I leased a 6spd MT with sport package, appearance package, rotary accent package, auto butler paint protection, and a few other minor bells and whistles and my payment ended up at $307/month (48months/15000miles). This includes all taxes and license fees.

I put in up front cash of about $4000 towards the lease, got $1500 in lease cash from Mazda (available through June I believe), used my $250 Rev It Up certificate, and negotiated a good deal.

The residual on the lease is $13500. If I still love the car in 4 years like I do now, I won't hesitate to purchase it at the end of the lease.

I ran the numbers on both a purchase and a lease and due to Mazda's lease cash, the lease ended up being quite a bit better deal even if I end up purchasing at the end of the lease.

 

My residual is in the neighborhood of 12500 which is not too bad. As far as modding goes. I'm going to mod first with easily removable mods..Intake/exhaust/suspension etc That should keep me busy for a year or two. At that time I'll make the determination whether or not I'm going to keep the car. If I decide to keep it then I will add some type of FI.