Last week I was fortunate enough to find a base-model, 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee on the lot of the local dealership. Actually, fortunate isn’t probably the best word. Most dealers have upwards of 80 Grand Cherokees in various trim packages. The incentives will probably be better next month, but I was running out of time, and I know that the base-models are usually the first to disappear when the incentives start to get heavy. Combined with a Chrysler Employee discount (to which I’m not entitled) which the dealer applied to pay off the remained of my old lease, I was able to walk away with this one for just slightly more than I was paying for a 2005 Liberty. It’s a lot more car – even the base model has options that I didn’t have on the Liberty, like power seats, compass & thermometer, mp3 input jack, etc. And I purchased additional mileage up-front this time, so that next time around, I won’t be faced with the threat of onerous over-mileage charges at lease termination. I didn’t go over this time around, but with 5 months left on the contract, I only had about 1,000 miles to spare.

To top it all off, because of the steep incentives and the lease-loyalty discount, the lease-term purchase price for the Cherokee is only slightly higher than it would’ve been had I decided to buy the old Liberty. Because of this, it will be cheaper to make 27 lease payments, and then to purchase the residual than it would’ve been to purchase it new off-the-lot, last week.

In two years though, I’ll probably want another upgrade.