I run a lot of lease quotes at the dealership I work. This may be boring to most but to me it was interesting. This post is not meant to make an argument that one should lease or purchase or whether it is better to buy new or used. It is a snapshot of a specific situation I ran into with a customer.

This customer is of the Dave Ramsey mindset. He hated the thought of making payments on an escalade and wanted to buy it with cash. The rebates are extremely good on escalades if you lease only. If you purchase with cash or get a loan there are no rebates. So here are three scenarios on the exact same 2012 Escalade:

1)Lease: Total of Payments: 39,303.92. Residual Value to purchase the Escalade at the end of the lease plus Tax, Title and Licence: 32,503.35. Total to lease for 3 years and then purchase: 71,807.27

2)Purchase with cash with Tax, Title and Licence: 75,273.85

3)Installment loan for 5 years including all payments at a 2.69% interest. Also including Tax, Title and Licence: 80,733.60

The customer chose option 2.