M. P. A. I.
~70% of new vehicles are purchased, not leased.
How many are rentals / fleet? Honest question. No snark intended. This time🤣
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But with the average length of new car loans and the negative equity people tend to roll over, the leasing market provides a constant, reliable stream of used cars. People are holding onto financed cars longer because they are finding out that they are underwater and can’t roll in anymore negative equity. Not to mention deferring maintenance on a lot of those aging cars too due to lack of value in them. That’s another thing that Ramsey misses. If you are getting an off lease CPO you are probably getting a reasonably well maintained car. Maybe even the next owner gets something pretty well taken care of. But that 3rd, 4th owner, which is where that “pay cash for a used car” sweet spot is going to be for a lot of people? I’m not so sure about them.
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Wait a minute. You’re saying an $8,000 Taurus May need new exhaust and wheel bearings and struts right after you bring it home???
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I don’t think a Taurus is the right target vehicle if you want to play the “buy used and hold” game.
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Let’s say for argument’s sake that $8,000 is a reasonable amount to pay cash for a used car and have some expectation that you bought something that isn’t a total piece of junk. And let’s assume that the so called internet experts that recommend putting away $75 monthly for maintenance and possible repairs are correct. Now let’s break that down over 36 months. That’s… $300 a month…
How much do you estimate that we will save over 36 months by getting rid of our 2010 Prius with 75,000 miles and leasing a 2019 750i for ~$800 a month?
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But remember all people who aren’t us are idiots.
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So punny!
POINT (spoiler) I was trying to DRIVE (camry) home.
My oh my 
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Obviously nothing, but if I’m a new customer looking for an inexpensive efficient car, wouldn’t it be worth at least thinking about taking the same ~$8,000 (in my area) I’d spend on that and maybe get a Bolt? Or a (gulp) Ioniq? It might be worth thinking about, especially since those batteries do eventually go bad.
Except you’re only renting the Bolt for that amount of money for, what, 3 years?
For the same amount of money the Prius would last you another 10 years or more – and still have some resale value at the end..
I’m even willing to stipulate that in that 10 years you’d eat up some portion of the resale value in repairs. 
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Even if your scenario is non inferior to leasing, with leasing one still benefits from continuously updated technology/safety, peace of mind under warranty, often loaners with maintenance work, sometimes free maintenance, newness…
And even if the cost for those benefits is $25/mo, Ramsey’s formula for financial independence isn’t going to be affected by that amount
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As long as you are happy with a 20 year old Prius at that point, it’s fine and it will most likely save you money, provided you are OK with giving up on the Hybrid portion of the drivetrain at some point, because trying to repair or replace that will get expensive quick. There’s nothing wrong with doing that at all, but it’s really myopic of a guy like Ramsey to insist that it’s the only way that anyone should own a car unless they have the liquidity to spend buying something outright that’s better in many ways, superficial and otherwise.
I think it’s time to repeat myself.
Dave Ramsey is a turd and old cars are boring.
This was my main point:
I got that, and I agree. But for people who are willing to put some work into the process it doesn’t have to be THAT bad relative to the austere approach. Back on the subject of Ramsey though, it’s kind of funny to me that one of his biggest sponsors is a third rate car RENTAL company, not to mention a prepared meal delivery service and a home security service. Shouldn’t he be telling people to prepare their own meals at home and buy a good deadbolt? 
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Fixed.
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Oddly, I was just reminded that I saw a pair of used Ted Baker shorts in my size on eBay for ~$22.
Maybe I could save some money by leasing this pair from Versace instead.
Note that Versace’s zipper warranties are legendary.
A person could save that much by manually blending fuel at Costco to juuuuust meet the octane requirement of their AustereityMobile like three times.
Repeat until wealthy.
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There’s only one way to become wealthy. And I’m sure Dave does it. That’s to pay as little income tax as legally possible. If your goal is long term wealth you have to structure your entire financial life around tax avoidance. The earlier you do that the better. Your first home should be a duplex or triplex. And you know what comes along with that? Deducting a vehicle on your taxes.
One of the biggest scams out there is that people can not deduct mileage for their daily commute. The tax code is written for the wealthy. Emulate them by taking advantage of the loopholes they lobby for and you’ll have more money in your pocket, without fail.
Saving $100/mo buying vs leasing will not gain you financial independence, but fixed transportation costs will help you prioritize other financial goals. When unexpected repairs pop up, that keeps people poor and mechanics making $120/hr.
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