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I'm from a family that always buys, and drives them for as long as we can.....I drive a 2004 Toyota Matrix with 175,000 miles on it. It runs perfectly. I paid it off about 5 years ago, and since that point I've only put 1000.00 into it (beyond regular maintenance like oil and tire changes). Its awesome.
I"m biased. I would love a new car, and maybe someday it will happen, but even then I will probably drive it for as long as I can.
Monthly car payments bum me out.

so I don't really know what you should do- I've never leased a car because I don't really see the up-side to it, beyond getting to drive a new car. If you buy, and decide you want a new car when you are making more money, you can sell the car you already have and use that cash for a down payment, right?

@Bookish: I've leased and bought before. I think it all depends on the price of the car. For example: when I drove my Audi a6, I absolutely could not afford to buy it ($800 payments for how many years?! No.) So, I leased it and paid about $480 for 3 years and loved it. That is a car that should be leased because by the time you get done paying it off, you're broke and it has depreciated (not much, but a bit). Also, that car is EXPENSIVE to fix. I never paid because it was a lease, but if it were mine, it would have been bad. So, consider those 2 aspects.
Now, I drive my JEEP. I could have lease for $400 a month or I could buy for $500 a month and zero % interest. So, I bought. No interest, so what's the loss? And if I added $100 a month, i'd own it within 6 years and could then sell it or drive it until the wheels fall off. So, for a less expensive car like that, I bought. Also, % financing was a big deal.

@Bookish: Oh yeah, definitely an issue. If it were me I would trade it in now and use that as a down payment to get a certified used car. A few years old that you can trust to run for awhile. Good luck! IT can be stressful getting a new/"new" car!

We've leased in the past (hellllo impulse Infiniti during our dating years) and have bought every other car before/after. The lease was the only "new" car we've ever had (besides the car my dad got me when I was a 16-- a 2001 Corolla).

If you are looking for a long-term commitment, I would buy a "new-to-you" car (we just bought a 2011 Camry for around $15k and it had under 18k miles on it!). If you want to get a new car every few years and feel like you're "renting," then I would lease. If I were in your shoes, I'd buy a new-to-you car, put some money down, and have a slightly higher payment.

We've been leasing for the last 4 years, but our situation is a little different. DH's mother works for Nissan's corporate offices, and gets us a great deal. Yes, it's been money down the drain in the sense that we won't own a car when our current lease is up, but not having to worry about maintenance has been a huge benefit. We're probably buying once this lease is up next month, but primarily because his mom is considering leaving Nissan and we don't want to suddenly be out of a car if she does so abruptly. I don't have any advice, but definitely take into consideration convenience and lack of maintenance cost, etc.

Personally, we'd never consider leasing. Leasing from car to car is like forever car payments with mileage restrictions. I wouldn't just add another sedan and have 3 cars when one would not really be used. That'd just be sitting there costing you money in insurance and occasional maintenance. In this case, I'd trade in the ranger for the SUV, unless you really needed a truck a lot. My husband wanted a truck, but it just wanted a truck, but it just wants practical, and he got a CRV instead. I also wouldn't count a pay increase and factor that in as a way to be able to afford more. I'd get what I can afford now, and when that pay increase comes, that's just more spare cash for other things!

I would never lease - we buy cars for the long haul. I've also only ever paid cash for cars. We have always sold cars on craigslist (vs trade-in) since you generally get more money that way. I actually bought my current car through craigslist as well (it is a 2005 and I bought it in 2007).

I don't see a reason to hang onto the Ranger since the no backseat thing will always be an issue.

My car is starting to fall apart, so this topic has been on my mind lately! I was totally set on leasing... FI bought a truck brand new in 2009, and it seemed like as soon as the 3 year warranty was up (on certain things), everything started breaking down! He has put a ridiculous amount of money into it, and it was not a cheap truck (~$50,000). My thought was that I will lease, so I'll never hit that point where I'm out of warranty and have to start paying for repairs. Plus, cars start to depreciate in value as soon as you drive them off the lot, so it isn't like you are purchasing an investment.

Now I'm starting to second guess myself...

@mrs. wagon: please share your trade secrets/negotiating for zero down. We are about to lease a car this weekend but always thought we needed to put money down to avoid higher monthly payments. Now I am thinking we should just hold onto the down payment.

@umlo: @Bookish: I can't provide too much specific information since Wagon Sr. was the one who did all the negotiations, but basically what you should be negotiating is what you'll be paying for the car itself, not your monthly payment. If you have a bunch of cash now, you should just put it aside and take a higher monthly payment, because it would basically just be putting your money up front to spread out over those payments. It's like saying, for this hotel room I'll put down $500 in advance for a 5 night stay, and at the end when I get my bill for $600, I only owe $100 which means I only paid $20 per night! Not true... you still paid $600 overall.

I'll ask Wagon Sr. to comment briefly about leases since he knows so much about them. But basically, you can only lease new cars, so any car they have can be available for a lease. That just means the lease company purchases it instead of you. Lease a car that will be valuable to the dealership at the end of the lease (something popular like a Honda Civic, a minivan, etc). Figure out how many miles you need each year and negotiate for additional mileage to be built in to the lease if you need to. Negotiate a shorter lease (ours are 3-4 years usually). Ask if the cost of mileage overage is negotiable (usually it's not). If you need certain features on a car, negotiate for the highest trim package and then after you've settled on numbers for that, ask about a lower trim package with add-ons that they can do at the dealership (we did this with a GPS system).

If you can figure out how much you want to negotiate for, expect to be at the dealership for the entire day. We spent 8 hours straight at the dealership for our current car. Go with both of you so one of you can run out to get lunch. Do not EVER purchase anything in the finance manager's office... lojack, symonize, tire protection, etc.

@MrsMcD: really!! I had no idea!! NOT gonna tell Wagon Sr. about that though, because I'm sure 1) he already knows and searched for those kinds of cheaper options and 2) I really really like our current car and if he found a cheaper lease he'd want to roll over into a newer, cheaper lease!!! Noooo more!!!!

@mrs. wagon: That's funny. Its totally tempting to get the cheapest least possible. I just feel like if you are going to lease, get the new car! I actually didn't ask how much cheaper the service loaners were to lease. Also.... the service loaners generally have really basic options on them.

@mrs. wagon: One other thing I did was lease a 2013 model when 2014 models were already on the lot. It got me into a better car at a lesser monthly payment than I was already paying and I seriously didn't even have to ask for that - it was offered. The dealership was really wanting to get rid of the '13s.

@mrs. wagon: Oh that soooooo makes sense. I wouldn't even want to buy a discontinued car under any circumstances.

@Bookish: congratulations on your new car, lady! that's exciting!