[gatoman39]

We're having this same discussion on another forum.
Jkohn:"As to why lease as opposed to financing. I think an argument could be made that if you plan to always carry a payment, leasing can be an attractive option if you don't drive too many miles, and or you can write it off as a business expense. You can get a more expensive vehicle for a given payment, which is what I think really attracts people, especially when they don't currently have a trade-in or money for down payment.
If you're going to actually pay the vehicle off and then continue to drive it, financing make more sense. If you're going to get a new car every 3-4 years anyway, leasing has some advantages. It's true you have no trade-in value at the end of a lease, but sometimes that's also true with financed vehicles for various reasons (and at 3 years there's a good chance you're still upside down on a financed vehicle).

The main downside to leasing is, it's a cycle that's hard to break out of once you start, since moving from a lease to a financed vehicle will typically require "downgrading" to a less expensive vehicle, something people usually don't want to do. "

If you finance a vehicle and continue to drive it once it's paid off. The money you would be spending on car payments can be allocated towards other things, so there is an opportunity cost to leasing a vehicle for personal use.