Leasing should save you money if you're buying a new car. Are you buying as a business or an individual that's a big factor. If going down the leasing route the first thing you need to decide is if you will be going for a usership style of lease, eg. Contract Hire or an ownership style of lease, e.g. Contract Purchase, Lease Purchase. You talk about depreciation and talk as if leasing is essentially renting a car, but you can buy a car through a lease. If you can be bothered it might make more sense to go for an ownership style of lease, this will give you the opportunity to sell the car at the end of the lease and profit from any equity, if the lease has been set up propperly and you can be bothered with selling the car privately at the end of the lease you should be able to make some small profit at the end end of the lease.

The usership/ownership leases operate differently from a tax point of view in terms of what you can write down to offset against your company profits for tax relief. So if a business that's something to consider too!

If you're buying as a business and you have the cashflow and just want to save money your best bet will be a very short term contract, e.g. 2 years, with a very large initial payment, this will save you interest on the monthly payments, yet still give you the VRB discounts (Volume Related Bonuses). If you are buying as a business there are other ways you can save some money with the lease. Kind of hard to offer accurate advice without knowing your full circumstances though.

Do check the small print for charges etc... as these can vary pretty substantially between leasing companies, e.g. if you're going for a usership lease the leasing company will be the registered owner of the vehicle, what do they charge you if you get a parking ticket or a speeding ticket and they have to forward these on to you?

If you decide on the lease and want me to take a look at your deal before you sign give me a shout and I will, I've sold both business and personal leasing in the past so know a thing or two about both. Gl!