"leasing still requires thousands of dollars at closing" - Not true. If you have not beat your car to death and have taken care of it you will not have to pay excess fees. Some brands, such as M-B, allow any defect that fits under a dollar bill with no penalty. "Also, the leasing companies will hit you with a ton of charges for minor things (dings, worn seats, worn carpet, etc) when you bring your vehicle back in."- Completely false. See above. "Plus, you can usually never modify any part of the car (add better stereo, add mods, etc) to personalize it." Once again, not true. I have never me a dealer in my life that would take a car with say factory 16"s (528) over the sport 17"s. As long as the mods are tasteful and completed correctly, there should be no problem, but that crushed velvet custom interior probably would not fly... "In addition, the 'residual value' that dealers assign to autos at the end of the lease are usually ridiculous. So if you want to keep the car at the end of the lease, you will be paying a much larger amount than blue book." - Once again absolutely false. Most lender will allow negotiation of what amounts to a purchase price if the residual estimate is too far off, as they know if they don't they will be stuck with the car and end up losing even more.