WOWA Sealant suggestions

Just saw this on tv this morning...an overwhelming number of people are now choosing leasing cars over buying them. This is an important paradigm shift, and should be noted. Also, millennials are not as interested in buying cars or homes...as we were growing up.
 
silverfox said:
Just saw this on tv this morning...an overwhelming number of people are now choosing leasing cars over buying them. This is an important paradigm shift, and should be noted. Also, millennials are not as interested in buying cars or homes...as we were growing up.
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Especially if there's a new Iphone coming out.

Dave
 
It's the whole disposable/fad mentality. A lot of people also no longer want to put in the effort to care for and maintain something long term.
If you can afford it, more power to you. That being said, if you're early on in your financial journey, I'd recommend buying a decent used car.
I'm hoping 3 years from now I can hand the Q5 down to the wife and get myself something that starts with RS... or the Lambo Urus. I mean it's a SUV and daily driveable so that justifies a Lambo purchase right?

FWIW I find myself somewhere in between the own/lease ideals.
My house and the Q5 I own. They're worth the investment of time and effort.
The Honda I lease as it's a fairly singular purpose car, base model with a very low lease cost (my phone bill comes out to more each month). So for that it's worth the nominal amount to know that I don't have to worry about maintenance or what happens when it starts aging.
 
silverfox said:
Just saw this on tv this morning...an overwhelming number of people are now choosing leasing cars over buying them. This is an important paradigm shift, and should be noted. Also, millennials are not as interested in buying cars or homes...as we were growing up.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Unlike a home that appreciates in value, a vehicle depreciates quickly and steadily. But if 'buying' a vehicle means a never ending car payment (because its traded in every couple of years and never really owned), in theory, these folks could have more car for less money by leasing.

But imagine if you added up the money a person could spend over many years with a monthly lease payment...and in the end have nothing to show for it...I don't want to pay someone else for the privilege of having their car parked in my driveway! As Dave Ramsey says, a lease deal is a fleece deal!

Dollar for dollar, it still makes more financial sense to buy (cash if you can) a new (or relatively new) car (or a well cared for used car), take good care of it and keep it forever...and NOT have monthly car payments forever and ever!
 
This lease/buy stuff oughta have its own thread...

I used to buy a car or three every year, but I got over that. Now I treat cars just like everything else, and I take a very straightforward approach to buying *anything and everything*- I pay cash, buy the best I can afford, and (plan/try to) keep it forever. Even waited until I could pay cash for my first house. BUT...

I have friends who argue for leases this way: instead of buying a car, they stick that same $XXK in a fund paying X% monthly and use the payments to lease something. Then they just drive it, rolling it over into another lease at the end of the term. Never think about maintenance, wear-and-tear, or anything else. Daily transportation issue is solved forever with the same amount of money (OK, if the lease rates change that might not hold up). They don't *want* to deal with getting rid of a used car (the "having something to show for it") and I kinda relate to that (I almost *always* take pennies on the dollar to sell to a dealer rather than interact with potential buyers, just not worth the hassle and PerSec risk to me). They just want a no-problem vehicle that they can rely on and they get that with minimal hassle.

It might not be the cheapest way to own a car, but it might still be the *best* for many people. The woman bought my '93 Audi from is in her 80s, and now she leases an E-class Benz. I'm no longer dealing with getting her car serviced all the time, she's no longer even *thinking* about her car- she just gets into her nearly-new Benz and drives. Every couple of years she decides what color she wants and that's about the extent of her car-thoughts other than putting gas in it. Never even has to physically visit the dealership. Who's to say she oughta do different? Her late husband took it to an extreme- he paid the whole lease bill *up front*! One brief meeting, one check, end of car-issues for an amount he never even noticed.

Heh heh, if I ever crunched the numbers, paying cash for cars like my Audis and paying the maintenance for that "keep them forever" would *really* add up to some money! The parts availability issue is really becoming a problem, it's getting hard to find parts for them and I just can't get some stuff, period (got some parts from a junkyard in Germany recently). And they're not worth much if I ever did want to sell 'em (bet I couldn't give away that '93). Unless you do your own work (fix an A8's A/C or transmission at home? I don't think so...) or buy reasonable vehicles (like my Crown Vic, cheap experience that) the whole "keep it forever" thing can get pricey. And that's *if* you can get the parts.

I honestly do think that the "just an appliance" approach to cars has a lot of merit, especially with vehicles getting so complicated. Not like everybody needs to be a car-guy.
 
