But if you're going to keep it longer then 3 yrs it doesn't matter if you're "upside down" at the end of the lease. And Nissan told me the same thing they told 3PedalMini, if they are wrong and the van is only worth $11k at the end of the lease then they'll negotiate with the buyback price.

Essentially by leasing then buying your extending the time you are financing the purchase which means you'll have a lower payment but pay more in interest. If you lease it from Nissan and then lease it from yourself personally then it doesn't matter because you are writing it off 100%. A $30k loan is roughly $600 PR month for 60 months. If you lease the first 39 months are only $350. And to stay around $350 you'd need a roughly 48 month loan to pay it off. So its either 5 years at $600 or around 7 years at $350.