<prompt> Human: Hey Reddit,I have always heard and been taught that in general, leasing a vehicle is a poor financial decision in the long term. Although the monthly payments are lower, at the end of the day, you have no equity in the vehicle, you just hand it back in for nothing in return. It was explained to me that leasing a vehicle is more of a decision made for personal preference if you are one of those people who always wants to have something new, or the cutting edge of technology, but its never a good financial decision.Now, I generally understand and agree with those statements, but I have found myself in a somewhat unique situation. I currently work for an auto maker, and we get employee pricing on the vehicles as well as a 2,000 down payment voucher, which is as good as cash. My SO also happens to get a company car with free gasunlimited miles, so the mileage caps of a lease are a non-issue. Ive driven 9200 miles since January 19th, 2014Right out of college, I chose to lease a mid-size car after trading in my college beater and the monthly payment came to 52mo it was crazy cheap. Now, at 2 years, I am considering what to do next, and want to make a good financial decision, so I went into the dealership to discuss buying a new car when my lease was up. We ran some numbers, and even without a trade-in which made my last lease so cheap, a full-size truck for example came out to 637mo for 60mos to purchase, or 161mo with 819 down for 2 years to lease...I am personally conflicted because it seems to me that my total lease expenses for 2 years is 4683 and the total cost of purchasing at 637mo 5-yr is 38,220. I would need to lease for 16.3 years to wind up spending that much money in total, assuming the lease deals continue to be comparable to today. But in 16.3 years, that vehicle wouldve either broken down, or likely needed several repairs, where as a lease will never need that since its under warranty the entire time I am in possession.Your advice is much appreciated!TL;DR: Am I in a unique-enough situation where a lease actually make more financial sense than buying? What am I missing here?P.S. I understand buying a brand new 36,000 full-size truck is not an ideal financial decision either. There are plenty of options for pre-owned or cheaper vehicles. I am considering those too, but this question came up and unfortunately a full-size truck is the only one I currently have real numbers for to show the situation.  <response>: I think part of it is that you had such a low car payment on the last lease, youve never felt the weight of a full payment or the relief of paying it off. Transportation costs have been a small part of your budget, so youre comfortable keeping it on there indefinitely, as though its a utility like cell phones and cable. pf says minimize those ongoing costs, whereas most of America thinks a 300 car payment is normal. Youre somewhere in the middle. 