What's the difference between lease and finance?

I am looking at the mazda website right now and i built my Rx-8. and it says whether i want to lease or finance what does that mean?

What's the difference between lease and finance?
Lease means that you pay a certain amount per month and at the end of your term (usually two-three years) you have to return the veh to the dealer OR you can choose to refinance to purchase the car.





Buying basically means that the dealership sends your information to different banks and the bank with the best deal loans you the money and you pay off the loan to own the car.





Leasing has its pros and cons. If you have good credit, you can lease a really nice car (maxda rx8 or shelby mustang) for as low as $300 where as purchasing the car would be $500 (with NO money down).





dealerships like to lease because a leased car can be sold as a used veh later and the profit margins on used veh are much higher. This only works for really nice veh (usually LX) because cheaper cars lose value too fast.





Just remember that if you lease and at the end decide to purchase the car, you pay for the accessed value on the car...payments you have already made do not count, its not lease to own.





i,e if you lease a car for $30,000 and pay a total of $5,000 and decide to refinance to own, you will pay what the car is worth NOT $25,000 left on the car. make sense? depending on depreciation value the it could work to your advantage or disafvantage.
Reply:financing is when you purchase the car (usually most people cannot pay the total straight out so they take out a loan)





leasing is almost like renting the car for a long period of time (usually about three years) once that time is up, your return the car.
Reply:With a lease you are rest restricted in how many miles you can put on the car and at the end of the lease you either have to return the car or pay it off. With finance you pay your monthly payment and when you are done the car is yours.
Reply:lease u no keepy keepy