The market is turning to leases, so for most people buying a car is so 1990. Those leasing only care about the monthly nut. The total cost becomes irrelevant.
Well, with my 150 mile round trip commute, leasing would be a bad thing.
It does remind me of a story my Uncle used to tell at the pool hall back in 1961 in a small town. It was of this guy he knew that was a janitor that bought a brand new Cadillac. Whenever you asked him how much it cost he always just said, “$100 a month”. He could never tell you how much it cost or how long he would be paying for it. He only knew that he was driving a brand new cadillac for $100 a month. BTW, that was a hell of a lot of money back then. And it meant that probably several years later he’d still be paying $100 a month for a beat up old Cadillac.
I think the problem with the leasing thing is that there is only a finite supply of guys like him. And as more and more of them share their story of woe with their friends as time passes, many will learn from their mistake. It may be what is happening now, for all I know.
We always buy our cars. Recently bought a new car, and the salesman assumed we would lease (because so many do) and was surprised we bought it.
We don't put much mileage on our cars, and they last for decades, made more sense to own it until it falls apart. We have a 25-year-old car and 20-year-old truck still in relatively new shape with low mileage and maintenance costs, and we own them.
For people who put thousands of miles on a car each month it makes sense to lease; after a few years they have nothing although up-front costs were low. For people who don't drive much and baby their cars, it makes sense to own, costs are low averaged out over decades; after a few years costs are minimal and it's theirs until it falls apart decades later.