Leasing a car you intend to keep
It can make sense. It is not usually the cheap route, and it is worth knowing why you are doing it.
Some people lease with every intention of buying the car at the end. There are honest reasons to do it and a common mistaken one.
The honest reasons: it defers the decision. If you are unsure whether the car suits your life, leasing gives you three years to find out with a known exit. It can also smooth the early years' payments, and on some cars the manufacturer subsidises the lease more heavily than the loan, which changes the comparison.
The mistaken reason is believing it is cheaper. Lease-then-buy generally costs more in total than financing the same car from the start, because you pay the lease's finance charge and then finance the residual as well.
Two practical points. The buyout price is fixed in your contract at signing, so if the market moves in your favour you keep the difference — and if it moves against you, you simply hand the car back, which is a real option with real value. And check whether your contract permits a third party to buy the car out, because some captive lenders restrict it, which matters if you want to sell rather than keep.
Decide which reason is yours before you sign. If it is the first, leasing is a sensible way to buy time. If it is the second, do the sums.