This emphasis on leasing must be a short term fixation. Once companies move onto more mature generations of vehicles, the upgrade cycle will lengthen pushing more people toward ownership.
Leasing is mostly just a financing model for people who like to have new cars. It hasn't been economically sound for individuals maybe ever. The shortest I've owned a new car was 5 years and that's because it was a dog from Dodge.
Exception may be some European cars which have a reputation for very expensive dealer maintenance after the warranty period.
Mercedes dealers in particular are thieves. Mercedes-Benz of Boston tried to bait and switch me replacing an AC compressor on my 1999 E300D Turbo. Initial quote was $1750, after they had the car a couple days they made up some bullshit about the condenser being bad and said therefore it would be $5000. I told them to go fuck themselves, bought the necessary refrigerant handling equipment, and did it myself. This was 5 years ago. Still nothing wrong with the condenser.
IME it's 100% of the time better to buy whatever tools you need and do the necessary research to DIY than to take a car to a mechanic. And certainly never a dealership.
EDIT: Almost forgot. When I checked the pressure in the AC system after getting it home before working on it, it was super high. What I suspect they did (because I told them I wasn't going to pay their usurious rate) was just cram a bunch of refrigerant into the system from their recovery tank in the hopes it would blow seals and screw me over. So, yeah, avoid MB of Boston in particular.
If you don’t want to do your own maintenance, I’ve been told that you really need a good independent mechanic for German cars unless you want to spend a fortune.
At one point I did an event at BMW’s place in SC and was really tempted but came to my senses.
> This emphasis on leasing must be a short term fixation
It is an inevitable consequence of modern rabid capitalism. The 99.99% shall own nothing in our name, while the 0.001% enjoy their life on the rent every single one of us has to pay for the privilege of existing.
More and more of basic life necessities are gated away behind subscriptions (and yes, I am counting a basic computer with an office program suite as such), or they are rapidly depreciating assets, and what remains gets bought out by the rich in fire sales during economic crises (remember the "for sale / foreclosure" signs 2008ff?) - and the frequency of the latter has only increased.
Of course this all has an end game because eventually people will have no money left to even lease these things, but by then those who are in power and enjoying their life will be long gone.
Exception may be some European cars which have a reputation for very expensive dealer maintenance after the warranty period.