I know that there are a number of car guys here and I'm looking for your advice.

My lease is up in May. I currently drive a Ford Escape XLT 4WD 3.0 litre engine. I love my Escape. Ford is trying to pressure me into commiting to a new Ford vehicle now. I'm going to the dealership to do some test-driving tomorrow. Where Ford is concerned, I'll be looking at a new Escape, Fusion and Focus.

When I was taking out my current lease 2.5 years ago, Ford's residual was so much higher on a lease than any of the other cars that I was looking at that the monthly payments on the Ford were hard to walk away from.

I did a lot of test driving back then and I also really liked the Mazda 6, Hyundai Santa Fe and Subaru Forester. In fact, the Forester would have been my first choice except it was a little pricey once I added in the options that I wanted.

Ford has since raised their residuals (how could they not?!) making their monthly payments less competitive than they were previously. This means that they aren't the slam-dunk that they've been for me in the past and I'll be weighing all my options. A new Escape with the same options as the one I'm currently driving is $4,000 less to purchase yet the monthly payments are about the same to lease (interest rates are also the same).

In the past, I've usually leased my cars. I HATE paying for car repairs and I tend to get bored and start thinking about a new car after a couple of years. My Escape has actually been the exception to the boredom and I would consider buying out my lease if the residual weren't so high (see the irony here?).

Because my lease isn't up until May I have lots of time to make this decision, but I prefer to do my test driving in the winter when I can test the car in poor conditions. From past experience, I also know that many dealerships will buy my lease out early if they think that they can make up the cost of the lease in the sale price (which they should be able to do with my car).

So, what other vehicles should I be looking at? My husband drives a two-seater pick-up truck so my car has to be a four door and have comfortable seating in the back. I also need a car that is reliable in the snow.

What are your opinions on the lease vs. buy argument?