Leasing a truck or car? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Leasing a truck or car?

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Your idea of buying a 2-3 year old truck and selling it when done is likely the least expensive way to do what you've described. Leasing is sometimes referred to as "fleecing". Lease companies are not benevolent organizations.

Acheron2010 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hmmm. Full-timers for 6-12 months. If they want to tow a used truck 4-down, one model that qualifies are used Chevrolet Avalanche 4wd's. Would be a good match to a Class A.

For a full 5th wheel rig, do they have a vacation home or yacht that would be worth swapping for a couple that owned a truck and trailer? Perhaps there are some full-timers out there that want a break from travel...

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

I took my son-in-law out to their local RV dealer today. After getting rid of the salesman we were able to get in some good solid education. I explained the various weights, and he was able to see several different floor plans. He was also able to spot the difference in quality from one coach to another. He, at least, is leaning toward a 5'er.

As I understand their plan, they plan to sell the house they now have and most of the "stuff" in it. Those things that they will keep will be put in storage somewhere. After their travels are over, they will buy a house in the place where they want to land. As long as he has a decent Internet connection he can work from anywhere. They will be homeschooling their children, so seeing some of the history of our country is going to be part of their plan. Since their first child is all of three weeks old now, this is going to be a bit down the road for them. However, he has never camped, and has been a passenger in a MH exactly once - last week when we took ours for an oil change.

As I said, they have lots of questions and few answers. They are planners and researchers, though, so I suspect that they will be well aware of what is needed when the time comes. I did suggest that they might want to rent an RV so that they and we can travel a bit together the next time we're going to be out this way so they can see what it is like.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

David,

Check with a Ford dealer. Back in the '90's and early 2000's, we tended to lease our primary vehicle (the wife's choice, usually SUV), but the leases were all for at least 2 or 3 years. However, when we purchased our 2008 Ford F450 for towing our RV, it was only one year old and had been leased prior to us getting it. Thus, they might do differently for trucks, especially if they consider a leased truck might be high mileage (work vehicle).

We haven't leased in quite some time, so I don't know the particulars, but when we did lease, Ford's lease was set up that at the end of the lease, one could buy the vehicle, walk away from the leasing, or trade it in on another lease vehicle. Ford's leasing did NOT have any kind of balloon payment at the end, although there was a sizable up-front charge that was $2000 or less. Some of the other companies' leases had balloon payments at the end.

Terry