Hmm, a lot of "the car will just fall apart in 5 years anyway" talk here. Between DW and I we've had 5 cars in the last 15 years:
'83 Honda Accord, sold it with 190k on it, still running like a champ, even all the little interior buttons worked.
'85 Volvo Station Wagon (hers, nothing like a hot chick in a hot car :
). Donated it with 250k on it, head gasket partially blown but still running, would have cost ~$800 to fix - I think that's two months lease payments?
'89 Ford Escort Station Wagon (to replace the hot Volvo), it had 80k when we got it, 120k when we donated it, fully running, again no problems whatsoever.
'00 VW Passat, this was our lemon car, electrical issues, air bag fault, ABS system went out, we sold it to CARMAX last fall rather than fix the last. But had we fixed it, the total cost of the repairs would have been ~$3500, less than a year's lease payments.
'02 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 70k miles on it, still going strong, hasn't cost us a dime over ruitine maintenance. And the inline six gets pretty decent gas mileage, too!
A lot of people remember that one time they took a car in and had a 2 grand repair bill, and think, "Aw, it's cheaper to buy a new one!". But those bills don't come every month, they probably don't come every year, that lease payment bill will be in your mailbox every 1st of the month, you can count on it.
If your decision to lease is because you want more car than you can comfortably afford through buying, or you can't bear to drive a 4 year old car, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, but there is no way to justify the decision on an economic basis.