[DecemberStorm]

leasing generally makes sense if you are gonna change cars frequently and esp in US where residuals on many German brands are very generous (i.e. high residual low payments) and yes it does guarantee the depreciation you pay so if anything or anyone damages the car you are not gonna be underwater ... This would be the wisdom unless talking brands like Porsche in Canada or specific cases like WRX STI where cars barely depreciate but lease economics look no better than Toyotas...

In Canada at least I often found lease interest rates to be higher than financing, whether manufacturer provided or self source, and that makes sense given the extra risk on guaranteed depreciation the leasing company is taking on. Outside extreme cases like Porsche, 200bps of rate savings is min. hurdle rate for one to consider financing vs leasing.

For the crowd that says its waste of money and paying the steepest depreciation curve.. well those folks wouldn't buy new cars anyways because of it... and for the drive to the ground crowd, generally wouldn't do that in a 90k M3 lol