I don’t know how car financing works over in the USA. We have middle option where you take a Ioan with the car as collateral. You pay it off and own it at the end. Some car company’s have promos where they do near zero finance so even though you pay a small premium in the price you come out way in front any your capital can do more productive things. Australia is a bit different though. Our car manufacturers have now all closed, all our cars are imported and I believe we pay much more for cars. We bought a Hyundai Accent for $17k on 3 years zero interest deal. Cash price was only about $500 less so it was a good option.