Hey, guess what...

If anyone was salty about me not saying what my final choice was (doubtful), I ended up leasing a 2017 86 because it was only $12 more a month for the same awesome lease. That being said, I'm in a similar situation again. My dad is going to retire before the lease is up and when he does I can buy it or give it back. This time, I have 4 options, similar to the first time, but also vastly different.

I currently have a car fund slated to buy a restomodded classic in the (preferably) near future. If all goes according to plan, that account should be about $20k strong by the time I have to make this choice. I also have a strong emergency fund, so the car fund will be usable regardless. With the car fund in play, my choices become interesting.

1. Buy the car out - put it on loan from the bank and keep my car fund. This keeps the car payment but doesn't damage my car fund. Easy and simple option.
2. Buy the car out - pay it off with my car fund. This removes the car payment, but puts a sizable dent in my car fund. Easier/simpler option that reduces the car fund, but frees up monthly funds that can be used to be rebuild the car fund.

Options 3 and 4 are the crazier/dangerous options. They also basically abandon the classic car idea by not only consuming the car fund, but ensuring I won't have enough left in my monthly budget to replenish it.

3. Turn the car in - put the $20k down on a much more expensive car to make the payments affordable. Basically, I figure I can probably pay for a loan between $15-20k easily which means the replacement car could cost as much as $35-40k.

4. Turn the car in - move the $20k to a new checking account and just treat it like a payment fund so I can do something even crazier like lease something more high-end (think BMW or even Porsche). Basically, I would just link the car payment to the other account and not even worry about it hitting my monthly bills as it would already be "paid for". This is the most dangerous option because if I get my math wrong the money would dry up too fast and leave me high and dry.