Buying vs. renting is not an apples-to-apples comparison, just as flying
vs. driving is not. There are many factors for each that don't apply to
the other.

Example: we bought a plane last year because there are no rentals
within a 1.5hr drive from my house, and also because we wanted to travel
more and were spending a lot to do it with rental planes. If all had
gone well, we would have indeed saved several thousand dollars by owning
instead of renting, given the same travel, and we certainly would have
saved all those 3-hour round trips to the FBO.

However, despite a prepurchase inspection, our nosegear collapsed 5 days
after we bought the plane. The plane was down for 8 months. Even after
the insurance paid for a new prop and the engine tear-down, overhauling
the rest of the engine and all of the landing gear hydraulics plus a few
other items ended up costing us another 1/3 of what we had paid for the
plane.

The point is that with owning, you assume a different level of risk than
you do by renting. With a rental, your risk is in trusting that the
owner of the plane maintains it well. If you own it, you assume that
risk, and it can get expensive very, very fast.

On the other hand, you also get a different set of benefits, which is
what most of us think of as the "joy of ownership". For most people the
joys far outweigh the risks. (I'm still on the fence about it, but
eventually I'll come around---at this point I can't afford to sell the
thing!)

hope this helps