Are you ready to own a car?

Be it that you are leasing your car or you bought it, having a car has its set of expenses that comes along with it. Think of the amount you paid for the lease or the loan as your down payment - and the whole time that you own the vehicle you'll be paying for it. Before deciding on leasing or purchasing a car, are you even ready for it? Below are the breakdown of the costs of owning a car.

Gas. Gas, I guess is primary cost any driver has to incur and with gas prices going up—it’s not looking good for car owners. For many people, depending on where they live, their gas mileage, and how much they drive, gas can cost between $60 and $80 per month for a more fuel-efficient car, and $100 or more for a larger and less efficient model.

Insurance. Perhaps the biggest cost you’ll see every month—on top of your car payment (if you're leasing or financing) — is your insurance cost. The price for insurance will usually depend on where you live, what kind of car you drive, and your driving record—as well as whether you opt to include collision.

Maintenance. Oil changes, new tires, new headlights, yearly inspections…Cars have high maintenance, no matter how you look at it. An oil change usually costs between $30 and $40, and you have to do it once every 3 to 6 months. New tires can be quite costly as well—a standard all-season tire can cost anywhere from $30 to $100 per tire.

Your state and emissions inspection will usually start between $30 and $50—and that’s only if they don’t find anything wrong with your car. Often, however, you will need to replace some old parts for your car to perform better. This could be anything from a new belt or brake pads (typically $100 or under) to a whole new brake system or transmission, which could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars, ouch. There are hundreds of ways where your car can cost you that doesn't even involve colliding it with other vehicles. From the simple wear and tear, be sure to set a sizable amount to handle for the maintenance.

Fender-benders, dings and scrapes. A friend recently bought a car and even before his car could celebrate its first"monthsary", a kid scratch it using a penny. Yes, unprecedented things can happen to your car and part of owning a car is watching it turn from sleek and shiny to scraped-up. Sometime those little dents and scratches in your car can cost you hundreds of dollars to repair since a mechanic has to take the entire metal panel out to repair a single little dent.

Parking. If you live in an urban area, parking can be a big expense. Renting a spot in a garage can cost hundreds of dollars a month—close to $1,000 in a city like New York. Even if you don’t rent a garage or live in a place with one, you can still expect to pay parking fees. Permits to park your car on the street can cost as little as $15 per year, and leave you immune to tickets and meter-feeding in certain areas of your neighborhood. Also expect to get tickets elsewhere in the city. Those can cost anywhere from $20 to $80 for a parking violation, depending on where you live.

Depreciation. This often isn’t included in cost-analysis for car ownership, because many people don’t expect to sell their cars back to a dealership at some point. If you buy new, expect your car to depreciate in value the minute you drive it off the lot. Generally, a new car can lose about 35% of its value in the first year. After the first three years, you’ll lose somewhere around 10% of your car’s value per year.

Tickets. Even if you’re an excellent driver, there’s still a chance you could get a ticket or citation; let's say from speeding to parking in the wrong place. Forget to take your car in for a yearly inspection on time, and you could be ticketed as much as $100 or more. Drive over the speed limit and you are looking at a ticket worth hundreds of dollars.

Cars Lease Twilight Style

Have you ever read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series? Yes, I know, it's a book loved by many teens and your daughters might have a crush on Edward Cullen too, the vampire Romeo of this story. However this post wouldn't be one of those fan post that millions of blog sites have been posting since, well, this blog is about cars and car leasing. If you want to know more about the Twilight series, just do a search in Google and you'd surely find a lot however for this post, we will get to know more about the cars they drive.

The Cullens (Vegetarian Vampires) in this book all have conspicuous cars and since car leasing is an affordable alternative than auto loan, owing these cars wouldn't be far fetched since you can certainly find the best car leasing deals online. This post aims to give you more Twilight car leasing ideas.

Bella Swan's 1953 Chevrolet Pickup truck


This is Bella's red 1953 Chevrolet Pickup truck given by her dad Charlie. This was previously owned by Billy Black, Jacob's dad. Although this baby won't run as fast as most new cars being leased out, this pickup has an irresistible rustic charm. There are a lot of car leasing companies that leases out vintage cars. Selling price of this pickup is around $US 43500; car leasing this would certainly lower down the price and break it down to affordable monthly payments.

Edward Cullen's Silver Volvo S60R

This is Edward's rather very infamous silver Volvo S60R. Edward has used this car from book 1 to book 3 as he saved the not-so-ordinary damsel in distress, Bella. The good thing about this car is the subtlety tough look, the brakes, good performance, grip, interior comfort, safety, build quality and it's attention to details. It has a monthly car lease payment of £530.67 if you made an initial payment of £1,592.01

Rosalie's BMW M3 convertible

Edward called this car conspicuous and you can certainly see why. The car lease starts around £984 per month depending on the car leasing company.

Carlisle's Mercedes S55 AMG Sedan

This car is used by Dr. Carlisle whenever he goes to work. Opting to car lease this elegant looking sedan would usually cost around $2,248.00.

