tKF,
Renting vs buying can only to a certain extent be decided on the basis of a spread sheet.
The main reason being that with buying you will always have to factor in a large portion of uncertainty especially if you are going for something not new.
With renting you will always know exactly what the outlay per a given number of hours will be, by owning the thing you will be less able to do so as a number of things can and will go wrong on a non scheduled basis.
And what price the luxury of just being able to turn up and go, even in most syndicates the use of the aircraft is so low on an annual basis that availability is an issue.
When I was in the Robin syndicate I reckoned that if I did 2 or more hours per month I would break-even, excluding capital outlay/loss of interest on the money invested.
However due to the ease of access and the relatively small amount of on cost once you have made the nominal payments you will fly a lot more and hassle free so that the overall pleasure is many times greater.
I firmly believe that buying your own (either solo or in a syndicate) can be a very satisfying way of flying, not cheaper but your money will go a lot further.
So what are you looking at?
F