Lease or finance in 2026: the four-question decision

Question one: how long will you keep this car? A lease charges you for the steepest part of the depreciation curve and hands the car back. Financing charges you for the whole car but lets you own the flat part of the curve afterwards. Under roughly four years, leasing usually competes well. Beyond six, ownership almost always wins.

Question two: how far do you drive? Lease mileage allowances are priced per mile in advance and penalised per mile at the end, and the penalty rate is worse than the allowance rate. If your realistic annual mileage exceeds the allowance you can afford to buy up front, financing is the cheaper structure.

Question three: what is the money-factor equivalent? Leases quote a money factor, not an interest rate; multiply it by 2,400 to compare it with an APR. Subsidised lease programmes on specific models can undercut finance rates dramatically, and those programmes change monthly, which is why timing matters more than brand loyalty.

Question four: do you want the residual risk? A lease fixes the future value in advance — valuable when a segment is depreciating quickly, as several EV categories have. Ownership means you take that risk and any upside. Decide those four, and the paperwork stops being a negotiation about monthly payment and starts being a comparison of total cost.