The Burrow
Feb 28, 2025
Owning a car has become increasingly expensive over the last few years. With rising fuel costs, pricey repairs, and the average salary not matching up to the money needed to buy a new vehicle, many of us have turned to leasing our cars instead. Leasing involves giving monthly payments to cover the cost of a car over time rather than paying for total ownership upfront – and has become a viable alternative to buying in recent years.
As more people begin to lease their vehicles, it’s become apparent that some parts of the world have adjusted to the change faster than others. As car insurance experts, we decided to research where in the world has the best car leasing opportunities, considering factors such as rental costs, average salary, fuel prices, and more. We then ranked each area with a score out of 100 based on a weighted average of their scores in these factors.
Want to see which countries are getting better deals on leased cars? Here’s what our research revealed!
With great scores across each category we measured, Türkiye takes our top spot as the best country in the world for car leasing. Despite having one of the lowest average salaries on our list ($18,885 AUD/year), it’s an incredibly affordable area to lease your car in.
Of all the countries we researched, maintenance costs in Türkiye were the second lowest, with the average repair costing just $76.82 AUD, and fuel being priced at $2.07 AUD per litre. With an average car rental price of $235.85 AUD – the seventh cheapest worldwide – it scores a total of 65.27 in our index
Australia takes second place in our rankings of the best car leasing countries, with an overall indexed score of 60.99. Despite having some of the costliest maintenance of any country we researched, as the average repair costs $749.83 AUD, a high average salary of $67,101 AUD balances this out.
Plus, with fuel costing just $1.69/L on average (the fourth lowest on our list), and a week of car rental costing roughly $402.47 AUD, it’s one of the easiest countries to afford car leasing in.
As the country with the lowest maintenance cost in our rankings (an average repair costs just $68.47 AUD), Argentina earns a bronze-medal finish on our list of the best countries for car leasing. While its car rental prices fall on the more expensive side, with a week setting renters back $630.94 AUD on average, its other costs make leasing a breeze compared to other countries.
Argentina is the seventh cheapest country in the world for fuel according to our rankings ($1.93/L), and with an average salary of $20,753 AUD, it earns a score of 58.64 on our index.
With an overall score of 56.37, Ecuador ranks as the fourth best country for car leasing in our index. This is mostly due to having the cheapest fuel costs of any country we researched – one litre of fuel costs just $1.15 AUD on average!
Although Ecuador’s typical salary is also the smallest on our list ($10,610 AUD/year), its weekly car rental price of $347.93 AUD/week makes up for it, giving it a strong finish on our rankings.
Rounding out the top 5, Poland earns a score of 56.30 on our rankings. Its maintenance costs are the fourth lowest on our rankings ($399.13 AUD for an average repair). Against an average salary of $41,050 AUD, maintaining a leased car here is extremely cheap compared to other countries.
With fuel costs of $2.51/L, slightly above the average for our rankings, and a typical rental price of $306.43 AUD/week, it falls less than 0.1 index points behind Ecuador on our list.
Just missing out on a space in the top 5 were all the major North American countries: Canada ranks just 0.1 points below Poland at #6 (56.29), with the United States (55.89) and Mexico (55.81) just behind. Switzerland (28.24) and New Zealand (33.78) were among the lowest ranking countries for the quality of car leasing, due to their high cost of living and expensive rental prices.
Australia is one of the best countries in the world for car leasing affordability, but how does the price of car rental vary by city? Here are our findings for the five best cities in Australia to lease in, as well as the areas where it’s most expensive:
According to our findings, the Sunshine Coast in Queensland has the cheapest car rental costs in all of Australia, with a week of leasing costing just $385.94 AUD. It also has the second cheapest fuel in the country, costing just $1.76 per litre on average. It scores 89.35 on our index of Australian cities.
Finishing with a score of 71.97, Gold Coast is the second-best Australian city to lease your car in. With below-average fuel costs of $1.82 AUD, and rental prices of $401.48 per week, it’s one of the most affordable areas for leasing in the country.
Although Melbourne’s fuel costs are above the national average ($1.87/L), its rental price of $394.79 per week gives it a third-place finish on our list. It scores a total of 61.40 on our indexed rankings.
Fuel in Adelaide costs just as much as the Gold Coast, but a higher rental cost of $459.37/week bumps it down to a fourth-place finish. Scoring 60.46 overall on our index, it ranks less than one point behind Melbourne in total.
Australia’s capital rounds out the top 5 cities in the country to lease your car from, with fuel costing $1.81 per litre, and a week of leasing averaging $497.83. With a score of 55.19, it beats Perth and Brisbane to earn the fifth-place spot.
On the flip side, the most expensive cities in the country for car leasing are Sydney and Newcastle, with scores of 38.44 and 42.86 on our rankings respectively.
We monitored the Google search volume for popular rental car models around the world to see which cars are the most common to lease, as well as which countries are most likely to lease their vehicles.
Slovakia ranked as the #1 country for car leasing Google searches, with 5,661 queries per 100,000 people. Honda models like the Civic and the CR-V were especially popular, with around 16,800 searches each. It’s also one of the most common countries for renting American cars in Europe, with a total of 3,970 searches for leasing a Chevrolet Silverado 1500.
The second highest ranking country is Germany, which saw 3,467 searches per 100,000 residents in the time we researched. Electric cars were particularly popular among German leasers, with the Tesla Model 3 averaging 4,608 searches per 100k people, and the Model Y ranking just behind with 4,489.
Czechia ranked third, with the Jeep Grand Cherokee proving to be its most popular model in our data (7,408 searches per 100k people). The Netherlands took fourth place, with a particular focus on fuel-efficient cars like the Honda Civic (earning 4,662 searches/100k). Denmark rounds out the top 5, and along with Norway, ranks as the country most interested in EVs like the Model Y – earning 10,568 and 9,697 searches per 100k respectively.
The Tesla Model Y was also the most common car searched for in Australia (3,164 searches/100k), with the Honda Civic again proving a popular alternative (2,024 searches/100k).
Leasing costs vary around the world, but with the right budgeting, it’s becoming an increasingly viable alternative to buying your car outright. With the right care taken to avoid heavy maintenance costs, and when renting from the right providers, it’s easy to find a great deal on a popular model of car.
Compare the Market’s Executive General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor, notes the importance of car insurance while leasing a vehicle.
“Leasing your vehicle rather than outright owning it doesn’t void the importance of car insurance while on the road,” Mr Taylor said.
“In fact, most leasing firms will demand that your car is comprehensively insured before driving.
“Typically, the price of your insurance is included in the lease. While your lease provider can arrange this for you, you can source your own insurance cover instead.
“Even when leasing, it pays to compare insurance policies in order to find a comprehensive policy that suits you and your budget.”
As with any car insurance policy, be sure to check the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) to understand any limits or restrictions before purchasing.
This dataset contains 2 rankings: one ranks 35 countries and the other ranks 10 Australian cities, based on how good they are for car leasing.
To do this, 4 different factors were considered (2 were used for the city ranking). Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalised, to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. If data was not available, a score of 0 was given. The normalised values were then summed together and multiplied, to give each location a total score out of 100. The locations were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores.
The factors used are as follows:
The factors were indexed as follows:
This dataset also includes the search volumes for the top 10 most popular car models to lease in 2024, according to Experian, in 35 countries. We then took an average across the models and ranked them from highest to lowest, based on this average.
Most popular lease models 2024: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-are-the-most-commonly-leased-vehicles/
The car models used are as follows:
All data is correct as of 31/01/25. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate with regards to the sources provided. Exchange rates used: 1 EUR – 1.67 AUD & 1 USD – 1.60 AUD.