The general rule of thumb for finance is if it appreciates you buy it, if it depreciates you rent it.
But where cars are concerned there's alot more to consider. Leasing is a good idea if you meet a few conditions:
1) You dont like to keep a car more than a couple or three years.
2) You take good care of your car.
3) You can keep the mileage under 10K or so a year.
4) Your like fairly upscale rides that will retain their value.
Where most people get burned is on mileage or "excessive wear and tear" if they rag their cars out. Leasing also doesn't work on a vehicle that doesn't hold it's value as the residual value will be shit. MB, Lexus, BMW, etc all lease very well as they retain their value and are easy to resell.
I'm a big fan of leasing as I have multiple vehicles and can keep the mileage under control, take good care of the cars and like to change them out on a regular basis. You get a lot more car for the dollar by leasing, but the downside is it is never an asset. You're renting. But since cars (other than collectibles!) depreciate in value, this isn't a bad thing.
If you make them a company car, leasing is the only way to go without really making the taxes complicated. To do that though, you'll want to make sure you still have at least one car in your name and not the company's, so that you can call it your personal vehicle. Otherwise the IRS likes to crawl up your ass and dispute your business mileage.
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