I've Made a Huge Mistake

You probably don’t recall – I certainly don’t – that at one point I proclaimed, on this very space, that buying an electric car was an actof stupidity. Leasing rather than buying an EV is vastly preferable in many ways:

• Less exposure to questionable resale values
•  Less exposure to questionable long-term reliability
• Subsidized lower monthly payments
•  Keeps you in the newest battery technology

I was holding out for Mitsubishi's new Wedge-Shaped-Object

Only a very stupid person would buy an electric car. I just so happen to be a very stupid person, and so it should surprise nobody that I recently found myself at a dealership, purchasing an electric car.

Specifically, I bought the Leaf I had already been driving for 30 months, which had about 6 months left on the lease. Why? Because math.

You can't argue with the truth.

NMAC (Nissan Monkey Accounting Cooperative) called me up as my lease was nearing completion. I was offered a large sum of money - $7500 – off the residual of the lease if I would please, pretty please, buy it instead of turning it in. My payoff amount, just $14,800 including the six remaining payments on the lease, meant I could walk out of the dealership with a 2 year old car, with under 25,000 miles, for just over $7,000. That's a deal even Bixby Snyder could get behind. 

The primates also threw in a free shirt.

For me, this was a great deal, but does it make sense for Nissan?  By offering so much off the lease buyout, Nissan might be trying to stem the flow of used Leafs (Leaves?) entering the market to shore up their already terrible resale value. On the flip side, Nissan might be shooting themselves in the foot by selling a very inexpensive used Leaf to those ending their leases, instead of trying to get them into a new Leaf.

2017 Nissan Leaf (artist's rendering)

Whatever the thinking, I found it hard to pass up the bargain, so I took it. The sum total of down payment, dealer fees, lease payments, monkey t-shirt swag, and residual ends up being just under $15,000. Not a bad price to pay for a brand new 2013 Nissan Leaf SV - less than half the original MSRP. Enough savings to splurge for a new vinyl wrap.

My daughter preferred Twilight Sparkle, but it's my car dammit, so I went with Fluttershy.