage car that would continue to service us well.
On the flip side, buying the car means paying for maintenance: tires, brakes, hoses, and all the other things that nickle-and-dime car owners. Just rolling over the lease would mean getting a new vehicle with a full warranty.
Any advice, comments, personal stories are very welcome.
