So I am currently in a leased 2016 Honda Civic. The lease will come to an end in April, so I have started doing my research on if I want to go in to a new lease, or buy my civic out of the lease. I like my civic, it works just fine. Of course it will soon be time for maintenance expenses to start kick in. Things like new tires, and other big expenses that make leasing a car such an easy call, since the lease typically runs out before these maintenance items need to be taken care of.
So I went to look at the new 2019 Civic. It is almost identical to my existing car. There was a minor refresh this year, adding a knob to the radio and changing the front grill a little bit, but otherwise nothing new.
So really, I might as well buy my car out of the lease rather than lease a new Civic... But Civics are not the only vehicles out there....
I started looking around at a few different vehicles, and The above Volkswagon Jetta caught my eye. It has been redesigned for 2019 . One of the really cool features about the new Jetta is the Digital Cockpit.
This is a totally customizable space in front of the steering wheel where you can put whatever information you want, up to and including the navigation map. I found that a really really cool idea that I could get excited about.
So when I went in to check out the car, I sat in the SEL trim, which I thought had everything I was looking for. The very first thing I noticed was that the driver seat is not powered. No 6 way adjustable seating, this is four way adjustable, forward, back, up and down. That's disappointing.
The second thing I noticed was that the "panoramic" sunroof was not any bigger than the sunroof in my Civic. Not very panoramic really.
The next thing was that the engine cuts off when you come to a full stop, however, instead of mimicking Honda's Brake Assist which lets you have your foot off of both pedals while at a stop, this system immediately restarts the engine and begins drifting forward as soon as you take your foot off the brake. This isn't a huge deal, and the engine cut off is supposed to save $350 a year in gas costs. But I like my brake assist.
Finally, we started playing with the digital cockpit. Turns out, while the car is happy to hook in to your phone for Apple Car Play or Android Auto, the Digital Cockpit cannot display maps from those services, so the only way to get those maps up on the digital cockpit is to have the factory installed navigation.... which is not on this trim.
All in all, the Jetta is a nice car, I enjoyed the pick up that it had out on the highway, but all in all, it really didn't wow me enough to start talking numbers to see about trading my Civic.
So that's one car likely off the list. As nice as it is, I don't think they will give me the right price on the Premium Trim that includes everything the SEL is missing except for the brake assist. I've got two months to figure it all out, so we'll see if they do any sort of Lease incentives, but for now, it is on to the next....
Soooooo, I totally, totally get that you're sharing a story and not at all asking for advice or opinions...but.... what are friends for right? If you don't get beaten over the head with other people's viewpoints, what are we even doing here? Haha..
Anyway, here's my opinion that you definitely didn't ask for. I'd lease a car for another two years and then look at a Model 3 or Model Y. In two years they'll be crazy cheap and should have passed all the regulatory hurdles to be fully autonomous... and charging should be super quick. Full autonomy might mean that your car could work for you, or you could work while doing long trips or drive your son around... you might not be keen on any of that... but that's fine, it'll be an option if you are. Looking away all the car companies, they're all working on EVs and autonomy, with Tesla leading the charge.
We're leasing a Forrester... we're in Oregon and it's state law that everyone drive one... but our lease is up in September, so we'll be going through the same thought process...
Really?? We are that close to fully autonomous vehicles being in mass use and at a consumer friendly price point? If that is true, I am totally down to get in for a self driver. I need to do some research!
I knew everyone was working on it, but thought we were still 5-10 years away from a mass produced version.
So the Model 3 by Telsa actually has a self-driving option (I think it's maybe $5000 extra)... I think it would be classified as Level 3/Level 4 autonomy. People are doing roadtrips right now where the car is in full control for 70% of the trip. Telsa is pushing for a $35,000 price point, but haven't got their yet, I think they're still around $60,000. Telsa is also having to jump through all the regulation hurdles, but while they're in that process, they're collecting a crapton of data.
The main problem for me (and maybe for you) is that Tesla isn't looking at leasing options... so you'd have to buy it. That said... you can get second hand Model 3s for $50,000, so they're keeping their value pretty nicely. Which makes sense... they have 18 moving parts, which is like 3000 moving parts fewer than a normal car.... someone has done 350,000 miles in their Model S, with only 12% degradation to the battery.
Honda Honda Honda ❗ There is nothing else. Buy the '18 and have an independent shop do the maintenance(still covers warranty) and buy many kilos of silver with the saved monies ✌
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I do love my Honda. Can't get in a new one anywhere near my current payments so a new Civic is probably off the table... but I do so love that new car smell!
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The good thing in leasing a car and not buying it is that the leasing some company takes all the expenses for parts and servicing withing leasing period. And another side of the medal is that in around 3 years the car will below to the company and you paid almost the full cost for the car.