@Accumulator - you raise some good points. When I bought the truck, I didn't want a loan with monthly payments so I took the money outta the IRA and paid cash. Later it hit me with the low interest loans around now, I might better have left my money invested and gotten the loan. Oh well, "damned if you, damned if you don't".
 
Accumulator said:
This lease/buy stuff oughta have its own thread...
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As the starter of this thread I sanction this tangent. It's actually intelligent conversation so i find merit in it.

That lease "fund" is actually a fantastic idea. Although I don't know how many people leasing vehicles can come up with the lump sum to do so. I may have to look into that idea next go around though.

I think we can all agree that a lease is not fiscally sound as you're essentially paying to rent a car forever (if you decide to go from lease to lease). But if you're the type that wants the newest tech or get bored of driving the same thing after a few years then leasing brings you the intangible values like Accumulator said. You don't have to worry about maintenance, you don't have to worry about getting a good trade in value or sell price when it's time for the old car to go and you don't even have to worry about wear and tear if you stay with the same make on your next lease. As much as my wife won't admit it, I know she got used to having bluetooth, iPod connections, rear view camera etc. If she had to drop down to a 2001 A4 that doesn't have ANY of those things I'm sure it would've annoyed her sooner or later.

On that note, today will most likely be a sad goodbye to said A4. It's been a fun ten years but it's time to part ways. One last oil change, a quickie (wash and spray wax) and off to her new owner. Going to miss having a quick little manual trans car to throw around. Maybe I'll look into a project 993 911, then I'll REALLY know what maintenance pains are like.
 
IF you were to put $30k in an annuity with an 8% return you could withdraw $250 a month (for a lease deal) for nearly 20 years. So that's no maintenance costs and there's no way you could buy a car for $30k and have it last 20 years!
So in theory, I could have a brand new truck every 3 years for nearly what this one cost me outright not counting the money I'll need to put into it down the road (brakes, shocks, tires....)....hmm makes you stop and think. LOL - then again, in 10 years (lord willing) I'll be 70+ so maybe I should've done this math long ago!
 
uberyk- Thanks for officially sanctioning the tangent :D

Yeah, it's building up that nestegg for the "fund" that might be the challenge, but it's about the same as waiting until you can pay cash. (Which isn't too popular these days.)

Just FWIW, the lady I got my V8 from, who now leases, could probably buy the *dealership* with one stroke of her pen! With the expense-factor off the table, the leasing was perfect for her if only because a nearly-new Benz is a safe way for her to drive around.

MiVor- While it'd take some work to get a constant 8%, and "things change", yeah...it's all about crunching the numbers and not getting into a "I always do it this way because that's how I am"-type mindset.

Ya know, as you get older the whole leasing thing might make more and more sense for you, just as it does for my lady pal. A *lot* of our retirement-age friends are going that route even though they can afford to do whatever they want. Hmmm...maybe it's in part *because* they can afford it! But not too many elderly people can afford to be stuck in a car that's broken down in the middle of nowhere, huh?
 
@Accumulator - well this one's paid for, has low mileage, and is not a daily driver .... so I just might be driving this one to the pearly gated community! ;)

Edit: But just maybe a lease deal might make sense for my wife's ride? But not sure I'm convinced enough.
 
MiVor said:
But just maybe a lease deal might make sense for my wife's ride? But not sure I'm convinced enough.
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The civic came out to under 150/month for me with no down payment.
It's barebones but has the niceties needed to keep my wife happy (bluetooth, USB, back up camera, steering wheel controls).
It has an ECO mode option and these two little bars that change color from blue to green, green meaning you're driving "efficiently".
I don't care for the bars as it seems too Prius-esque but it's become a fun little quirk for her.

So for less than 150, I get a happy wife who isn't complaining about her car and wanting to take the Q5 instead. I get three free oil changes and the car will be under full warranty for the whole lease duration. It would take me about 3 lease cycles or 9 years to end up paying for the full value of the car if purchased new. After close to ten years would I want to own that same base model civic?

After 3 years I roll her into another civic or depending on how we're doing at the time, she inherits the Q5 and I get my Urus (fingers crossed on that one haha). Or give her the Q5, build up that car fund and lease a Porsche every three years. Most likely get her a new lease and treat myself to a Stage 2 kit for the Q5.

