Glad you think my customers are "unfortunate to end up here". Thanks for the thinly veiled insult, Mr. 2.2TDI.
I'd invite you to read some of our customers' comments on our web page, but you've already made up your mind.
I am only relaying what I see in a high volume professional shop, and trying my best to do so with honesty from someone who is Volkswagen's biggest fan. It pains me to admit their faults, especially with the newer stuff.
I do not know a single person (friend, family... and I have a HUGE extended family) that leases a car. That sort of thing is common for fleets (commercial companies) here. Canada may be quite different. Even when I worked at an upscale brand dealer (Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Land Rover, Porsche, and now Jaguar) the vast majority of new cars sold were outright purchases, either they wrote a check, or they were financed through the specific brands' loan management entity. BMW was the only one that really pushed for the lease, and to be honest, I'd not want to own one of those out of warranty either.
Edit: forgot we had Cadillac, but they rid themselves of that turd brand before GM's bankruptcy... they saw the writing on the wall. They've also ditched Smart (which was/is a sub-brand of MB) as soon as they announced EV only for the USA.