This is like one of those "who is the best escort in town" sort of posts
Anyway, the key is buying or leasing? In both cases your working to negotiate down the price, in the case of a lease it is the captialized cost. However a lease is also greatly impacted by the residual value of the vehicle. Calculating residual value is a function of guessing what the car will be worth at the end of the lease. Financing companies can really lose or make bank in this process.
With that in mind, cars in high demand tend to have higher residuals, low demand lower residuals. For a particular model year, the residuals are highest at the start of the model year and usually adjust quarterly after that to the end of that model year. Residuals are usually higher also early on in a body style life, so when a manufacturer does a full body refresh, the residuals are higher as the car will come back while that body style is still in production.
Of course inventory is a factor - I recently heard some of the traditional big 3 are offering up to $8k USD on some large SUVs.
So I guess to get a good deal on a car -
Buying - negotiate like hell and get a good interest rate.
Leasing - negotiate for the lowest capitalized cost on a model with the highest residual and get a good daily financing rate.
Again - supply & demand (just like escorts!) - if te car you want is in high demand you will pay bank for it.