Lot of factors from a financial perspective. Is there any money down on the 5 year purchase payments? How long do you expect to keep your Ex Sport after the 5 years is up? What's the interest rate on the 5 year loan? Can you do better elsewhere on that rate? How many miles a year will you drive it? If a lot, it could be at the end of its life in just 6 or 7 years or have a lot of maintenance with a lot of miles.
To me the key to long term ownership is how little you can get away with in yearly maintenance costs when the car is 6, 7 and 8 years plus old. If very little, it tends to work out financially. If not, maybe not.
Before my Ex non-Sport I had a GMC Jimmy for 16 years that I bought new (don't buy new anymore). One reason it lasted so long was it was a secondary vehicle like my present Ex so it only had 136k on it for 16 years. The SUV was initially a disaster. Everything went wrong with it the first 3 years under warranty - including transmission going at 18k miles. However, they essentially fixed the whole vehicle. I hardly had a repair the last 12 years.
So taking out wear and tear replacement items, my cost on that $24k Jimmy was about $125 a month for 16 years based on the purchase price. I paid cash so I had no interest payments.
One good way for the OP to figure out what is worthwhile is to get the total cost of the payments you will make over 5 years and divide that number by the number of months you expect to own the EX Sport. 10 years is 120 months. Then factory in what you expect in maintenance costs as it gets older each year and compare that to always leasing - ans that's assuming you can keep trading in leases with no money down due to low miles and great condition.
Yes, it will be less than always leasing, but you don't get a new car every three years - and it may not be as much less as you might think.
The best way to buy and hold a car in my view is is to buy used when it is almost three years old near the end of a lease. You get a vehicle that was dealer maintained with about $30k miles on it with ideally 4-6 months left on the 3 year warranty just in case and the car has depreciated by 35-40%. Then if you own another 7 years the numbers work out much better. That's what I do - and I am fortunate enough to be able to save and pay cash so no interest payments, but I realize most can't do that, but having no car payments is nice security for things like a job loss. Buying a car every ten years can allow you to save and pay cash and avoid interest.
However, if you can't afford it without payments and always like to be in a new car, leasing is not so bad compared to the cost of buying new in the long run depending on maintenance costs.
In your case only paying $100 a month more than a 4 year lease for a 5 year purchase sounds pretty good if there is no money down. You are only paying $6k more to own - assuming no money down. If you plan on keeping the Ex 10 years, it works out if you have less than $6k in repair costs the last 5 years. Let's say you have $3k in repair costs. You have saved yourself $3k as opposed to having a new Ex Sport every 4 years on the lease with no real repair worries. Some may say having a new car every 4 years is worth an extra $3k every 10 years. Works much better if you buy used and save 40% of the original price and buy used like I do.
Another factor is that after you own it in 5 years you can retire it as a second car. This is where things end up making much more sense if you see a need or have a desire for more than one car like me.
