I lease all of my wife's vehicles...She's one her fifth one and it works perfectly for us. The key factors are residual value and the cost of money. You have to watch for the cap cost reduction deals for lease deals. If you play your cards right the CCR, which is like a rebate on a lease, is a couple thousand dollars, and the residual value is high, there are times where a lease payment won't get close to the cost of owning the vehicle. Buying out your lease at the end is a bad idea. You have already paid finance charges and taxes for 3 years on the vehicle, now you will be refinancing the residual value for another three years and usually incurring maintenance costs on top of that. You will think financing it for another 3 years and its yours sounds good, but the rate goes up and say your residual was around 50%, do the math on $25,000 over 3 years at current rates....I do finance my trucks, but I buy them right and trade every 2-3 years when the bumper to bumper runs out
EDIT: NEVER, EVER, EVER PUT MONEY DOWN ON A LEASE.....ALL YOU ARE DOING IS BUYING DOWN YOUR PAYMENT....