Leasing a car or buying outright

[sophiewd]

That's it really, dithering slightly and just wanted some further opinions.

Do any of you do it?

I get a monthly allwance from work for a car. I looked at leasing, but instead managed to find a really good finance deal from mazda that emant that we were paying the same amount per month for the car over 3 years as we would have done leasing and at the end of the 3 years, the car was then ours, rather than having to pay a balloon payment to take over ownership.

That only works if you are happy keeping a car for more than 3 years (we've now had this car for 4.5 years).

The benefits of a lease car are that after 3 years tyou can just hand it back and get a new one and if anything major happnes to it, it is their responsbility.