Dave,

I am totally surprised that you are trying to put words into my mouth...er, my fingers on my keypad...I did not expect that especially from you. But OK, I will play the "idiot's" game...But I never even implied that the car is not going to be reliable or "do not buy the car because it will break down, eventually".

You are not going to keep the car for 10 years and let's admit it...if you do, you are the miniscule minority. I understand your problem with the sunroofs on today's Volvos (I assume you are the T5 Dave from Swedespeed) so you ARE in the minority here. Almost no one keeps cars for this long. And the people who do, then good for them because they should get their money's worth. But it is idiotic to lease a car and then buy it. If you know you are going to keep the car for 10 years then buy it to begin with. End of that!

Now...are you going to spend $25K on repairs, over 10 years? Since this is a ridiculous number, I would hope not! But expect to pay a few thousand for maintenance and out of warranty repairs. So, your total figure over 10 years (payments, taxes, interest for 5 years, repairs, lost interest on the large downpayment, etc.) should "safely" reach the $60K figure. Over the course of 10 years, you can lease 3 new Volvos at about $18K/lease term=$54,000. That means that you will enjoy 3 successively newer cars over this period, no headaches about being out of warranty and take the $6K for a nice cruise with the wife (or girlfriend if you are not married) down the Med or the Carribean, wherever you please. Or if you hate cruises because either one of you gets seasick, keep the money! I doubt your 10-year old Volvo (assuming you own the car) will be worth more than $7-$8K!

Look. I am not a lease-freak! I just do think that leasing get a bad rap and people do not realize than when a manufacturer has a decent program on hand it is to the consumer's advantage to lease. Until only a year ago, Volvo's leasing programs were average, at best, with a few flashes here and there. But ever since Vic Doolan (who migrated to Volvo from BMW and is a confirmed lease-freak) got involved with these issues, we have had a lot of success with very good (not great, very good) leasing programs. It's all how the lease concept is presented. But I am totally against the idea of buying a leased car unless you are totally in trouble with mileage, i.e. you were allowed 12,000 miles/yr. and you ended up driving 25,000/yr. Then, it might make sense eventhough I would still argue the wisdom of it.

Yannis
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2001 V70 T-5M SR, Classic Red/Graphite Lthr., ipd ME7 ECU Upgrade, K&N Air Filter, Cold Weather, Dolby Surr. Sound, Rear Spoiler, 17' 'Tethys' alloys