If she insisted on leasing a new luxury car for a couple of hundred per month every three years, that wouldn't fly. We're not quite the well off 80 year old pensioners that Accumulator hangs out with just yet. Hopefully we will be someday.
 
The whole lease/buy thing isn't always as cut-and-dried as some of us might've thought, huh?

Making the right decisions now oughta help with being well-off later ;)
 
Two weeks ago I got and tried out the Megs and over this weekend tried out the Prima Hydro Max.

Before that there were about 2-3 layers of opti-seal on the car. It's a lease so it hasn't been clayed or polished. Very minimal in terms of wash and care.

In terms of ease of use, all three were fairly equally easy to use.
Opti seal has the wipe on walk away going for it, just needing to make sure you don't apply too much.
Megs does need to have the excess buffed off but it's so easy it's fairly moot.
The Prima does seem like it doesn't need to buffed off either as per directions. Went on insanely easy without leaving streaks or hazing. I followed up with a buff off anyway but it was probably not needed.

Beading or visual "evidence" of being there:
Opti seal gave me very minimal visual confidence. Very little and irregular beading. Maybe it does sheet better than it beads. I personally like beading.

Megs beads fairly well but the beads are not always tight and uniform. Some blobby beads scattered here and there.

Primo had fantastic beading properties. Uniform and consistent across all panels, horizontal or vertical. Is it at the level of FK beading? No. The beads are good but compared to FK not as tight. FK looks like you have very small bubble wrap on the car with almost pin head sized beads. But then FK is a lot more involved in terms of application.

Durability has yet to be seen. I'll be letting the Prima sit with one coat and will see when it starts to die off.
As far as non-visual protection goes (UV, anti-etching etc), who knows. But if Prima goes strong for at least a month or so then I'm all over it.
More than enough for the lease and would definitely use it as a refresher on the Q5.

The Megs is good for the price and availability as well. Wouldn't hesitate to use in a pinch but I have a feeeling I won't be reaching for it for a while. Opti-seal I may end up giving away to a friend.

one thing to note, I didn't strip any existing LSP layers when I tested the opti seal, megs and prima in succession. They just went on, one over the other. But I don't think the results would be skewed that much.

One thing I forgot to mention, the Prima had by far the best results when it came to having standing water fly off the car once you reached speed. The car went from loaded with beads to almost completely drive on the 6 minute drive from the office back home.
 
uberyk said:
Two weeks ago I got and tried out the Megs and over this weekend tried out the Prima Hydro Max.

Before that there were about 2-3 layers of opti-seal on the car. It's a lease so it hasn't been clayed or polished. Very minimal in terms of wash and care.

In terms of ease of use, all three were fairly equally easy to use.
Opti seal has the wipe on walk away going for it, just needing to make sure you don't apply too much.
Megs does need to have the excess buffed off but it's so easy it's fairly moot.
The Prima does seem like it doesn't need to buffed off either as per directions. Went on insanely easy without leaving streaks or hazing. I followed up with a buff off anyway but it was probably not needed.

Beading or visual "evidence" of being there:
Opti seal gave me very minimal visual confidence. Very little and irregular beading. Maybe it does sheet better than it beads. I personally like beading.

Megs beads fairly well but the beads are not always tight and uniform. Some blobby beads scattered here and there.

Primo had fantastic beading properties. Uniform and consistent across all panels, horizontal or vertical. Is it at the level of FK beading? No. The beads are good but compared to FK not as tight. FK looks like you have very small bubble wrap on the car with almost pin head sized beads. But then FK is a lot more involved in terms of application.

Durability has yet to be seen. I'll be letting the Prima sit with one coat and will see when it starts to die off.
As far as non-visual protection goes (UV, anti-etching etc), who knows. But if Prima goes strong for at least a month or so then I'm all over it.
More than enough for the lease and would definitely use it as a refresher on the Q5.

The Megs is good for the price and availability as well. Wouldn't hesitate to use in a pinch but I have a feeeling I won't be reaching for it for a while. Opti-seal I may end up giving away to a friend.

one thing to note, I didn't strip any existing LSP layers when I tested the opti seal, megs and prima in succession. They just went on, one over the other. But I don't think the results would be skewed that much.

One thing I forgot to mention, the Prima had by far the best results when it came to having standing water fly off the car once you reached speed. The car went from loaded with beads to almost completely drive on the 6 minute drive from the office back home.
Click to expand...

Glad you had good results with the hydro max.
 
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