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5 Posts
Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I'm in NorCal/SF Bay Area, and need a car soon. I'm interested in Clarity PHEV due to its low operational cost. I checked with one dealer for the lease for base model, and I was quoted 2000 down + 35 installments of 491 (includes tax) each for 36mo/12k miles per yr. So that's 17.6k total cost after applying 1.5k CVRP rebate, assuming it pans out this year. This apparently is the least expensive lease deal in all of Bay Area; thanks to Chevy Volt dying, prices of clarity FCEV have gone up, or you can say the deals have dried up, especially when compared to what were available in summer of 2018.
I then asked the dealer for purchase price, and he quoted 27k for the base model. Roughly adding 15% for TTL, the OTD comes out to 31k. Apply Federal and CVRP rebates, the total price comes down to 22k. This is less than 5k more than the total price of the lease. And I'll have a car on hand at the end of 3 years.
Now comes the question of which route I should take --- buy or lease, as there're other factors beyond just dollars. With technology evolving so fast, there's a high chance that the depreciation will be massive, ergo resale values will plunge. Given that Honda pulled Clarity PHEV out of northeast, I'm not sure if they'll continue with this model; I hope they do. And third is my personal life changing; if family grows, then I may need a bigger vehicle. Leasing protects against all these, as the car will be off my hands in 3 yrs automatically.
If I buy, then I'll have a car to show at the end of 3 yrs. And if I can sell it for more than 5k then I come out ahead as compared to the leasing.
For those of you who have bought the car, what was your line of thinking? What about those who have leased? Thanks in advance.
-TC
I'm in NorCal/SF Bay Area, and need a car soon. I'm interested in Clarity PHEV due to its low operational cost. I checked with one dealer for the lease for base model, and I was quoted 2000 down + 35 installments of 491 (includes tax) each for 36mo/12k miles per yr. So that's 17.6k total cost after applying 1.5k CVRP rebate, assuming it pans out this year. This apparently is the least expensive lease deal in all of Bay Area; thanks to Chevy Volt dying, prices of clarity FCEV have gone up, or you can say the deals have dried up, especially when compared to what were available in summer of 2018.
I then asked the dealer for purchase price, and he quoted 27k for the base model. Roughly adding 15% for TTL, the OTD comes out to 31k. Apply Federal and CVRP rebates, the total price comes down to 22k. This is less than 5k more than the total price of the lease. And I'll have a car on hand at the end of 3 years.
Now comes the question of which route I should take --- buy or lease, as there're other factors beyond just dollars. With technology evolving so fast, there's a high chance that the depreciation will be massive, ergo resale values will plunge. Given that Honda pulled Clarity PHEV out of northeast, I'm not sure if they'll continue with this model; I hope they do. And third is my personal life changing; if family grows, then I may need a bigger vehicle. Leasing protects against all these, as the car will be off my hands in 3 yrs automatically.
If I buy, then I'll have a car to show at the end of 3 yrs. And if I can sell it for more than 5k then I come out ahead as compared to the leasing.
For those of you who have bought the car, what was your line of thinking? What about those who have leased? Thanks in advance.
-TC