I don't know which is better, trade the 04 for a 09 + money or lease. I really don't want to have to sell the 04 on the open market. It will be in the way, I don't have storage to hold on to it while selling. What happens if you trade in for a lease? Just trying to figure my options.

 

If the 04 is paid for and you have good insurance for another vehicle, I say lease short term for a year.Nissan is known for making changes to the models later on in the years so they will make adjustments to the engine so why tie yourself to a 09 and later on the 2011 comes out with dramatic changes.Now if you brought the 09 you are handcuffed to it.Or just ride around in the 04 and wait another 2 years for Nissan to upgrade the new generation.Just my 2 cents.Peace!

 

I believe if you use your 04 as a trade it gets treated the same way as if you traded it in for a purchase. It would be used to bring down the final sales price. IMO if you want to wait for the new model then do so, but with a lease youd be out of it in ~3 years so just about when the "refresh" for 2011 is getting run through the rounds youd be able to get one.

If you wait though you could get stuck in the "wating room vortex" of always waiting for the "next big thing" comming out in next years model....IMO I test drove one today and it is leaps and bounds better then the 95 I used to have. My wife even liked the Max over the G35x we test drove....

YOu can always call and ask the dealship how they would treat your trade as well, they would be able to give you better answeres then we would most likely..

 

I went with the lease option on my baby, in the event that Nissan comes out with an even better Maxima which at this point I believe will be hard to do in my opinion. I went with $3500 down and my monthly payments are at $490. I actually got out of another lease early due to a military deployment on a Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab truck, I just got tired of being punched in the face at the Gas pump every time I needed to fill up.........and there is absolutely no looking back because I truly LOVE my new Max!!!!

 

I financed myself. I got about $10,000 to go paying $500 a month at it. That leaves about 2 years. I like the 04 but I do have some complaints and they have slowly annoyed me to the point I'm looking around. I really like the heated steering wheel though. That's one reason I would like to stick with a Maxima.
choice89, how many months is your lease?

 

ours was for 39 months (usually the "standard" for nissan and infiniti). We are turning in our current lease (05 FX). We got NIssan to pay the last 2 payments, paid 1500 down and are going to be paying 526 a month, we would of paid 519 a month, but they had to send someone to go get the car since they didnt have what we wanted on the lot. We got a Black on Black Premium with Tech ect, we also are getting 12K a year......

We really liked the lease option as we can get into something different if we choose at the end of the lease. ANother reason we like the lease is that we dont drive that much (usually less than 12000 miles a year.

 

Wow makes my deal seem wicked after reading your numbers. $2400 down including first months payment, Super Black 2009 S, 24 months, $318 including tax, 12k miles/year.

 

I dunno if you are talking to me, but the S is also ~4-6K less then the one I selected, which would have an impact on the payments......

If all you want is the base model then 300's is about right...

the 1500 down includes all fees ect...they are also paying us ~1100 for the last 2 payments on the FX so IMO its a wash .....We didnt run the numbers on the S base model as we were looking for a SV premium with Tech...I know the "running deal" on the S model is about 339 a month at a MSRP of ~31K, the Max we leased MSRPd for ~39K......

YOu did get a good deal though congrats on the new ride ....

Hopefully we can get more people posting so that the OP can see the different options available...

 

I seriously considered a lease but they came down 3k and I got a good interest rate so I just bought it. Either way you get in the car and get to drive it. Both ways you lose money but you ALWAYS lose money buying car. it's just how it is. Enjoy!

 

I got the lease also, mainly because you won't have to worry about the maintenance around the 30k+ mark, and the refresh is due at that time. My dealer also said that if I decide to lease a new car in the future, I can turn in my car 6 months ahead of time (at 33 months instead of 39 months) which would save about 2000 dollars. Not sure if that could go towards a purchase, but we'll see later on.

FYI, i got the S trim. 3250 down payment, no first month, and 360.83 per month.

 

good monthly payment. I bought mine but chose to do a smaller down payment and take a higher monthly. Everyone does it their own way.

 

That plus you can drive it and not worry about the mileage and I know some of us "Drivvvvve" on this site by looking at the high mileage on some of these 02-08 Maxima's!

 

I work only 7 miles round trip from home so under 10k miles a year is no issue.

 

I think it would be a big mistake to trade your '04 in on a lease. When leasing you want to put as little money down as possible. The '04 probably has good value and it is just like putting up a large chunk of money up front. The danger of putting up a lot of money on a lease is if the car is totaled or stolen and is a total loss the insurance pays the lease off to the leasing company and you get nothing. So whatever money, "or trade" you put toward the lease is bye-bye. On the other hand if the trade is worth lets say 10K and you purchase your new Max for thirty. The insurance money would go to you. You then pay off the loan and keep the rest of the cash, hopefully close to the 10k it was worth, and put that toward your next purchase. If you really want to lease you should sell the car on your own or trade it. Then ask for cash back from the dealer and only put a small portion down toward the lease.

 

A lease is really a luxury where you ALWAYS have a new car.

 

I would preffer leasing over buying anytime of the day I got my 09 Sport tech 1,500 down that included 1st month 525.00 month 39 months

 

And NEVER own a car.

 

Keep on leasing, I need guys who think like you so I can continue to scoop up off lease cars and pay them off real quick. 03 SE Max, PAID FOR, 06 Mazda3, PAID FOR, 05 Kia Optima, PAID FOR. Thanks again. Next up, 08 Infiniti M45 Sport. (lovin the LEASEE)