Lease or buy Tis the question of 100k!

[dgpcolorado]

In the case of a lease, the tax credit is nominally passed through to the leasee in the form of a higher residual.

The residual on my lease is about $57k. If you back out the federal tax credit, the "real residual" is $49,500. The resale value guarantee on my car would have been about $43k, substantially lower than the lease residual...

A lease might also be advantageous for those who don't qualify for all or most of the $7500 tax credit. While this may be rare at TMC — bastion of high incomes — there are some, especially the retired, who may have low incomes/expenses but also have adequate savings/investments.