<prompt> Human: I live with my girlfriend and we share a car as it is now. We moved back from living overseas in the middle of last year, and we didnt really have a lot of things to bring back with us, so we were starting at square one furniture-wise. Once we both got jobs, we got a beater car to share. Its reliable, but its 14 years old, so even if we take care of it, its days are numbered. She was only part time at that point, while I had a full time job. She finally found full time employment in her field thank god, but now her work is pretty far from mine. The conundrum we now face is to either get another beater or to lease a car. While we have some breathing room right now on the budget, I still have 20k in student loans that we are focused on, and with the way cars depreciate, Im not sure I want to sink enough cash into buying a lightly used, reliable car. Is leasing a car totally dumb, or am I right in being averse to entering into a 5 year loan on top of all the debt thats currently weighing on me?  <response>: Leasing costs you more in the long run than buying a nice used car that will last you 10 years. You car will have value even after 15 years of driving 3k. Another consideration is that insurance on a leased car is higher than on a used car. 