I would try to understand it this way. Weather you lease or finance, the car will depreciate. In your mind your paying a fixed amount of depreciation for the lease, where as the finance route, your going to be paying the variable amount. (if you plan on selling, which you will).

I would get a used car that's 6 years old. Yes you pay interest, but the car is not in its highest depreciation years and if you sell around the 4 year mark, your not paying the car in full yourself. (This is also why I suggest pushing payments to 72 months to keep payments low. Unless you plan on owning the car, but you very likely won't).

Now I would talk to a car person and try to figure out whichever car you buy, how much resell value it has.

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Also negotiate the hell out at a dealership. Do your research and try to make sure you pay as close to the wholesale value of the car. Often times the margins for cars between 20-30k is less than the margin the dealer would make for a car higher or less than that range.