Anytime someone mentions these lease/finance 'deals' to me, I do a simple calculation.

Loan cost x loan period + final payout + fees.

No one gives you a loan for free. They are there to make money.

Calculate it out, see how much more money you will be spending on the car to have this 'benefit'. You will have upfront cash to lower your line of credit, but then in 3-5 years would have less overall cash by paying this car loan/lease back.

The only time a loan is worthwhile (imo) is if the cash from that loan is generating more (appreciating) income than the repayments. Cars depreciate. In all fairness it is the same as flushing money down the toilet, its just that we like to flush it down a good looking toilet .

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[COLOR="Gray"]550Nm off a 2L... Just wish it was in the dak dak...[/COLOR]

yeah, im starting to make sense of this quote i got now, thanks to the help ive got on here
cheers

Salary is comparable. With what we would have been paying with the novated lease a month, well pay that amount extra on your mortgage, and we were saving a hell of a lot more long term. Plus no nasty balloon at the end.

ok, i have some numbers.
total lease payment a month for $20k over 58months = $838 p/m (before tax)

impact on take home pay = $575 p/m

take out the stuff i would be paying anyway (at the moment after tax has been taken out) of fuel $220, rego $58, comp insurance $43 = $321 p/m

$575 - $321 = $254 p/m for the finance + balloon of $4000 after 58 months

$254 x 58 months = $14732

add the $4000 balloon at the end and the $20k has cost me $18732!

seems like a amazingly good deal to me - or what am i doing wrong?

I did exactly this a couple of years ago when I was working for Mono's.
Only difference was, I used my wife's car as it was worth more and she did more kms than me. This reduces the FBT payable, and makes abig difference as to whether it is worthwhile. Ideally the difference between the FBT rate and your personal income tax rate will be as large as possible.

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what about car servicing/maintenance etc is that included in lease?

the servicing & maint was included in the first version - it worked out to $360 a year.

since all i have been doing to it is oil & filter changes (done about 3 since brand new 2 years ago) ive decided to look after that part myself @ about $80 per year.

awd moke, the car is worth a lot more than 20k (i could do this at 28k if i wtd) but prefer to keep payments a bit lower & yeah 15k kms a year is the absolute most we would do.

cheers

Ask the finance provider for a copy of the amortisation schedule, or to produce one based on as many actual variables as possible 'they may be shy to produce one'.

The amortisation schedule should give you a more informed overview of the total cost and payment amounts, cycles, re-occuring fees and charges (if applicable).

Ask the finance provider to give you a run down of all and any setup costs.

Check for hidden costs, contractual variables and requirements!

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i have the vehicle lease quotation here & the only fee ive found so far is the managemant fee of $31.03 a month & that is included in the figures above.

if there were any setup costs they should be in the quotation, but i will confirm that on monday.
cheers

i ended up taking 24k - ends up to be interest free.
thanks a lot for the advice everyone.