Car Refinance

How to Get the Best Deal on a New Car Lease

Since you are reading this, I am going to assume that you are looking into the lease options for your next new car
instead of purchase options. A new car lease MAY be a good deal for you but it is something that you should examine very carefully, since you may end up in a much worse position.

On the up side, a new car lease is almost certainly going to have lower monthly payments that a purchase, compared with the same amount of money out of pocket at the time of signing. You can usually get a good deal on a car lease for less than a couple thousand out of pocket. The monthly payment is going to be determined by what the estimated resale value of the car will be at the end of the lease. So a car with poor resale value is going to have higher monthly payments than a car with a much better average resale value.

But on the down side, you are still responsible for the maintenance of your leased car – gas, oil changes, tires, tune-ups, insurance, and all the other things that normally accompany car ownership, but you are NOT building any equity in the car. In other words, you are in effect RENTING the car, except that you also have the responsibility for the maintenance of it.

Not all new car leases are created equally. You should definitely do your homework as far as what leasing programs are available, what they include and exclude, and most of all, what is it going to cost you. One big thing in almost all car leases is a mileage cap, where a typically mileage cap says that you will put no more than 12,000 miles a year on the car. So at the end of a three year lease, you can have no more than 36,000 miles on the car. You do not get any extra brownie points if there are fewer miles on it, but if there are MORE miles than that on it, you will pay through the nose for it, something like 30 cents per mile. So in this example, at the end of the lease you have 40,000 miles on it, it is going to cost you an additional $1200 to turn in the car. Ouch!

Over the course of a lease, you may want to terminate the lease early. If this might even be a remote possibility, know what your options are up front. In most cases, there is an early termination fee. Sometimes if you leased your car from a large dealership, they will allow an early termination fee without penalty if you are within about 6 months of the end of the lease, but only if you sign another agreement on another new car lease.

I would strongly encourage you to do a fair amount of homework before you sign on the dotted line. Even if the lease being offered by the dealership on your new car lease appears to be incredibly good, you can almost always be assured that there is a better program available. Sometimes the payments might be the same, but other programs may allow a higher mileage cap, might have lower or no early termination fees, and a variety of other subtle differences that could make a huge difference to you and your intended use of the new car.

How to Get the Best Deal on a New Car Lease / Jon Arnold

Jon is a computer engineer who maintains web sites on a variety of topics based on his knowledge and experience. You can read more about getting new car leasing deals at his web site at Car Leasing Guide.

The Cheapest Car Insurance For Teens – Keep The Rates Down

We love them even though they are expensive – a fact that doesn’t change once they get older. They become extra costly once they become teens. Their taste in clothing becomes more expensive. Santa no longer brings stuffed animals; he’s hauling the newest Nintendo in his bag. They need money for proms, football camps, cheerleading uniforms, and band instruments.

What happened to the days when peek-a-boo was enough to make them smile?

Teens are also notorious for having more expensive car insurance rates than older drivers. This is mainly because car insurance companies view teens as less experienced drivers and more risky to insure. Since age is already working against them, teens must take extra care to make other factors car insurance companies look at work for them.

Despite the rising costs of raising teens, there is a way to get cheap car insurance for teens – actually, it could be the most important way to get cheap car insurance for your teen. Buy your teen a practical, affordable, and safe car.

Teens dream about the day they become old enough to drive, and many teens get their first car when that day comes; however, if it is a flashy, expensive, unsafe car the car insurance company will see it as likely to be stolen or robbed, costly to repair in the event it becomes damaged, and likely to not protect against accidents.

On the other hand, if the car is modest in appearance and price, as well as equipped with safety features, the car insurance company will be more likely to offer a cheap car insurance quote for the teen.

By purchasing your teen an affordable, practical car, not only are you helping to get cheap car insurance for your teen, you are also helping to keep your teen safe which makes buying your teen this kind of car the most important way to get cheap car insurance for your teen.

The Cheapest Car Insurance For Teens – Keep The Rates Down / Elizabeth Newberry

How not to Get Taken for a Ride on your Next Car Loan

You are bombarded with offers for a car loan. You see it everyday on television, on radio, and in every edition of your local newspaper – the specials, promotions, and sales on new cars or trucks. Today’s deal is better than the yesterday’s deal and is so good that it will probably never be repeated within your lifetime. In fact, if you believe all the hype that the car and truck dealerships are making, you have to wonder why they are still in business at all, since they are obviously selling these vehicles way below their cost.

Make no mistake about it – there are very few if any cars that leave the dealer where you paid less for the vehicle than the dealer did. That includes used cars and trucks too. They do not do business that way, and they never will because they would not be able to keep their doors open very long if they did. They get rebates from the manufacturers, incentive bonuses, volume bonuses, and more. Yes, you may be able to get a killer deal on a particular make and model from one dealer that another dealer cannot match – not because they don’t want to, but because the first dealer gets incentive or volume bonuses that the second dealer does not in that particular month.

But one of the things to realize is that one of the major profit centers for a car or truck dealership, new or used, is in car loans and car financing. Some dealerships have their own financing. Well, sort of, maybe, although most do car financing through an arrangement they have with a local bank or credit union. Many larger dealerships have arrangements with multiple local banks and credit unions in order to make it appear that you have multiple options for getting the best deal on your car loan. And in most cases, this is correct.

The question becomes one of whether or not you are getting the BEST deal on your can loan or truck loan. How do you know? You do your homework on it to make sure, and you do that homework even before you step foot into the dealership. People who know have written many times that you best point of leverage in negotiating for a new car is to walk into a dealership where you have already been pre-approved for a car loan, where you know how much money you are able to get in order to keep your payments at a level you can handle, and you know what the interest rate is.

In other words, you should negotiate every bit as much and every bit as hard on the auto financing part of the deal as you did on the price of the car or truck, and what the dealer will throw in, like floor mats or XM radio or whatever. Saving a couple hundred bucks on having the dealer throw in XM radio is peanuts compared to SEVERAL hundred or even thousands of dollars you could save over the life of the car loan with a killer deal and low interest rate!

Shop around for your car loan, in the same way that you shopped around for the vehicle you want to purchase. If you have found the best deal possible on a car or truck, be aware that with the best car loan deal possible, that makes the whole dealer even sweeter.

How not to Get Taken for a Ride on your Next Car Loan / Jon Arnold

Jon is a computer engineer who maintains web sites on a variety of topics based on his knowledge and experience. You can read more about Great Deals In Car Loans and Car Leasing at his web site at Car Loan Car Lease Resources.