I could buy a few new BMWs with cash, if I just moved a little money out of investments or used my emergency fund. You didn't really answer the question other than calling it a "bullshit justification for driving more than you can afford?" Please explain how buying a car with cash is better than leasing if I have to sell in a couple of years and the two year depreciation of the car I want is going to be more than my well negotiated lease cost? Why would you want to pay more money, as well as risk substantial depreciation in case of an accident? (not to mention the included maintenance etc)

A lot of dealers can use a lease to screw with a low information buyers. If you don't know the cost of the vehicle to begin with and you just see lower payments, well they can work those payments up to more than they should be. Sorry if you were taken advantage of. The trick with leasing is know why you are doing it. If you want to keep it for the life of the car, buy a few year old used, or finance a new on on a 0.0% deal if you can find one.

If you are leasing: * Verify what cars have artificially high residuals (IE the lease assumes the car will be worth more than it really will on lease end) - this means the company is essentially subsidising your lease, and depreciation you are paying on them will be less. * have very good credit 720 plus * know the correct money factor offered by the carmaker incentives * Instead of a down payment or capital cost adj (which you will lose if the car is wrecked) or even paying fees, just do multiple security deposits which lower your interest rate and are refundable in case of an accident. * Before even talking lease terms negotiate the cost of the vehicle entirely. What you pay for the vehicle minus the residual value is what you have to pay, so just because it is a lease don't fall for the old "oh its a lease you have to pay MSRP" * When you have the purchase price negotiated use an lease calculator app and plug in the correct figures to see your resulting payments. If the total paid is significantly more than the cars depreciation obviously its probably not a good deal. If it looks good, then make the dealer duplicate it. If you have the figures in front of you and they don't match make the dealer show you where you made the mistake. If he/she can't they usually are inflating something, and then you need to find it. They will usually drop it at that point if the deal is fair and they can see you are not going to be taken advantage of.