Absolutely. I read most of the way down this thread until someone pointed out the REAL problem with your plan... That you'll likely not be able to get out of the lease without being absolutely KILLED on the money end. The leases are deliberately designed this way, even if you are going back to the same brand and/or dealer for a different and/or more expensive auto.

I was even further into the lease than you on an old car of mine and they wouldn't let me out... 28mos into a 36mo lease on a Ford Focus, I wanted to get into a Mustang GT and tried this scheme. Talked to FoMoCo credit and everything, pointing out I wanted to spend more money with them for a longer period of time and all they had to do was let me out of my lease for a purchase of a newer car... And they said "go ahead", but the terms of buying out the lease were outrageous. My attempts at being reasonable, pointing out that I wanted to give up my lease on a $15k car to get a $25k+ car, were fruitless.

Well, in the end they got their monthly payments when I just kept the car for those last 8mos... And they got a car with over a thousand $$$ worth of body damage that it didn't have when I tried to get out of the lease 8mos prior (up to $2k allowed by the Red Carpet Lease program), and I didn't go back and get another Ford. I guess I showed THEM, huh? :)

The lease part is the killer. As for the gas I figured if I got 3mpg better over the life of the car 10 years I would be saving in the range of $9000. That was assuming gas prices a little over $3, they will go high and so will this number. Work it out on a spreadsheet, if your looking to keep the car long term it might make sense.

Well, the gas mileage savings depend on how much you drive. Let's assume you drive 12k miles per year.

With the 8 we'll say you average 18 mpg. So in 1 year you'll buy 667 gallons of gas. That's $2000 if gas costs $3 a gallon.

With the MS6, let's say you average 24mpg. You'll buy 509 gallons of gas and spend $1527.

So for a year of gas savings, you've saved $472, or about 1 car payment.

And the more you drive, the more you save. I'm doing about 20k miles per year, so my yearly savings would be around $830.

You might want to check your spreadsheet, or you're using numbers I simply can't comprehend.

I quickly ran the numbers for a car driven 20,000mi/yr, with a mileage difference of 3mpg (19 vs. 22), and gas a $3.50/gal... And came up with a difference of only $5000 over ten years. Even if you assume $5/gal, the difference is just over $7000. Of course, if gasoline keeps rising in price like it is, $5/gal is not that far away. *yeccch* If that happens, and I have to drive more than I currently do, it's time to get a Civic.

In any case, I find it highly doubtful that anyone would keep a car like an RX-8 or a MS6 for ten years... or at least not keep it for ten years rolling up 20k miles/yr.

Good luck averaging 24mpg with the MS6. I had a 6S (MT) and averaged 22.0mpg over 26k miles, with about 40% of those miles being pure highway at 70-ish mph. I used 22mpg in my calculations above using my own experience... Figuring that the MS6 would, at BEST, equal the mileage of the 6cyl Madza6.

I plan on keeping my 8 for the rest of my life, but I'm not driving 20k a year on it, that's for sure.