I’m moving to LA for a year or two and don’t plan on staying past that. After LA, I’m not sure if I’ll need a car or not (I currently live in NYC where I don’t need one). I’m wondering what is the best idea financially for having a car out there. I’m looking for the most affordable option possible without driving something that will make me die on one of those LA freeways. Should I buy new, used, or lease?
I would lease if I were you. Cars are overpriced right now, and there is no guarantee that you would get that money back if you needed to sell it in the next couple of years.
Depends on where you live and work in LA, you might not need a car, like if you live in Korea Town (very walkable neighborhood by the way) and work in downtown
But as someone who lives in LA and took the transit system for a couple years, I’d say anything outside of a 7 mile radius from where you live would take over an hour to get to.
Having a car definitely would make things easier to get around since LA is a collection of cities and suburbs and pretty spread out. Buying vs leasing will depend on where you plan to move to after the 2 years. If you plan to move to another car-centric city after LA, you’re better off buying
I would say to lease on a 2 year contract and sell out the lease if you need to terminate it early.