Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States – Southern California.
I’m Tom Smith. Here’s the latest in mobility news:
- The Consumer Electronics Show takes over Las Vegas this week.
- The show has evolved into what USA Today calls one of the ten best automotive shows of the year.
- And Consumer Reports says it’s the auto industry’s favorite showcase for self-driving technology.
- With every major automotive manufacturer participating – this year’s show should not disappoint.
- In addition to autonomous driving the focus will be on:
- The connected car.
- And e-payments in cars.
- In addition to autonomous driving the focus will be on:
- The CES Show’s parent organization, the Consumer Technology Association has given an Innovation Award to a San Diego based company that’s developed a new gadget for motorcyclists.
- The company is called Nuviz and they’ve created heads-up display that attaches to motorcycle riders helmets.
- Riders can monitor their speed, navigation instructions, manage phone calls and listen to music all with the help of the device.
- And the all-powerful Empire of Google is wrestling with another of the world’s most common problems – their bicycles keep getting stolen.
- The Wall Street Journal says the company provides about 11-hundred G-Bikes for its work force to more easily get around their massive Mountain View Campus.
- The problem is that local residents regularly borrow the bikes for their own use.
- Between a hundred to 250 bikes go missing each week.
- Google has organized a team 30-staffers that has begun tracking down the missing rides.
- The bikes have been recovered from a variety of places including:
- From local schools.
- In neighbors lawns.
- At the bottom of area creek bed.
- And the roof top of a local sports bar.
And that’s what’s happening in mobility news.
Coming up this week on iDriveSoCal.
We take a couple deep dives into the question we’ve all asked ourselves many times over. Should I buy or should I lease when it comes time for my next new car?
And as we sit down with the executives from a couple different SoCal car dealerships we hear similar but slightly different expert opinions – both of which make lot of sense.
David Latif: Let’s put it really simple. Buying a car is not an investment. So if it’s not a good investment, why would you want to buy it? You know, as you drive the car, it started depreciating. Every day that you’re putting miles on it, every day that it’s getting weathered and it’s on the road, it’s losing value as you drive it, as it gets older. It’s not like wine that the older they get the more money they’re going to be worth. So you don’t want to own something that does keep going down in value because if you buy it, by the time you add the interest into the tax and license and everything, that $20,000 car is gonna cost you close to 30 grand. So and by the time you’re done paying that 30 grand, that car is probably going to be worth about five grand with all the miles on it.
Overall the question of leasing versus buying might just come down to you and your own personal use case.
Jae Park: Back in 2009 in Southern California, our ratio was probably you know 30% lease, 70% purchase. And over a course of eight years, it’s flip flopped quite a bit,
Let’s say, $400 a month on a $22,000 car, you can lease that same vehicle for about $280. And so that consumer will take a little closer look at the lease because it’s a more cost effective way to drive the vehicle that they want.
If you’re one of those people that changes cars out and like new vehicles every three years, absolutely, leasing works perfect for them. But it doesn’t fit all situations. I think it’s individual case by case basis. It depends on your needs
Tom: Subscribe to the iDriveSoCal podcast and never miss and episode. Or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest editions.
For iDriveSoCal, I’m Tom Smith. Thanks for listening.
This episode was engineered and edited by Micah Palmquist.
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