Newbie in need of some help

Rainsford

Hey everyone, first post, but I think it might be a doozie.

I'm 23 and living on Long Island. For the past year or so, I've been driving my parents 2007 Maxima (making payments on it myself, though). I'm ready to get a new one in my name, and I'm really stoked about getting a Z.

My work has me driving around a lot, but the positive side of that is that I can write off almost the full price of my car payments as a business expense. However, I had read that when you buy a car, the interest payments can't be written off, while a leased car can (since the interested is rolled into the "finance" cost). Going by this, I was looking to lease. However, since I've only been out of college for about a year, and never really used a credit score, I have a pretty terrible credit rating simply because I haven't ever had to use credit.

When I went to the dealership (just to run through the motions to feel them out), I hit a wall, where the sales manager said I would need a "monster down payment" to lease. Now, I've read that big down payments on a lease aren't a very good idea, but that's why I'm here! I'm ok with spending 600-700~ a month or so (of course, lower is always better!), and am really unsure about what to do. I'd love to get the touring with the Navi, since I've read nothing but positives, but this is my first car-buying experience, so I'm not really sure what I'm getting into, and any and all help would be appreciated!

Thanks again, and it's great to be here!

FuszNissan

If you haven't bought a car or a house, it is hard to obtain a car note by yourself. You can try and see if you parents will co-sign for you. Putting money down on a lease is a bad idea, you are renting the car. That would be like upgrading something in your apartmen that you rent and can't take with you when you leave. I would say do a buy, but if you can write everything off through work I would stick with the lease and get a co-signer.

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Rainsford

Wow, that thread is filled with nice stuff! Thanks!

I work in sales already though, so I'm pretty good at the whole verbal jujitsu thing, I'm just really torn on the whole lease v buy thing. I've read a lot of the pros v cons, but I'm looking for more Z specific stuff. Would a 4-5k down payment be decent for buying? If I can't get a cosigner and putting a big down payment for a lease would be dumb, should I just give up on that?

Sorry if this is a little scatter shot, but I really don't have anyone else to ask about something like this. Thanks again!

steveg78

There's no way you can write anything off on a purchase? If you can obtain a loan (maybe with a co-signer) you're payments will be not too far off from those astronomical lease payments... And you OWN it! One other word of advice (might not be good) is that if you are going to rely on this car to get you around for work and is your only means of transportation, it may get REALLY scary in the snow! Especially in NY traffic and driving maniacs I had a 300ZX back in the day as my daily driver and it was very scary driving even in 1/2 inch of snow! You gotta think about practicality and what is going to get you to work...After all, that is how you make your chedda! Sorry if I sound like a downer but I'm just speaking from experience. Good luck in figuring this all out!

fly yellow

You could buy a loaded one for 700 a month, and that's with almost nothing down, assuming you can get the loan. Leases are tougher than purchases with credit. If you're looking to lease you may want to consider an Infiniti G37s. Infiniti has much more attractive lease offers. However, if you are in sales, I would assume you rack up the miles, and I would just buy.

I'm not so sure that you are right about the tax deal though. I am in sales as well and I get to write off mileage used for business purposes. I think the current rate is 51 and 1/2cents a mile. I've never taken any deductions for the cost of my vehicle. I think what you are thinking about is if you are an indipendent contractor.

joejo02

With the credit market literally in the hole now, banks will probably not even approve you for a loan. I currently just got my 370z last friday with nothing down. I am 24, just graduated, own a house, have a really good job, and a very high credit score and the finance guy still gave me an interest rate of 8%. I wanted to purchase a z touring w/ sport WITH NOTHING DOWN!!! My payments were at $850/month. OUCH!!! This is financing about 40k. So I ended asking my lovely parents to help me out and we worked out our own deal to pay my parents back.

In the end Banks are really really really tough when it comes out giving out money. You can either wait until nissan comes out with a really good leasing deal or just flat out purchase it if you are going to put money down. I don't know the logistics on writing off car payment so i'm not sure what to do about that.

Justin1686

What dealership on LI did you go to?

Rainsford

Well from what I read, the write offs are bigger on a lease, but it's not really a deal breaker, it would just be preferred. But co-signing is pretty much out of the question, so it's looking like I'll have to save up for a few weeks for a nice big down payment!

And as far as the NY weather goes, ya I can believe it! Luckily, I won't be too far out from home to be able to borrow another car should it get real bad, but I guess I kind of have my fingers crossed that good ol' global warming speeds up!


From what I understand, you can either do that, or write off the percentage of depreciation/repairs/gas/etc that's equal to the percentage that the car is used for business purposes (outside of commuting back and forth to work itself, of course)!

And 700 a month fully loaded?! Whenever I run the online car-price check things, it always comes out to way more!

From what I've read here, that may just be what I do. Plus, I've kinda got my fingers crossed that when gas shoots up again this summer, the dealers may try pushing them out the door a little harder.

Massapequa Nissan, right on Sunrise Highway. Mind if I ask where you got yours?

As another question, would opting for the bose/GPS be worth it, or would I be better off going after market on it all? The GPS seems nice, but I'm not sure if splurging for the touring just for the right to add it is really worth it. Any advice?

Thanks again all!

ChrisSlicks

With the stock tires the car is undriveable in even light snow. If you do get the car invest in some 18" wheels and snow tires. Even if you lease you can sell the wheels at the end of the term.

Major downside to leasing is that you can't make any modifications, at least none that can't be put back to stock.

joejo02

Well.. if you plan to lease.. might as well get everything. BUT you can't really make a lot of modifications to the car. This would be really hard to not do haha. I'm not sure if you would benefit from the tires since it looks like you would have snow. get it fully loaded if you plan to lease, then you probably wouldn't feel more pressured to modify anything.

Justin1686

Don't go to Massapequa Nissan. I haven't been in the showroom in at least a month, but did you notice that there is no Sticker on the car in the showroom, and its being marked up $6k.... I got mine from Habberstad in Huntington. Go there, the guys at Massapequa are hit or miss. If you go to Habberstad, go talk to John or Ken, they're both very good. Ken is newer, only spoke to him a few times, but i've dealt with John in the past, I didn't get my car from either of them, but the guy i got mine from isn't a saleman there, he's higher up and only sells to previous customers. So forget Sequa Nissan..

Musashi

I'm sorry bud but leasing a Z is a baaaaaad idea. Apologize to anyone who is in a lease on the Z, the numbers just don't make sense. If you can't swing the financing, I recommend a G37s... Had mine for 3500 down, 500 a month for a 2 year lease. When that was up I bought my Z, because the lease was stupid.

Rainsford

Glad to see I'm not the only one that had a terrible time at Massapequa Nissan. If you don't mind me asking, what did your pricing look like at Habberstad? I might drive out there tomorrow or Wednesday and check it out.

Thanks again!

Justin1686

yea its def worth the drive to habberstad. sequa is MUCH closer to me, bu def worth the drive. i got a touring, sport, auto, sills, splash guards, carpets, for about 37500.