Emett's Jeep Wrangler



Depending on the year model and the lease term, you can get the best car lease term for this jeep at a starting price of $ 295.

Edward’s “special occasion” car, the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

This car is not only featured in the Twilight series but it has also been featured as the official James Bond Car in Die Another Day movie. This car is among the priciest car all over the world, car leasing this would roughly cost around £2,892 each month.

Alice Porsche 911 Turbo


This is the car Edward used to bribe Alice, his sister. The Cullens are quite noted for their expensive and fast cars. The car lease price for this car is $ 2375 - 2365 per month.

Bella’s Mercedes S600 Guard

This is Bella's pre-wedding gift from Edward. Even with the sleek design, this is actually an armored car. This car is fitted with run-flat tyres so it can remain drivable even when the wheels have been punctured. It also offers an unsurpassed level of protection against terrorist attacks and the threat of violent crime.How about that? There is no car lease price available for this car as of now. For the readers of this blog, if ever you find the car lease price, please leave me a comment and I'll update this post.

Bella's Post Wedding Gift from Edward Ferrari F43o


The F430 is the 360 Modena's replacement, but on a combative level it's designed to take on the universally acclaimed Lamborghini Gallardo, grind it into the ground and then turn up its nose as it races off into the distance in a puff of tyre smoke. The monthly car lease payments you'd make would cost around $3,326.25

How do you find the Cullen's taste in cars?

End of the Lease Terms to Note

In this trying times, many are opting to lease their next car instead of buying one since monthly payments are lower compared to a car loan. It also removes a car owner's worry of what the resale value would be when the need of reselling the old unit comes.

Car leasing was accounted nearly 27% of all newly acquired car for the year 2007. To make car leasing even all more tempting, the average monthly lease payment has dropped 44 % in the past five years. However most of us simply pay too much when it's time to finally return the car.

For this post, we will note Important End of the Lease Terms so that you in the long run can maximize the savings you got on your car lease.

Excess Wear and Tear

Most leases make you responsible for the damages of the vehicle at the end of the term. Some lease contracts are reasonable enough to list what is considered over the normal wear and tear while there are some contracts that gives the lessor the right to identify what damages are beyond reasonable. Be sure to be fully aware of this, since your car is obviously going to depreciate over time. Note when can a wear and tear be considered excessive. Of course, when you decide to buy the car, you will spare yourself with these charges.

Excess Mileage Charges

Most lease contracts states the certain allowable number of miles for you to drive the car.Before jumping on that enticing car lease, it is advisable to have an approximate estimation of your car usage. You see, whenever you exceed the allowable mileage, you are usually charged for the excess when you return the car. You however won't be charge for this when you decide to buy the car.

Disposition and Purchase Option Fees:

When you return the car, most leases will require from you a fee to cover the cost of reselling the car. Such is called, Disposition Fee.

However when you do decide to purchase the car, you are charged a purchase option fee, instead, to cover the costs for paper works and such.

Most lease contracts will give you the alternative to buy the car at the end of the lease term for an agreed price. The price of the vehicle is either stated on the contract or the contract specifies the method to use in determining the total amount chargeable to you.

Every contract is different, so it is advisable that you read and understand your rights and obligations carefully.

Source:
http://www.consumerreports.org/
http://www.carleasinguk.com/

Removing That Pest of a Car Smell

Cars have so much demands for maintenance that even men of hard labor would waver, doubting of owning one. From the car’s wheels, windshield, up to the minutest elements you see on the car’s carpet, this needs a lot of looking after, baby-sitting, you may say so.
There’s one culprit that women drivers may find more disgusting than men do, especially if they’re the rugged-looking, ranger-type guys. This nightmare goes by the name “smell.” Most cars need more tidying up every day; the car’s interior usually falls victim to drink spills, coffee marks, even lipstick marks; it’s also the most littered part of the car, more than the trunk. Hence, when you say there’s a bad smell, more often than not it’s not the cow dung outside the window, especially if it’s closed; it’s from that old brown paper bag right under your seat. And most probably that’s a two-week-old sandwich that you just forgot to throw. Sounds familiar, right?
So top advice to lose that nostril-tingling smell inside your car is, clean up, throw out, and wipe up. Rinse if need be. You can simply grab all plastic bags, paper bags, unnecessary items from inside the car out. Next is to vacuum the carpets, car seats, and any mats found in the car. When this is done, you can make use of a soft-smelling air freshener to give out a healthy and clean car environment. Another thing to contend with in the car’s interior is the stains, more particularly the removing aspect of it. If it entails you to be on all fours wiping off the stain on the carpet with a stain remover for upholstery, you need to do that. If this is done and all windows are rolled down for fresh air to come in and still the smell persists, then get your car detailed by a professional mechanic. They will be cleaning your car from inside out and leave it spic-and-span and smelling good too.
Removing a funny smell from a car is not fun at all, nor is it easy; but someone’s got to do it.