i'm in a dilemma, not sure to lease or buy. the difference is only about $850 if I decide to keep the lease in the end. this is for a pkg 3 base. what would you do??? the lease is a 15k/.r lease and it'll most likely not enough. i'll probably put in about 20k/year. but if i lease i have the option of turning it in for another Prius or something... if i buy, i'd obviously have to sell or trade if i want a new car after that. lease is nice because the payment is lower.
IMO, $850 is not that much money at all to worry about in 3 years. Even if you go over by 15k miles (5k per year), you would owe approx $2250 for the excess mileage. If you're not putting any money down towards the drive off fees, then I can see this justified if you need to pay it in the end. Otherwise, negociate the lease terms to allow 20k miles per year (I did 18k myself, since that's all I need). In any case, if you did decide to lease, then you know you still have the option to always return the car and walk away from it after 3 years. However if you purchase/finance the car, you can sell it at any time if you want to get rid of it. Getting out of a lease is also not a big deal, as you can swap the lease pretty easily with minimal fees (swapalease or lease trader), or you can sell the car and pay the payoff amount on it. Even Carfax will buy a leased car, but you'll want to see how much they'll give you and know what your current payoff amount is.
