Doesn't seem terribly smart to me since you eat the depreciation.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Lease, so you can write it all off. 24 month, 24k mile lease is probably the cheapest.

But first I have to buy a couple of rentals, then with enough positive cash flow I can lease an S class, and write off the whole thing. Lots of write off's. Its amazing how losing money on paper is so good for business!

I know a couple of people that do this, its pretty cool.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Isnt that still spending more money so you can write some of it off?

Man 24K mile lease, car companies must love these people!

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

No;
Don't hang me if this is incorrect but this is they way an accountant explained it to me, or at least how I understand it:
If you own a car you can write off mileage, I think its .40ish a mile. I *think* you can just write off the interest on the payment.

With a lease you can write off the whole thing, $1k a month for the new S is all deductable.

I do know never to buy something just for the write off, thats like spending $1 to save $.60.

This of course is just in reference to a new car.

24k miles is about average for two years, most people don't drive that much. The dealers love them because they can resell those cars real easy; as a result the leases seem to be cheaper.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

When I use my personal car for business and have my company pay me the maximum mileage allowance ($0.485/mile for 2007; up to $0.505/mile as of 2008, I believe) that is untaxed. So if I drive 40K miles per year I can pay myself about $20K in "before tax" money even if my actual operating expenses are less. To take advantage of a lease, I would have to have actual auto expenses to take the business deduction. I couldn't take the personal car payment and also deduct any interest payments, you have to do one or the other (i.e., either keep the car in your name or have your company buy the car and deduct actual expenses).

I drove my car about 15K miles in the last 60 days at an actual cost of about $0.30/mile, you do the math.

Now I undersand why you don't want to get rid of it!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

No kidding! You could buy three very nice W123's per year with that kind of mileage compensation! I'd like a job like that. I'd slap a 2.47 diff in my 300SD, rebuild the suspension, and drive long distance to work locations all day long if I could be paid for it...that'd be awesome.

20k might sound like a lot....but thats before all the associated costs....several oil changes, an oil tanker of fuel.....etc. Either way, way more profitable in a W123 than a newer leased or bought car, thats for sure, and its the way I'd go too.

At current diesel prices, a 300D getting fairly good mpgs (24) would use over $6,000 in fuel per year. 1,667 gallons! Wow.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

My best estimate is that it costs about $0.15 per mile to put fuel in my old diesel, and another $0.15 per mile for everything else. If I drive 40K miles in a year, that gives me about $6K to pay for maintenance and put aside for major work. Realistically, I spend $2-3K per year on "normal" maintenance/repair, but I will eventually have to spend money on big ticket stuff, like a reman engine. Based on that math, I can drive indefinitely for $0.30/mile and keep the car in good condition (the $0.30/mile estimate is probably generous).

OTOH, if I went out and paid $60K for a new one my cost per mile would be closer to $0.40. Assume the new car will only be worth $15K after 5 years and 200K miles, I would "use up" $45K worth of value in 5 years (that's $9K per year, $0.22/mile, in depreciation cost). Even at 35-40 mpg, my fuel cost would be about $0.10/mile. Assuming $2K per year for maintenance, that's another $0.05/year. So the total cost of driving a new car would be in the $0.40/mile range. That does not include the additional cost of insurance, taxes, and any possible finance charges if I didn't pay cash for the car. If I leased or borrowed, the cost might be closer to $0.50/mile.

The cheapest alternative would be to buy 5-10 year old cars in decent condition (maybe $30K) and just drive them into the ground (5 years/200K miles with minimum maintenance). That would probably only cost $0.25/mile, but I'm not really interested in driving those cars and I don't want to kill them off by abusing them. Of course, I could just drive a civic for about $0.15/mile, but I would probably need back surgery.

Very true. I'd go the exact same route as you if I had to drive a lot like that.

As for the comment about back surgery in a civic. So very true!! I was sitting at a light the other day and a guy in a civic was turning through the intersection and hit a couple of our "canyon" holes in the road, he nearly hit his head on the ceiling of his car he bounced so high in his seat. LOL. Looked pretty uncomfortable, thats for sure.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

I'm not an expert on tax code, but I know from my calculations that the $2000 clean-fuel tax deduction that I once used for my Civic Hybrid resulted in about $500 in actual savings. So writing stuff off is more like spending $1 to save 25 cents.

My view on leases is that they're a horrible deal because they're essentially like a long-term rent. You pay for 2 or 3 years and end up with nothing. The best way to get a car is to pay cash for it and keep it for a long time.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I witnessed a tear down of a chrysler intrepid motor by a mechanic friend,after he had the heads off he made the effort to have the heads resurfaced .Turns out the machine shop refused to do any work on these particular heads.It was a 2001 I believe.The story they gave him is the 6 cylinder motor had a breathing issue from the factory ,this enduced a massive amount of carbon build up and would kill engines at around 50k or so.The one I witnessed was at 82k and IT looked like a motor with 300k.To make it worse Mercedes put these Chrysler motors in their MBs.Dont know if their was a recall ,probably slide under the rug .It was a 2.6 or 2.8 ,not sure.I KNOW if you do see an Intrepid for sale of this year ,it usually is being sold dirt cheap.

Those 12K mile leases are no good for those of us that put 20-30K miles per year on a car anyway. They do have the "unlimited mile" lease, but it costs just as much to just buy the car. Leasing to me is just another way to have perpetual car payments. The best kind of car to drive, besides or old diesels, is one that's paid off.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

How do you know that?

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

That's true only as long as the car concerned is reliable and does'nt cost a fortune in maintenance. It is not, for example a viable option with a pice of rcrap like my Kia Rio which is paid off, has only 82K miles on it and is grossly unreliable, badly built and unacceptably expensive to maintain. Might work with a well maintained Camry or something like that but you have to be lucky with the vehicle concerned.

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

pj ,heres how
http://www.autosafety.org/article.php?scid=149&did=981
third paragragh down
2.7 motor 1998-01
looks like chrysler customers got screwed