Total Cost of Ownership: Lease vs Buy

Lease-side costs beyond the monthly payment

• Acquisition fee — typically in the roughly $395–$995 range for auto leases, charged at signing or rolled into the payment.
• Disposition fee — typically $300–$500, charged when you return the asset at term end (often waived if you lease again from the same company).
• Excess mileage / excess wear charges — billed per mile or per assessed damage at turn-in, not during the lease.
• Early termination charge — usually the largest single risk; can approach the remaining balance of payments.

Buy-side math that's easy to skip

Total cost of buying = sum of loan payments (principal + interest) + sales tax + registration, minus the resale or trade-in value you recover when you eventually sell. That residual recovery is the term leasing comparisons often omit — it's real money back in your pocket that a lease's "you own nothing at the end" framing obscures.