Lease or buy

We rent a new Toyota Corola in 2008 and two more month will be the time to return to dealer, we paid $9500 USD for this three years and dealer said if we want buy it, we need to pay $10,000.

1. pay off the rest of money since I already paid half of the price

2. Return to dealer and buy a new car, maybe Corola or Camry which may cost $25,000 or higher.

which way is more economic way for me to do?

Anyone can recommend a good car ($28,000 budget for new one)other than Toyota and Honda? How about Hyundai? Any advice will be appreciate. Thanks