The Benefits of Car Leasing: 3-Years or 36,000 Miles
Car leasing is a great way for young folks who have never owned a car and who can’t afford the car of their dreams to drive in luxury. My first car leasing experience was when I wanted to lease Acura. It was a new car and a beauty, with leather seats, power windows, the whole shebang.
When I signed my lease, it was a three year, 36,000 mile deal, meaning that whichever came first, I had to give the car back. During the first couple of years I worked hard, and my car really made my day a lot easier. My commute was twenty five minutes each way without traffic, so sometimes it could be forty during the winter, and having seat warmers and four-wheel drive really made a difference.
It was in my third year that I became tired of working my job. Every Sunday night I’d dread the next day, the piles of paperwork, the looks from my boss, the struggle and pull of office politics and staying late when I only wanted to get home. I knew I wouldn’t be able to last much longer. I’d have to quit, get a new job somewhere else, somewhere less stressful. I might move away from the city entirely, I thought; work on a strawberry farm. Anything to get out of my cubicle. Sure, I wouldn’t be able to afford my car, but that would be fine. I had enough money saved up. Each day was wringing the life out of my soul. But my car only had 31,000 miles, or another nine months. I needed to burn up those five thousand miles as soon as possible.
In the meantime I began looking for a new job, a cheap old car to buy, and driving around as much as possible. But I didn’t want to drive aimlessly. Then it struck me – take a cross country road trip. I still had a week of vacation and I had more than enough cash saved up.
So I hit the open road by myself, traveling three hundred miles a day. I saw things I’d always wanted to see – the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Grand Coulee Dam. When it was all over, I had more than 35,000 miles on my car, which meant that I’d be able to put in my two weeks at work, finish driving my lease out, and get a cheaper old car and a more relaxed way of life. And I did.
