Leasing can be a very cost effective way to having use of a new car. The trick is to find lease deals when manufacturers are offering heavy discounts to shift v

Leasing can be a very cost effective way to having use of a new car. The trick is to find lease deals when manufacturers are offering heavy discounts to shift volume. This discount is then almost entirely used in the amortisation of your 18,24,36,48 month lease. The residual values are often pretty high compared with the original price minus the discount. This makes the lease payments super low. This may be market specific (I live in the UK) but I have leased Mercs and other premium vehicles paying less than 20% of the vehicles price at new for a 24 month lease. That's unbeatable value no matter how you look at it. The advantage in this case over buying the car with the discount is you don't have to take on any risk on whether the car would sell 2 or 3 years later, nor have the money held up in the car. As interest rates are super low, it makes sense to use that money to invest in something else with higher returns.