When you need to get another car,

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. I normally buy used, but got burned once.

On this car, I did both - leased new and then purchased it used.

My current car is a 2007. I leased it new and saved about $150 a month from my old car payment, which I put in a separate savings account to save for the next one. When I went to turn in the lease, I only had ~15,000 miles on it total (lease was for ~18,000 a year) and the dealer had 2007 models on their used lot selling for ~$27,000 with 3-4 times the mileage. I was able to buy out the lease for $18,000 and now the car is mine - and at ~$10,000 less than a used one of the same year model would have cost off the lot. Add to that the fact that it hadn't gone to auction and I *knew* its history without having to rely on carfax.

So - just shared those numbers to show that it all depends on how you use it. If I had high miles, it wouldn't have been as good a deal, I would have had to pay penalties on the lease return and still would have been in the market for a used car.

It pays to run the numbers on both the front end and the back before making a decision, and whatever you do, don't let the dealership "help" you with that. Plenty of sites out there that you can use to enter prices, lease terms, payout and usage to get you a solid number(s) to work with.