Actually, there are a couple options:

1. As someone else mentioned, you can attempt to sell it for the residual value + your lease payments.

2. You can have someone take over the lease. There are a few services that help with this process. An example of one is here

 

I've never in my life known I would only want a car for 3 or 4 years. Maybe some people are that way, but not me. If I had a short term need for a car I would probably buy used. Any car I want I want for longer than 3 or 4 years. If I don't want it for longer than 3 of 4 years then I've chosen the wrong car.

As for your Pros...

Item 1 No arguement there
Item 2 It's never been a pain in the ass for me to sell I am exchanging worth
in a leased car there is no worth.
Item 3 Makes no difference. I know my expense when I buy. It's not like a lease
offers free maintainance.
Item 4 Myth. Any item used for buisness can be written off. Owning or leasing
does not come into play. The writeoff for a lease may be greater, because
the loss is greater. In a purchase you have some equity, in a lease
it's all loss, but then that was kind of my point at the begining.

 

actually, you buy the car at residual and then sell it (for whatever the market bears). YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FUTURE LEASE PAYMENTS.

this is true for a premeir lease company. some are just dickheads and don't have these provisions. read your contract. I had chase and I could buy the car at the current residual plus $100 and walk away at any time.

 

item 2...when you exchange a car, yea you get cash, but it is cash you've already paid for it, so it is not a "profit". Also, if you trade in you get raped. leasing doesn't have that disadvantage.

on the writeoff...
with leasing, you can write off the payments themselves. With owning, you depreciate the car. You can expense the interest. For a business, I think leasing makes better sense as it doesn't require much of an investment.

Again, I'm only for leases if you know you keep the car short term.

I do agree that buying pre-owned is superior to any method of buying new.

 

I never said there was any profit. Cars are not about profit, unless you're a dealer,or unless you keep it long enough to gain collector value, but then you'd
have to buy, not lease.

I've never traded in. Leasing does not have that disadvantage, because there is nothing to trade in. You have absolutly nothing, except to give the dealer back his car.

If you see value in leasing, by all means continue doing it. It is not for me though, and nothing I've seen in this thread has even remotely changed my mind.


Regards

Steve

 

my contract: $1000 OTD
$430 with headrest speakers and trunk lid installed
with 15000 miles a year. and that includes tax.