Depends on the dealer and the deal. Sometimes dealers offer better deals on lease than purchases. Sounds like you're just going to dealers that offer better deals on purchases than leases. They're not all the same. Some states only charge you sales tax on the portion of the lease that you actually use so you don't get hit with the full sales tax on a purchase. If you buy a car and sell it in 3-5 years, you won't get any of the sales tax back unless you trade it in on another car and the state lets you get back the sales tax. And the other way the manufacturer subsidizes the lease is that they set an artificially high residual value so that at the end of the lease, the purchase price is higher than market value. That means you paid less for the lease than they originally though. So the lease can end up being cheaper than a purchase. But it all depends, can't make blanket statements and you always have to run the numbers to see if it's good or not. Leasehackr.com has a good calculator.