[Better With Age]

Have leased and purchased over 15 cars over the past 20 years.

Leaving business expense motivations out of the equation (favors leasing), my simple rule of thumb for personal acquisitions :

1. Lease the car when you truly believe you will only want to keep the car for a limited time and never really want to own outright plus you might expect to put "reasonable" miles and wear and tear;

2. Purchase the car when you believe you expect you will really want to own the car outright following the finance period and/or might put excessive miles on the car and/or have higher wear and tear

The simple fact is that you are renting the "temporary use" of a vehicle under a lease (payment = monthly depreciation + cost of money [%] factor); you build no equity.

For one of the earlier posters raising this question, it is not totally unusual for a purchase monthly payment (with a down payment) to be equal to a lease payment (w/o any down payment). It's an apple and an orange.

Facts of life on a lease :

1. You never really "own" anything - you just think you might;
2. High mileage and/or wear and tear will incur a penalty;
3. Don't lease and "mod"; you will be sorry you did;
4. You might be able to personally sell a lease car on or before lease due date but conditions will apply and most require lessor approval, plus the market needs to cooperate with you (I have lived both sides of this coin);
5. Upon lease termination be prepared for lessor to nickle and dime you on wear and tear and other "final condition" considerations

While I have leased more cars than I have purchased my head starts to hurt when I hear someone say that "leasing let's them 'buy' more car than they might otherwise be able to with a purchase". Another good one is "but the monthly payment is lower". If these are your sentiments be prepared to be "hosed" somewhere in the transaction.

The most expensive transaction possible is leasing for a 3 or 4 year term, then deciding you want to own the car and you wind up buying out the residual and financing that for another 3 or 4 year term. A real "fool's game" generally.

As to financing or leasing over 60 months, I know we are living in different economic times but the only ones coming out ahead under these long term deals is the financing company. If you can't afford to pay off in 3-4 years you really shouldn't be acquiring that particular rig - just my humble opinion.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, I "purchased" my 2011 M3 E92. Simply because I'm older and could.

An older and experienced car purchaser . . .