I'm SURROUNDED by people who refuse to buy used cars, Husband included, ARGH. For the record: I won the battle on getting a small, cheap, gas-efficient car within our means that we could have without payments, and only having ONE car. He won the 'but it's new' battle (which, at the time, was about 3K more than a 2-year-old Honda Fit with 50K KM on it, for some reason, so it wasn't a big loss). I share the opinion that letting someone else swallow the depreciation is the smarter financial choice, but that's not actually an option here for marital harmony (or giving advice to my parents, which is the secondary reason I'm writing this). We're going to need to get another car in about a year and a half, based on usage and lifestyle. I wanna know what my best arguments are. ;)
To be clear: I am NOT looking for the 'best' advice (buy a good-condition well-maintained used car, I freakin KNOW that's the best option), I am looking for the best WORKABLE advice (for people who are ONLY willing to consider new cars, what's the best option).
My SPECIFIC question: at what point does a cheap lease become a better deal than buying?
Taking the Honda Fit, Quebec prices (because that's immediately applicable for me, so hey!):
New car: 16,441$ (as per the honda.ca website) (let's disregard the cost of financing for the moment)
Lease: dealership is advertising 44$/week, so approximately 190$/month, on a 48-month lease, for a total of 9152$
Advantage of buying is obviously that at the end of it you still have a car that's worth something/can be used/has no monthly payments. However, at those prices, a 4-year-old fit with 2K km per month (so 96K km) seems to be worth not terribly much more than the amount left over on the 'new' car (about 1.5K).
Question: is there a rule of thumb for cheap lease vs car price?