Well, even if you owe more than what you can sell it for, it's just a factor to consider; not like you go to jail for it. If comment OP's math is to be trusted, by leasing it, you'd be betting that 30k mile 3yr old corollas are worth less than 10k in 3yrs. And that's just you breaking even on going either way. For leasing to actually be financially better, you're betting it's going to be worth meaningfully lower than 10k since you're also giving up all upside (i.e, the chance that it's worth more than you owe on it in which case it cost you even less to use it for 3yrs not to mention the lack of lease restrictions). And say it is actually artificially depressed b/c the market tanked, just keep paying the loan off and you'll have the car, it's yours! You can sell it when the market recovers (cars are usually not this volatile so i'm just humoring your beliefs here) and buy the fancy car. If you just completely don't care about optimizing for a few thousand $s, I don't see this as a personalfinance question.