> While it's not a great financial situation and ideally nobody should be in it, in reality these people don't have a choice and budgeting away a fixed percenta

> While it's not a great financial situation and ideally nobody should be in it, in reality these people don't have a choice and budgeting away a fixed percentage of their salary on a vehicle that guarantees them to be able to get to work (to pocket the remaining percentage of salary) is a better option than not paying a monthly fee but gambling on the fact that a significant breakdown might completely wipe them out financially and jeopardize the transportation they use to get to work. This makes sense so long as it isn't used as an argument for leasing a new car on an ongoing basis. If one actually finds themselves in this situation, the responsible approach would be to find the cheapest possible lease and to save aggressively until they can take the more economical approach. Leasing is like credit card debt. It makes sense in some rare cases, but in most cases it is wasteful and the average consumer should avoid it.