Last week a message appears on my dashboard showing “Service engine soon”. I brought my car to the dealership to fix it. They replaced “ignition coil” and charged me ~ $230. I drive out from the dealership, 2 hours later the same message appears once again. This time I decided to get to the bottom of the problem, so I spent couple hours on the internet researching and guess what, they fixed the wrong thing! The actual problem was “head gasket”! So I go next day to the dealership, they argued with me for 1 hour that it isn’t “head gasket” and that I’m not qualified even to state thing like that. At the end I was able to convince them to do the test for a “head gasket”, next day I got a call from the service guy the test showed problems with “HEAD GASKET”!

Conclusions:
 1. I probably not going to buy Nissan again for a long time(tbd) unless something extraordinary happens
 2. Viva la Internet!

Courtesy of Extra Medium

There are a lot of methods available to prove that lease is a bad decision for purchasing a vehicle. But with recession coming and financial markets crunching situation is getting even worse. Lessors get tough on end of term fees, they have started to examine vehicles closer and if before you could get away with minor scratches these days it’s not going to fly with them. Recession definitely is showing its ugly face, auto dealers trying to squeeze every single dollar out of customer. Basically you have to make a choice or you pay excessive end of term fees or you have to buy the car, which make sense in some situations. Let’s say you have a good car and it holds the value it make sense to buy it out. As I mentioned before the least money you are going to lose on the car if you buy it and drive it to the ground. Buy out at the end of the lease fits the strategy.

I wasn’t so smart and leased my car and about a half year ago I had to make a decision to stick with my reliable Honda or to buy a new car (you know that smell of new car interior, this shiny look of a new car). When lease term end got closer Honda sent to me a "Wear and tear measurement guide", yep don’t laugh, it’s absolutely true. The package had a piece of plastic with size of play card and hole on it, so you put this plastic on top of the scratch and if it doesn’t cover it you have to pay for the repair. You can see it here, they call it "Wear and tear measurement card". I had too many scratches like that. And I made a decision, I wanted a new car but I didn’t deserve it, hence I bought out my Honda and you know what, I’m happy about my decision. I took 2 years financing, pretty aggressive isn’t?

So here are major factors that played a role in my decision:

1. I leased the car originally and I did all manufacturer suggested maintenance schedules. No lemon here.

2. The car is Honda and my experience with it was good so far, very reliable automobile.

3. I have a teenager in a household and I consider giving it to him as a first car. The same goal, when car is coming from me there is no lemon risk.

4. I don’t need a new car either different size or any other feature.

Everyone out there whose lease coming to the end you may want consider buy out option.

What do you think about leasing?