Fun thread
Judging by some replies, you shouldn't buy a 100k car, unless you have 10x that in the account. That would mean in theory, that a person buying a $30k car should should have $300k liquid. That's pretty laughable!
I personally prefer to lease. Almost every lease I've had, I've bought out at the end and turned a profit. With my Z I just got rid of, I owed $14k and pulled $21k at the end. Sure it's only $7k profit, but it covered some quarterly taxes
With my new X3 I just got, I went to swapalease.com. The car had $2k miles, was an 08, has a 50k mile warranty and free services, and the guy gave me $3k incentive. After the $3k check, my payments on a $45k car ended up being only $460 a month. he got rid of it because he got a company car just 2 months after he leased the car, and he had to off it fast.
Now, with what he put down ($3500), the buyout is relatively cheap if you estimate the value in 3 years. Once again, I'll probably buyout, and resell for a small profit.
On the flipside, a BMW lease is transferrable, so if I ever can't afford the payments, I can transfer the lease to a willing party. The same goes for a car of any value. If you know how to manage money, you can live a nice lifestyle with enjoyable material items..and still have plenty set aside in savings.