I leased and have modded the hell out of mine......even drilled a few holes in the body today....most of them here where I wanted them to be too!!!

I would NEVER recommend buying a first year in production vehicle. I have seen way too many problems in my years at dealerships....small bugs and such that seem to be never ending. Kinda like the 06 H3, valve/head problems that are affecting many h3's nationwide.....what happens if it needs to be done 1000 miles AFTER your warrenty's are out? It's not a recall item so you are pretty much shafted and will foot the bill on it Same goes for the weak front diffs, sloppy wear in manual trannies and rear diffs are now starting to go at a more frequent rate ( my dealer has 3 in there now for rear diff problems) If you drive a ton of miles then yea, you have no choice...but with GM's smartlease you ARE NOT spending money on somethig you don't own. In the long run you can still buy the vehicle and will cost slightly more than if you financed it in the first place. Mine is like $1500 more than if I bought it from the beginning, but I think $1500 is good insurance to knowing that I am buying a truck that has no problems. If there is a problem turn it in and get a newer model where all the kinks will be worked out of.

just my opinin...but I am never wrong so don't bother argueing

 

Agree 100% on what importkiller said. This is the first vehicle I'm leasing, but I've thought about it before. Was just totally sick of the trade-in figures dealers always give you. Now, that's not my problem. Plus, not sure if anyone else did this, but I added the chrome roof rails and side steps at the time of purchase and only had to pay the lease portion of the cost of them. I think it added $9 per month for the two of them over 3 years and GMAC paid for the rest. I'm still doing some mods to the H3 like others have said, but I guess I won't do as much as I would have if I financed it... But in terms of babying it, I took so much better care of the cars that I owned than this one becaues I'll just do the absolute minimum maintenance on this to get me through the 3 years (and hope I'm not going to buy it out). When you own it is when you want to protect the investment, not when you lease.

 

I've paid cash for all my current vehicles. Just soldmy Escalade to the first looker for $6,500 more than the dealer would give me. Taking car of your ride is the key to successfully reselling it for a great fair price! Buying my firstH2 (for my wife)now and willobviously take them up on 0% financing which is like saving an additional $5000. If you are able to buy at invoice or below, plus $2-3K in incentives and zero interest for 60 months, my calculations have me way ahead by buying. Dealers wantyou to lease so they can constantly keep you rollingwith $800-$1200 in monthly payments. Leasing to me is like charging on credit cards and not paying them in full each month... the more you do it, the more you, well, you know... but for some leasing makes more sense, so to each their own.
jl

 

Same here.... It's mine and I can do whatever I want to it

 

Add me to the list of people who don't lease. Ultimately you need to decide which is best for your situation. As you have seen from the various posts, leasing does work for some, not for others. I don't buy vehicles every 3-4 years, so the depreciation doesn't hurt me. As to getting banged on the trade in, I have always done well since I keep my vehicles in good shape and generally lowmileage for the age of the vehicle. Keep in mind that what you are trading in makes a big difference too!I have tried selling on my own and the hassle is just not worth it to me-especially when the dealer is giving me a little more than 2K over Kelly Blue Book wholesale for my truck (which just happens to also be more than KBB retail). My wife traded in her Pontiac Grand Prix and the dealership gave her 2K over the KBB wholesale.

Just recently,a friend of mine whohas leased his last 3 vehicles, decided to purchase the new Acadia (I don't believe in buying first year production models either). He has no trade in allowance and his car payment is way up there. So all in all, the answer to buy or lease is yes-it really depends on what your plans are moving forward.

 

I leased mine because I intended to take it off road. If it is always breaking or is some kind of problem child, then I hand them the keys at the end and walk away. If it is a good vehicle, then I will keep it. I know this would be more expensive than if I were to trade it in for a new one, but they don't make green ones anymore.

 

I purchased just because of the offroading. I know I'm going to scratch up the paint a bit and use the H3 hard. I don't want the dealer to ding me on these things when I turn it in. I've leased cars and purchased cars, and despite the higher payment, purchase has just always been easy. You should've seen the look on the dealer's face when I went to turn in a 4 year old Honda with 100K miles. The lease was good for 48K. And of course I had to roll over that financial penalty into my next car.

 

I wrapped mine in Xpel to combat the scratches. When I'm done with the lease I just peel it off and the scratches go with it.

 

I leased it, I figure theres not much too lose, if I dont like it after 3 years I give it back and get something else or a new one, if I do like it I buy the lease out. All my accesories I can take off before I turn it it and sell them on ebay..

 

Owned the day i pick it up.