Leasing vs Purchasing Used Car?

Hello!

I have repeatedly heard that it is an awful idea to lease a car vs buying a used one. When pressed about it, nobody I've talked to seems to have an actual reason why and is just repeating what they've always been told. Can someone help me understand?

The way I see it, when you buy a car you're purchasing a liability. Under most circumstances it will never be worth what you paid for it again. You'll need to do regular maintenance on it, purchase new tires, if a mechanical issue happens you have to pay for that too. I've heard so many horror stories (and experienced myself) car loans going upside down and the car experiences a huge mechanical failure. Then you're in the position of either taking out ANOTHER car loan to get another used car and hope nothing bad happens, or you'll shell out EVEN MORE for your old used car and hope another serious mechanical issue doesn't happen again.

With a lease, you don't have to worry about any of that. You get a brand spanking new car and you'll be returning it before you have to replace tires, brakes, or any of that. The only maintenance you ever need to pay for is oil changes, and you can usually get those thrown in for free too even. The downside is you have a limited number of miles you can drive, but other than that it seems like a much SAFER financial decision to lease rather than buy. Not to mention if another crazy bubble happens you can even get them to pay YOU for the pleasure of returning their own car to them.

What am I missing?