Leasing of Two Different Cars and Decision to Buy Our Last Lease… Our Journey Through Car Options

For the past six years, we have leased our car that is our main driving car. We had made the decision to lease so that we could try out different cars and have all the new “features”. Our first car we leased was a Nissan Murano. We loved that car and it drove really well. After the three year lease was up, we test drove various cars and ended up on the Honda Pilot. We have owned other Honda cars through the years and our second car is a Honda Accord, so we knew they were quality and we were familiar with the model as Javier had a Pilot back in the day that I really liked. 

Our lease for the Pilot comes to an end on July 13, so we decided to start looking for cars last weekend. I had heard the news that there were shortages for cars, dealerships short handed on their lots, and used cars were being sold for the same amount, or more, than a new car. All of this in mind, Carrie and I started test driving and looking for cars last week. However, this time with the idea we are going to buy our next car and we are done with leasing. We enjoyed leasing, but it will be nice to eventually not have any car payments again as we did for a number of years before we bought the Accord and started the leasing process.

We called around to dealerships in Topeka and started hearing the story that there are no cars are on lots. Basically, in order to test drive a car it is necessary to place a deposit so that we can test drive the car when it arrives before someone else buys the car or they put a hold on it so they can test drive the car. Carrie had told me we would probably need to go to Kansas City to find cars to test drive which was true but even they do not have them on their lots and have to pay money just to test drive the cars. 

We started in Topeka and Carrie had lined up a test drive of the Hyundai Palisade which we a week ago. We arrived at Hyundai and only about four cars on the lot two of which were the people working in the building. The Palisade that was on the lot was not the one we had lined up to test drive as it was located in what we later found out to be Lawrence but had already been sold. We test drove another Palisade that was not the right color and I was impressed. It drove nice, had nice features, and I could see us in the car for a purchase. We asked the dealer about the process and that’s when we heard that it can be six months to get a car that we want on the lot and that to make sure we can test drive the car when it does arrive we need to pay a down payment. Seems a bit crazy!

We left and we were going to see about test driving some other brands in Topeka, but no one else had anything on their lots. We stopped by Nissan and actually put a down a payment on a car so we can test drive it when it does eventually arrive. The good news about the down payment is that you get it back or it can be canceled, so basically, you are just reserving it so that when it does arrive on the lot you can test drive it before anyone else. If we decide not to buy the car, we get the deposit back.

As we left Nissan, we started talking and decided we should buy our Pilot. We are not going to be able to get a new car anytime soon even if we look in Kansas City, so we made plans to buy out our lease on our Pilot. Currently, we could buy it and then sell it and get a good return on the investment when we do decide to sell the Pilot. 

Our plan is to keep the Pilot for a year and begin to look at other options for a new car giving ourselves 6 - 12 months to wait on the car to be available, test drive, and purchase the car. Selling our Pilot in the process and making a profit from doing so.  We will see what happens, but so far we are happy with our decision and look forward to being a owner of a Pilot for the next year or so before purchasing our next car.