Originally Posted by Bucko

Still not sure I follow that smart lease thing. Are you saying you lease the car for 6 years? If so, a bad idea, as the warranty is way past, and for 3 years, you're paying for repairs on a car you don't "own". Equity or not, I won't lease a vehicle past it's warranty.
You mention balloon payments at lease end; again, nothing I would do!

In my wife's case, the first lease cost us a $1500.00 down payment, plus tax and tag fees. After the 3 year lease term was up, we returned it, and leased another new model. No down payment this time, as BMW (at least the dealer we use) has a "BMW loyalty" thing, where the down payment is waved.

Should this change, we'd most likely walk away when we return the vehicle, as I don't like to make a down payment on a vehicle I'm not buying. I did it once, hated myself for it initialy, but felt it was alright since we got (and have been getting) free maintenance on the vehicles during the lease contract timeframe. Now that "free maintenance" is another subject; since I never plan to buy the car after the lease, it's no problem, but on a purchase with free maintenance, it's a problem. BMW only changes the oil every 10K or something like 6 months, whichever comes first. They never change the automatic or rear end fluid on their dime, as they say it's "lifetime"

We all know there's no such thing as "lifetime fluid". But again, since it's a lease, and I'm giving their car back to them after the contract ends, I don't care. I also don't think I'd ever buy a used/lease return vehicle unless I can pull up the service records and verify the maintenance was performed more often (what I call "old school" type maintenance). Doesn't need oil changes every 3K, but 10K is pushing it IMO.