Car Lease vs Buy Calculator

This tool runs a lease and a purchase of the same car over the same number of months and reports what each one costs by the end. The lease side adds the money due at signing, the payments, the disposition fee and any excess mileage; the buy side adds the cash down and the loan payments, then subtracts the equity, which is what the car is worth at the end less whatever is still owed on it. That last figure is why a loan running longer than the comparison term can lose to a lease. It holds no price list, no residual table and no depreciation model, so every number in the answer comes from one you typed.

Both paths costed over the same number of months, ending with the car sold or handed back.

Use the length of the lease, so both paths cover the same driving.
The quoted payment, tax included if your state taxes the payment. car-lease-calculator works it out from the money factor and residual.
Cap cost reduction, first payment, acquisition fee and anything else paid on the day.
The turn-in fee written into the contract. Leave at zero if the lease waives it.
Total miles you expect to drive beyond what the lease allows over the whole term.
The per-mile figure in your contract.
The negotiated price of the same car, before tax.
Most states tax the whole price when you buy and only the payment when you lease, which is part of the gap.
Documentation, title and registration.
May be longer than the comparison term. If it is, what is still owed at the end is taken off the resale value.
What the car is worth on the day the lease would have ended. car-depreciation-calculator will estimate it, or use the residual percentage the lease itself assumes.
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