[Halon]

The point everyone is trying to get across to you, is if you lease this car, once the lease is over, you will have forked over all this money, and will have NOTHING to your name. You seem to have blinders on, and are focused just on monthly payments. Think beyond month to month, and think where you will be in 3 years. You will be out 11k, and out a car. You will now need to get a vehicle, you will nothing to sell/trade-in, you will be "back at square one" as you put it earlier. Where as if you chose the car loan path, and bought a used car that had similar payment plan and what-not, after 3 years you'd be out 11k, but you'd still have a car.

Me personally, I hate any form of car payment. So if I was in your shoes, and had a working Civic and a working Miata, I would drive those, and put away that 300/month in savings for a 2 years, and then have $7k, and go out and buy a $7k car cash.