For the second time in our lives, we leased, this time a Toyota RAV4 and prior to that we had a Honda CRV. Now when we leased the CRV, because raised our annual mileage to 15,000 by paying a discounted rate upfront, but when we drove it for a few months (the car was totaled in an accident) we realized that we never hit the monthly average (because we work from home). So with the RAV4, we stuck to the standard 12,000 miles taking on the risk that we will exceed the mileage at the end of three years. But what has fascinated me is that dealer keeps calling us much more ahead of time for our schedule maintenance. For example, for the 5K maintenance, the phone started to ring when we had barely crossed 2K miles in the beginning of month three. For the 10K maintenance, the phone is ringing not in the tenth month but in the 7th month when we have just about 7,000 miles. It makes me believe that car lessors know fully well that people will drive a lot more than a thousand miles a month and that is where they will make the money, because otherwise our lease is a bargain. So the message here is that before you decide to lease, make sure that you do a good estimate of how many miles you will be driving. Right now, what we do is that for long trips, if we find a bargain, we rent a car as long as the total cost of the rental comes out to be less than 15 cents a mile and if it is more than that we bring our car.
My Life In Bits And Pieces in Massachusetts.