I try to scan through as many posts in general as I can (although I don’t get through a lot of the marketplace threads) and that’s one of those subjects that always jumps out at me. I keep meaning to write an FAQ post debunking it in hopes that it’ll finally die.
I personally dislike the 1% thing as well, mainly because I would never pay 1% for a car, LOL.
I can see why it sticks around though. For the average person who really has no desire or inclination whatsoever to understand how leases work, generally speaking if they are around 1%/MSRP per month, they probably didn’t get completely taken to the cleaners much of the time.
With so many choices out there (with the caveat that on my end personally I do not need vehicles that can carry large numbers of people or care to overpay for certain brands that simply dont lease well), I honestly can’t think of a single car I would pay 1% for.