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I noticed that there are a few responses here about not having anything after the lease is done and whats better financially so I'll add my $.02.
Financially speaking only here, leases are better only if you plan to trade in your car within 5 years or so. The math is pretty straight forward on this (just add up the costs of both options and you'll see the difference - and it is usually pretty significant), I believe it is just a matter of how you plan to use/sell the car. The difficult question really is whether or not you really intend to trade the car in, not everyone knows what they are going to do in 3-5 yrs. The real value of buying comes in yrs 5-10 assuming the repair/maintenance costs are reasonable.
IMO there are two questions that you should ask yourself just before you plan to get a new car:
1) how long am I going to keep the car?
2) do I plan/really want to modify the car in a way that is difficult to return the car back to stock?
If the answer to 1 is probably less than 5 yrs and two is no then leasing is pretty much always better financially for you.
As was stated a few times before, when you lease you only pay what the leasing company believes the depreciation of the car will be. This can be a bit difficult to fully grasp because of all the money that someone is paying to "rent" a car so think of it as buying the car and at the same time agreeing to sell it back to the leasing company for a set price in say 3 yrs, while (in most cases) not paying any tax or having to deal with selling it.
One of the bonuses here is that you do not assume any risk when it comes to that sell back (residual value) price. If the car is actually worth more at the end sell it and pocket the difference, if it is worth less, hand them the keys and thank them for the discount.
If you end changing your mind and want to keep the car for whatever reason, you can always buy it at lease end. Not exactly the best financially, but not that bad (you eat the lease origination cost -$795ish- and the usually slightly higher lease interest rate).
Personally I don't lease or even buy new, ~2 yrs old (and usually CPO) is my preference. Apart from say some jewelry, there is pretty much nothing that decreases in value more than a new luxury car. However, some people like to have the latest new thingy or whatever and are willing to pay for it. It is a personal choice. IMO there is only one thing more expensive than leasing a new car and that is buying the same car and selling it in < 5 yrs.
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