lease car conundrum

[CoolHands]

help me out please as I don't know anything about lease deals other than the odd thread I've read on here.

Chap I work with has a leased Toyota Prius. His missus got it through a perk of a big accounting company she worked for. It's a 61 plate, and he was paying approx £560 a month for the privilege (all in deal including servicing). Now she's left the firm, so they have to either

a) pay £2000 and hand the car back to get out the deal or
b) pay £20,000 and buy the car outright.

He likes it cos the running cost is low in regards to petrol cost - he said he used to spend £200 a month on an old banger, this costs £50 a month. So they're thinking of getting a loan and paying the twenty grand, with the reasoning that in a couple of years time they can probably sell it for around fifteen grand as they hold their prices well.

My thoughts are you can get a decent lease deal on something like a bluemotion vw(?) that does squillions of miles to the gallon for, I dunno, £250 a month?

What would make more sense? He likes the Prius from what I can tell.

[Ozzie Osmond]

The thought of borrowing money to buy any depreciating asset always fills me with horror. A real financial "double-whammy".

I recognise lots of people do it though.

[tercelgold]

£560 a month, was this a 12 month lease with no deposit?

[CoolHands]

I don't know the details as didn't want to pry too much. It was some kind of perk of the job, & he mentioned it was a better price than if you leased directly from Toyota as an individual.

[jgy6000]

Doesn't sound like a perk to me, I lease a a Mercedes through work for 200 a month and replace it every 12 months with a brand new one. The Toyota sounds like a rip off

[pscl227]

Even my epic man maths cannot see how spending £560/money to save £150/money on fuel works.

You can get some serious metal for £20,000