Guides
Long-form, plain-English explanations of the money behind cars — the same math our calculators run, shown step by step. Start with the lease-vs-buy framework, then go as deep as you like: every guide links to a calculator where you can run your own numbers.
Lease vs Buy: the Full Answer
The complete decision framework. Why the answer depends almost entirely on how long you keep your cars — and how to settle it with your own numbers.
How Car Lease Math Actually Works
Money factor, residual value, depreciation fee, rent charge: every number on a lease worksheet, decoded step by step so no line can hide from you.
The Break-Even Horizon
The single number that settles most lease-vs-buy debates: the month buying pulls permanently ahead — and which inputs move it most.
Car Depreciation Explained
The value curve that quietly drives every car cost — why the first year hurts most, and how the same curve shapes both lease payments and resale equity.
Lease Mileage Limits & Fees
Allowances, excess-mileage charges, acquisition and disposition fees — the fine print that can quietly change a lease total by thousands.
Negotiating a Car Lease
What's actually negotiable — cap cost, money factor, some fees — what the bank fixes, and why negotiating a monthly payment is how deals hide.
Auto Loan Rates & Credit
What actually drives your APR, why pre-approval is the highest-leverage move, and the term-length trap shown with real worked numbers.
New vs Used: the Depreciation Math
The first owner absorbs about a third of the price in two years on a typical curve — what that buys the second owner, and what it costs them.
Lease End: Return, Buy Out, or Extend?
One comparison decides it — the contract residual against what the car is actually worth. How to run it and act on the answer.
GAP Insurance & Negative Equity
Why you owe more than the car is worth for the first years of a typical loan, what GAP actually covers, and how to shrink the underwater window.
Leasing vs Buying an Electric Car
Same math, three shifted inputs: less predictable depreciation, fast-changing incentives, and different running costs. What that means for you.
Early Lease Termination
The most expensive exit in car finance, and the options that beat it: transfer, buyout-and-sell, and pull-ahead — ranked by real cost.
Reference
The two pages that back every number the guides cite — how the model works, and what every term means.