some of the richest people in the world lease cars and always have a car payment, as well as some of the most financially stupid. the blanket generalizations are tiresome. "but warren buffet drives around a 15 year old pickup truck".. i don't know where that urban myth started but i don't buy it. if its true, good for him. i don't care what warren buffet does.
if you are a person who is going to get a new car every 3-4 years, you are always better off leasing, unless you drive more than 15k miles per year. otherwise, you're lying to yourself if you think shelling out thousands in down payments and finance charges is some how saving you money when you go to buy the next new car. yes, rolling over negative equity into a new car loan is like, ground zero financial stupidity. if you put $5k down on a car when you buy it, sure, you won't be 'upside down', but if you turn around and sell the car or worse yet, trade it in in 3 years, you gained nothing by buying that car. nothing.
the cheapest thing to do is buy used and drive for 7+ years. or be like my uncle who buys beaters at auction for next to nothing, drives them a few years and gets something else, always driving beaters.. but then you are stuck driving beaters.. mostly, cars and the money it takes to have them is all varying degrees of loss. I got my GTI in '10 and it is now paid off. its nice not having that car payment, but I'm not pretending it was some good investment or i'm some financial sage because i paid it off. working in the tax i paid at time of purchase on the whole amount, finance charges i paid before it was paid off, tires i just had to get etc. + all the money ill have to pay to keep it running for years to come, its a big fat money pit.it was time for the wife to get a new car and i didn't want 2 payments, so i bit the bullet. now its paid off and i'll drive it into the ground... forget about the fact that when i bought it we werent talking about having kids and now 2.5 yrs later, we got one on the way, and its a 2 door and basically totally impractical as a 'family car'. but guess what, i feel stuck with it now because i 'paid it off'. talk about zero flexibility. sweeeet