Of course a lease is better than buying.. for the dealer. So the seller was honest, just not entirely transparent.
Leasing is one of the dumbest financial moves ever. Forces you into a perpetual treadmill of payments for life.
Just buy a car, pay it off (cash if you can, or with a loan) and then drive it forever.
Wanting a new car all the time is the expensive decision, not leasing, which is merely a manifestation of that decision.
As someone who drives a ten-year-old car that probably has several good years left, I completely understand why someone would not want my boring life. This is the fallacy of people who recount stories of the “millionaire next door” who has high net worth. Many people do not really want wealth. They want to consume a lot: travel, new cars, restaurants, clothes.
True.
But does that make any economic sense? If you're so rich that it doesn't matter, sure why not.
But for most people leasing is a terrible economic decision. If money matters, never lease. If your wealth is past the point where money matters, go for it.
> As someone who drives a ten-year-old car that probably has several good years left
I'd say several decades at least. My new car is 13 years old, which I consider barely broken in.
Second oldest is 22 years old, doing great. My other cars are much older, in their third and fourth decades.
Barring a crash, older cars can go on for a very long time. Newer cars built these days have a very limited lifetime ahead of them, as the electronics will be unrepairable in short order.