Case Study on Buying vs Leasing a Vehicle

Case Study on Buying vs Leasing a Vehicle

Did you hear, Hertz ordered 100,000 Tesla Model 3 cars, despite the fact that Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, tweeted that there’s no deal?

As some of you know, I have been planning to buy a Tesla at the end of my Honda Odyssey lease next year.  

With this news that came out, I immediately ordered my Tesla for delivery next year. I’ve been hearing stories about the massive delay. 

Delivery ETA is expected to be May… or potentially later. 

Hopefully, I will be able to get this car before my lease expires next year.

When I double-checked with my auto lease, I’m relieved that I will be expecting my new car before the lease expiry. I was even more excited to find out that the buy back cost of my minivan is only $18K!

Well, similar cars with similar conditions are asking for $30K+ on various resale sites.  

I got super excited that I might be able to make some money from buying my minivan at the end of the lease and reselling it in the open market privately and make a five-figure profit. 😉 

Sweet!

This isn’t the only car purchase hack that we have. 

If you are in the market for a new vehicle right now, most people ask if they should buy or if they should lease. This isn’t an easy question, and it goes back to your personal situation and the deal that the car dealership is offering now. 

In today’s blog post, we’re going to analyze different options with a new Honda Odyssey using data offered from their website.

Purchase price of the vehicle is $43,605

This taxpayer uses the vehicle 90% for business/employment purposes. This allows the taxpayer to deduct up to 90% of all allowable automobile expenses.

The taxpayer is deciding whether he should lease or purchase the vehicle with financing. 

Let’s use a video and a spreadsheet to explain. 

Until next time, happy Canadian Real Estate Investing. 

Cherry Chan, CPA, CA

Your Real Estate Accountant

P.S. Have you ever wondered if you should set up a corporation to hold your real estate investment? I’m doing a webinar on real estate investor incorporation next week. Sign up here now.

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1 Comment
Bill Foster

I found your analysis very thorough and indeed did help greatly in understanding the lease vs buy decision. One factor that was not considered was maintenance costs. In this scenario, I think the maintenance costs would be the same over the first four years, but with the buy scenario, maintenance costs will be higher beyond year 4 typically compared to leasing a new car after 4 years. This may increase the cash outflow for the purchase option.

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