When lower payments are the big issue, lease pretty much always wins (unless you have a bundle to put down at purchase time). I'm not one of these folks with thousands of dollars just burning a hole in my pocket, so monthly costs are certainly a major influencer.
If you set up a bank account with the exact purchaser amount earning even 0.1 percent and set up auto payments for the 0% 36 month option you will have more money in the bank than what you started with. In addition most of ford's and other car manufacture incentives when buying a new vehicle come into effect when you finance through them. A friend of mine bought a new 2018 F150 and was going to just pay cash. But the dealer offered a finance deal that came with a multiple sizeable incentives because he financed through Ford but the rate was fairly high. He paid the truck off a few months later and ended up paying nearly 10k under MSRP for it as a result of the financing deal.IMO paying cash in full is the best option. No matter how low your interest rate is- you still have to make a monthly payment! We are Seniors on fixed budget by choice and live well using philosophy of keeping our fixed monthly expenses as low as possible while letting our retirement investment vehicles keep growing and only dipping in when needed or to splurge for something.... like a new Maverick!
Also this ^ I've done this before also, a lot of times Ford offers you a great interest rate (0-1.9) OR like a 4.9 but several thousand off in rebate and clearance, so yeah if you have the liquid on hand you have the power play to do these kinds of moves and the finance charge for the first month or whatever is pretty negligible compared to the thousands off.
Again good advice, don't negotiate payments. You can figure your own payment googling a payment calculator. The cost X sales tax + fees if any and then break it down and play with the interest rate. If you're going to finance the car, work solely on the number. They can make your payment anything you want ~ you just may be paying on it for the rest of your life.
Not to stick my nose in but it might be worth looking into financing on a low rate.
For financing the monthly payment has a sharp drop off curve.
| Term | Rate | Monthly | Interest Paid over Loan | Total Paid |
| 36 | 0% | $750 | $0 | $27,000 |
| 48 | 0.90% | $573 | $499 | $27,499 |
| 60 | 1.90% | $472 | $1,324 | $28,324 |
| 72 | 3.90% | $421 | $3,325 | $30,325 |
| 75 | 4.90% | $419 | $4,399 | $31,399 |
| 96 | 5.90% | $393 | $6,023 | $33,023 |
| Term | Miles | Monthly Payment |
| 24 | 7,500 | $448 |
| 24 | 19,500 | $520 |
| 36 | 7,500 | $409 |
| 36 | 10,500 | $415 |
| 36 | 15,000 | $435 |
| 36 | 19,500 | $454 |
| 39 | 15,000 | $419 |
| 48 | 7,500 | $426 |
| 48 | 15,000 | $443 |
IMO paying cash in full is the best option. No matter how low your interest rate is- you still have to make a monthly payment! We are Seniors on fixed budget by choice and live well using philosophy of keeping our fixed monthly expenses as low as possible while letting our retirement investment vehicles keep growing and only dipping in when needed or to splurge for something.... like a new Maverick!
Respectfully disagree with interest rates where they are now. Paying a few hundred bucks a year in interest to keep $20K+ is worth it. If you take the 0.9% for 48 months offer, you only need a 2% annual return on an investment (e.g. a retirement account) worth half of that to come out on top. You can then keep the other half you would have spent on a cash purchase for something else, like a wedding.
Inflation also is helping you too. As time goes on that loan actually becomes smaller compared to costs.
Then your not leasing right. If you plan on purchasing, there is no price disadvantage to leasing first, then purchasing. The price of the vehicle will be the same. Except you have the option to give it back after 2 or 3 years when leasing, even if the actual value is lower than your residual in the contract. If it's higher (as is the case lately) you simply sell outright, and pay off the residual and pocket the difference.
I was torn between the two as well. I was either going to do a 1 pay two year lease, or finance. The lease rates on these seem really high in my opinion, I want to say like 2.5% interest for 2 years or 5.5% for 3 years if I remember correctly. I'm used to basically 0% on leases. I like the option of being able to give it back or purchase outright at the end of 2 years, as my needs may change or there may be issues that I no longer want to deal with. In this case I opted for the 66mo flex buy @ 1.9% mainly because I feel like I will be making a bunch of mods.
Awesome. This helps a lot.
