[Steve Carlton]

Here's another trick: Lease a high-end car known to have problems. Lemon it, get your money back and drive for close to nothing. My boss did that with his 745i (not intentionally).

Dantilla- care to expand on "leasing is dumb?"

Z-man- I wasn't talking about car ownership being an investment. A depreciating asset is not an investment. I was referring to writing off a car for business purposes. With a purchase, you're limited to the amount of depreciation you can take per year. With a lease, it's unlimited (last I checked). And these tax deductions are above-the-line to self-employed people, not Schedule A. And a good lease factor will be well below HELOC rates anyway. (I believe there are limitations on home mortgage interest to consider as well.)

Obviously, leasing isn't for those who want to keep a car over 100,000 miles. Thinking it's for those who "...gotta have the latest and greatest in my driveway" or "cannot afford to buy it" is naive, although true I'm sure for some. For someone who likes to wring out 200,000 miles from a car, I'm sure you can appreciate not spending any more than necessary to drive a vehicle. Leasing puts a defined limit on the cost of ownership; there is a guaranteed "value" at the end that you don't have to sell it to get. If it's worth less, you've avoided that loss or you can maybe buy it for less than the residual. Consider it a "deferred rebate." I've seen people buy their leased vehicles for $5K less than the residual. Some of us may choose to drive a car that's always under warranty (and maybe always under a maintenence plan), with the latest safety technology, that's less likely to break down and perhaps cost a ton to fix. Probably not the cheapest car ownership, but there's some value to offset the extra cost.