Let’s say a 1 year old 4LT Corvette convertible is worth $50k (retail). Let’s say that same car is going to be worth $30k when it’s 4 years old. NOTE: I’m basing these numbers on cars I can find right now on AutoTrader.com.

With a used car lease you’re buying depreciation. If a 1 year old Corvette Convertible depreciates $20k over the course of 3 years, and your total lease cost is $17,820, you did great.

On the other hand, if you bought a one year old Corvette for $40k last year (and you might have been able to last year – it was one of the worst sales years since the 1970′s), and if the car market recovers by the time your lease ends, your car could be worth $30-35k.

I’m seeing 2005 Vettes with 60k miles online for $30k+. If you paid $18k to buy 10k worth of depreciation, then I guess you didn’t get a great deal after all.

As for comparing your used car lease to a new car lease, I don’t see the connection.

Finally, Tony, I would encourage you to consider the fact that your experience really isn’t typical. Of all the people in the USA considering buying or leasing a used car, the vast majority aren’t looking at Corvettes.

I don’t think there’s any bad advice here bro – you may have done very well on your lease (only I’m guessing your used Vette was closer to $40k than $50k), but the average person looking at the average used car would be wise to avoid a used car lease.

Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s a credit union and it looks like the apr is the same for both Used and New car lease (3.74% or 3.49% as internet special)

No I didn’t get lucky, I simply didn’t listen to people that gave me bad advice such as what’s stated above. Just a few minutes of research kept me from listening to bad advice. The trick to finding a good used lease is to find a car with selling price less than MSRP, that has less mileage than expected (12k per yr) and with any other options that increase the residual such as extended warranty/certified or any other item that the lender considers something that would increase the residual value. Finally, some lenders prefer certain terms and may yield a much better payment if that term is chosen. Finally, there has been a significant decline in lenders that still do used car leasing. They generally tend to be local credit unions. In the recent year, some credit unions have changed their contracts so that at the end of the lease, the car goes back to the dealer and not the bank so the dealer has more control in what cars to lease. Don’t give consumers bad advice and you can achieve that by doing your homework before giving accurate advice.