Originally Posted by roadkillrob

The select program is basically just an 8 year loan on a car, 3 years making that payment, then a balloon payment or 5 more years making that payment - in most cases it makes no sense. It is a little cheaper than a lease, but you assume all the risk in the market value in 3 yrs when it is typically worth less than what you owe on it, so now you have a 35000 car you still owe 40000 grand to own, so you have to either pay for it in a balloon payment or up your car payment to pay it off for another 4 - 5 years. You could trade it in, but you are upside down, so makes the next one cost even more. If you lease it, you will be a little more/month, but no risk. If you want to own it, then you should buy it and pay for it for 5 yrs at $1000 a month, if you can't afford $1000/month, then you should lease it or probably look at something less costly. Almost any way you work it, the select program will cost you more in the end unless you are going to make the balloon payment fully at the end, in which case you probably would just buy it and make a lot less payments on it.