Problem is depreciation is always theoretical and can be impacted by many factors. It also will never take into account the lost potential interest, lets say you buy a car out right for £10k, how much could you have saved paying that off other debt or how much could you have made investing it. It makes it near impossible to say which is better as it depends on an individuals circumstances.

I will give you an example. I have a Golf GTD 16' from brand new. Got it in May from VW Arnold Clark after waiting 6 week as I wanted Red, 19" santiago alloys, rear view reverse camera and park assist. I paid no deposit, paying 364 a month with 15k miles per year. 4 year with option to pay 9k at end or hand back after 3-4 years. They were however doing a 1500 contribution at the time and they put another 1500 due to my wife buying brand new polo year before

Trouble is that comparing list price is kind of meaningless, most people don't pay near list price unless it's a new in demand car, and if it was then you wouldn't get any lease deals like this. If you bought this outright at the best possible price then the two options would be roughly similar over a large enough sample size / length of time. But it's also a question of risk.

How about clicking the link and finding out for yourself? Just a thought!