MacCool

I agree. My experience with leasing is that, at the end of the lease, I'm just ready to walk away from the car and concentrate on the next vehicle. Definite lack of interest in pulling off a bunch of mods before turning it back in, especially if those mods won't work on the new vehicle.

So far, I've never lost money on residual. My most recent lease of a GMC Sierra LT had a residual after 36 months of $21,000. I bought that one back since blue book retail was substantially higher. Likewise, the residual on my Z is $21,000 after 39 months. THEN I might buy it as a project car, or depending on value at the time, buy it and re-sell it, or...just turn it back in. I've found that you certainly can negotiate the purchase price (capitalization cost) on the front end (exactly the same as buying it), but the residual value is pretty fixed from a given leasing company and not negotiable. The only way to adjust the residual is to find a different leasing company with a lower residual. The concept of "no free lunch" applies here, however, in that your choices are usually lower residual/higher monthly payment or vice-versa.

I think leasing is a great way to go for some people, but not those who are high-mileage or want to do a bunch of mods.