Quote:
Originally Posted by 68style
you provided the main of 2 reasons
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For buyers who are looking for the latest safety/convenience features, the total cost of ownership after accounting for wear items/maintenance on the lightly used car, total cost to own isn't too different with a good lease.
I've included a scenario and some assumptions that apply for my scenario below:
Spoiler!
At the city I'm moving to for work (i.e. in the US), I've got a hell of a commute (15 minutes gridlock to get onto the highway, followed by 45 minutes or so of 20kmh average of stop and go on the bridge).
For this, I'm looking for a car with full speed adaptive cruise AND steering. This is so that I can have some energy left for hobbies and socializing after I get home from a long day at work.
With this, I'm essentially limited to
- 19+ Corolla/RAV4
- 18+ Volvos
- 18+ BMW lineup, but 19+ 3 series is hands-off at lower speeds
- 17+ Audis in Prestige Trim.
If I were inclined to do so, I could also throw a VW Golf R, Toyota Camry, and Honda Accord on the list if I hacked OpenPilot onto them.
Say I buy a 1 year old RAV4 Limited (~36k), it'll probably be worth closer to 25k after 3 years and a whole bunch of miles on it. At this point, it's out of warranty and probably needs tires/brakes; budget 2k for this >> TCO of about 13k.
I can get a 3 series demo lease for around $400/month for 36 mths, this makes for a TCO for 14k, maintenance included.