Buying a Truck for your Bus. ?

[Bulldog26]

I would like to know if any of you Lease your trucks for your bus.? I would never consider a lease for my personal vehicle, but I was was thinking about the pro's and cons of it for the business.

bt

[Stephen M.]

I always buy. The reason I do this is because you can have no money down and use a trade-in and cash back incentives as you're down payment. I've purchased most of my trucks without a trade in.

Lease, on the otherhand, requires a payment up front. I've not had a commercial truck lease and I understand that they are better than the crappy deal you get on a standard lease. The lease payment is fully deductable at income tax time as rent and you don't have a depreciation schedule like a purchased truck.

I personally perfer to purchase and take the depreciation schedule. Its more advantageous to my operation. The Pros and cons of each depends what works best for your operation. My accountant told me this year that I have few tax worries because of my ample level of depreciation. I have more for him this year.

[EGLC]

When you lease you will pay out the nose for any dents, over mileage, etc, etc. The terms may also say no signs, no modifications, etc.

For a work vehicle its always better to buy.

[greenC]

Lease, on the otherhand, requires a payment up front..

leasing doesnt always require money up front. I have leased a bmw and a volkswagon, both with nothing out of pocket.

for a work truck i think you better buy it, like the previous post said youll get nailed for any dents, scratches, dirty interior and so on when you turn it in.

[MASTERMOWER]

Work vehicles get beat-up; therefore, I'd prefer to buy over lease.

[Bulldog26]

The Pros to it...... Lower payment (rent) and no money down and %100 write off to Uncle Sam. You don't have to take a lease to term, you can trade it in at anytime. I don't think it's the best idea, it's a bad deal personal or bus. but just wanted to check with everyone to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

bt

[Kimber Landscapes]

You can write off just as much if you do mileage on a purchase. I get $8000 per vehicle per year reguardless of what it is or how much I paid for it. You do not need to worry if you go over the set miles for the lease, and will not get money reduced for every scratch.

[Stephen M.]

I don't know much about commercial truck leases, but I got suckered in a normal vehicle lease for Joe Blow private citizen. We made the mistake of purchasing a 2 wd, 4 cylinder 1991 Ford Ranger and found it to be totally gutless compared to a 4 cylinder Toyota Truck. We decided to upgrade to a 6cylinder 1994 Ford Ranger. At the time, We didn't qualify for a straight across trade-in, but we did for a lease with the unpaid portion of the previous truck added in. There was a $4000 payment at the end of the lease if we wanted the vehicle and the salesmen never did give a straight answer as to what it was. We wanted to get out from under a bad purchase decision, so we made a bad lease decision. It turned out that the $4000 balloon payment represented the depreciation of the vehicle and it would have to be paid if we decided to purchase the vehicle.

There are advantages to trading up to a bigger and better vehicle to meet the growing needs of a growing business. If your needs change, you are not locked into a situation that needs a different vehicle. Other than that, I see no advantage over a purchase.

[Scaper-S2k]

Leases used to be pretty good. They have gone up a bit in the past few years.

But if you work the numbers, there are times when you can find lease specials that would be crazy to pass up.

Kimber Landscapes, you can deduct more on leases versus the milegae method.




Contrary to all beliefs, you are allowed a certain amount of dents and dings and wear and tear. And it's not too difficult to stay with in those parameters.


Would I lease a domestic pickup truck? Heck no. Vehicles that drop in value very quickly have high lease prices because that drop has to be paid for by YOU. But if you find a vehicle that holds it's value, the lease will be much lower.



I buy some and I lease some. Mostly purchase. But as an example, in 2002 there was a special lease for a $36k Isuzu cabover dump truck with 25k miles per year allowed, nothing down, 48 months. Auto, air, dumper, 14,500 gvw. Payment? $420/month. How can you pass that up? They even let me put a plow on it!

[Kimber Landscapes]

Can you put graphics on it?
Do you have to remove it in the end?
Is it reasonable to purchase at lease end?

[Scaper-S2k]

Yes, you can put your logo on the vehicle. Yes, you have to remove them when you turn it back in.


If you plan on purchasing the vehicle at the end, you would probably be better off buying it from the get go. The only time that may not be true is if you need an expensive truck and don't want those expensive payments right off the bat. The truck can be used to pay for itself then, and be a little easier on your pocket book. But it will still cost you more in the end by doing so. Of course, spending a little extra in the end may not be too big of a deal if you really need that certain truck and that truck makes you plenty of $$$ and will last many years.

[GeeVee]

Lease worked great for me. Put absolutely nothing into the truck except fuel and oil.

Tax benefit was what I took home.

Not going to work for all of you, prolly very few of you.

I'll not bore anyone with details, but those with little or no experience ought to check their opinions at the doorr, you are idiots.

[Stephen M.]

Lease worked great for me. Put absolutely nothing into the truck except fuel and oil.

Tax benefit was what I took home.

Not going to work for all of you, prolly very few of you.

I'll not bore anyone with details, but those with little or no experience ought to check their opinions at the doorr, you are idiots.

:butthead

[MASTERMOWER]

You know what's really interesting? A lot of the people with an ample amount of 'experience' wouldn't stick around here. They got better things to do than razzin' common lawn boyz.