UDPride

What I mean by that is if you lease for 4-5 years, youve got 60-70% of the purchase price into the car, rather than say 50% on a 3yr lease. Its a lot easier to walk away at 50% than 70%+. There comes a point where you are leaving too much "potential equity" in the car to really justify walking away from it. If Im already on third base, I have a hard time handing back the keys to a car I could just own outright with a little more effort by buying off the residual, espec. if the car has outperformed the residual. No matter what side of the fence you fall on though, the key is driving a car you can afford. I cringe when car shoppers ask "whats the monthly payment". Theres usually no helping them at that point.