At the end of a lease you do not own the car, but you also did not have to pay the extra money each month during the term of your lease. If you want to own your car at the end of a lease, you can easily do so by purchasing the car at the Residual Price. Keep in mind that you can purchase a vehicle at lease end if you really want to keep it.
The difference between a loan and a lease really comes down to how you want to use the additional money. Do you want to invest it in your vehicle or do you want to invest it elsewhere, such as a mutual fund or an interest-bearing account? Most people who opt to pay the money through the course of a loan do so because they are not comfortable managing that extra money elsewhere, and therefore they prefer to ensure that it goes toward one cause specifically.
There is really no right or wrong here, just personal preference. We often recommend to our new car buying customers that they opt for a lease because if they decide to purchase the car, they can wait until the end of the lease term to make that decision. It’s often a good way to “test” the car out before committing to it long term. Buying the vehicle at the end of the term is also a great way to avoid having to pay over mileage fees if you are not staying on track with your monthly mileage allotment.
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