Is buy here pay here financing or leasing? Do you own the car?

It's financing, and you own the car — you're buying it on credit, not renting it. At the end of the payments the car is yours to keep, sell or trade with no final decision to make.

The confusion comes from the title. The lot holds it until you've paid in full, which feels like renting but isn't — it's a lien, exactly the same arrangement as a bank car loan. You're the registered owner the whole time. You insure it, you maintain it, you can drive it as far as you like, and there's no mileage limit or wear charge waiting at the end.

A lease is a genuinely different product: you pay to use the car for a set term, hand it back, and owe for excess mileage and damage. Almost no buy-here-pay-here lot leases, because leasing depends on predicting what the car will be worth in three years and that's not a bet worth making on a high-mileage vehicle.

Worth not confusing with either: rent-to-own or lease-here-pay-here, which a small number of lots do offer. There you genuinely don't own it until the final payment, and the terms differ. If a lot uses that language, ask directly which one you're signing — the paperwork says so plainly.

When you finish paying, ask for the title with the lien released. That document is the proof the car is fully yours.