I'm looking at getting a new car soon and have been running the numbers. I don't have the money to buy outright so have been looking at finance options. The car I've been looking at is a Seat Leon Cupra. Specced with a few options, around £4000 discount through a broker and a £2500 deposit contribution on a PCP deal, with a £3000 deposit and £2000 trade in value for my current car, payments come out at around £265 on a 4 year PCP at 10k mpa. Now for the same car (without the options, since you generally pay for them in full over the lease period as they are not reflected in the residuals) on a 24 month lease would be £190 a month with a £2000 initial payment (or for the same money per month as the PCP deal I could have a 4/5 series BMW in M Sport trim). This is only for 5k mpa but that's about all I do on average as my commute is 3 miles and at 7.2ppm excess mileage charge even if I did put 20k on it instead of 10k it would only cost me an extra £720. I've never really considered leasing before because I've always preferred the idea of owning my car, but some of the deals out there are very attractive and would save me a good amount of money or allow me to afford a car I would not normally be able to. In this case would have £3000 extra cash in the bank by not paying a deposit and be saving around £70 a month. With the PCP deal I would have the opportunity to buy the car at the end of it, but realistically I doubt I would end up paying the £10k balloon payment for a 4 year old car and the lure getting of a brand new car would be too great. In which case the dealer would have me by the balls (can see why they push PCP so much) as depending how much they wanted to give me for handing the car back depends how much of my deposit I get back, and I would have wasted circa £70 a month versus leasing the same car. Also with the lease I'm only locked in for 2 years instead of the 4 years for the PCP. Does anyone here lease their car? What are your opinions of the overall experience vs owning your car? Any things to watch out for or is it really as good as it sounds?
I leased my current car, past tense as I bought it out at the end of the lease period. It's no different from a day to day point of view than owning outright, financing, or otherwise obtaining a vehicle, with the minor caveat that you probably shouldn't be modifying it. Make sure you read and understand all of the fine print and area realistic with your mileage estimations. It can be a cheaper way to drive a new car than buying outright or financing if you do it right, just make sure you aren't surprised. I leased as it was by far the cheapest way to buy the car, and with 0% to boot - I saved at least 10% over just buying it outright. I've known a few people to lease and hand it back at the end and experiences seem to vary, from the leasing agent charging pretty steep fees because they somehow expect to receive a new vehicle back after 2-3 years and there's some minor wear and tear, to leasing agents happy to ignore fairly significant scratches and wheel scuffs because they expect it on a used vehicle. There will also be people that come along and tell you that you're an idiot because you're not looking to buy a 10 year old car with 50k miles outright, that it's a waste of money because you might never own the vehicle, that leasing is tantamount to buying outside your means and all sorts of other reasons. Ignore them and do what you think is right for you.
when you compare buying new against leasing it does look attractive. the only additional caveat to this is damage. They will at the end of the leasing contract charge for scratches scrapes etc. they exepct normal wear and tear but ive found it seems to be pot luck on wether they "deem" it wear and tear. personally you would save far more money by buying recent 2nd hand car on finance, although not on dealer finance as thats a rip off and you also dont own the vehicle. With loans so cheap from the bank you can buy outright My last purchase was for a Hyundai IX35 and we also looked at car finance, leasing and buying. what we found was leasing was very restrictive on mileage and cost around £250-300 including VAT per month over 3 years. servicing parts etc was NOT included. finance on a new car was attractive as low payments (sub £200/month) with a low deposit but you need a balloon payment at the end of the term so its effectively the same as leasing. buying a 2nd hand car with low milleage and a couple for years old using a bank loan worked out £235/month but i OWN the car immediately and have no restrictions on anything. personally there is very little reason for anyone to buy a car NEW as as soon as you drive it off the forecourt you just lost 15% of its value and around 30% between 12-24 months. That is by far the largest impact on purchasing a vehicle and why i always buy recent 2nd hand ones
Can I ask what influenced your decision to purchase it at the end of the lease rather than hand it back for a new vehicle? Yeah, the only thing that's not transparent from the start of the lease is how much you will be charged at the end for 'fair' wear and tear. I guess that will depend on the lease company and I will have to do my homework before hand, but I suppose at least if I do have any scratches I can get them repaired for cheap before I had it back to them to not incur a massive bill, otherwise I generally take good care of my cars. Don't worry, I've been doing that for the last 10 years and have had enough unexpected £1k+ repair bills in the past for me to be able to tell them where to shove it Edit: A couple more questions: I take it you took out gap insurance for the length of your lease? And did leasing affect your insurance premiums with not being the registered owner of the car?
It depends on the car, some lose more than others. Take the Leon Cupra I was looking at for example, taking into account the £4000 discount off list price using a broker, then add in their £2500 deposit contribution for a PCP deal (you could then effectively settle the finance straight away if you wanted and keep the £2500 discount), it took the total cost down to around £25,000. A similar spec used model with 5000 miles would go for between £24k-25k. Between those two options I'd rather just get it new...
I've been considering something similar for a while. But the idea of the balloon payment at the end scares me for PCP, also the idea of slight wear will cost me a lot of money for PCL. When you hand the car back, how would you know what sort of condition the agent is expecting? What if the person handling the car return is having a bad day? I always take out comprehensive car rental damage weaver for this reason. It's expensive but I feel it's worth it. I personally feel Adam's way of purchasing a 2-3 year old car is the best way. But unfortunately that limits me to a small number of cars and specific trims because adaptive cruise control with traffic assist is top on my must-have list for my next car. Second on my list is some from of electric drive, preferably plug-in, combustion engine is optional for 200+ mile range EV's. Hence I've been considering for a while.
The balloon payment was lower than the market value of the car for starters, but I always went into it thinking that I would keep the car. I was never interested in buying a new car every three years, rather buying the right new car so I would want to keep it for longer. Nope and nope.
From what I've read, you can request a copy of the fair wear and tear guidelines from your leasing company.
Worth being careful which lease company you go too with regards to the balloon payment. My fiesta St's was a good 3 grand over what they where going for on Autotrader. A lot of the cars go to auction at the end but there not always open to public buyers unless you know a trader willing to buy it for you.
I used to help run the car leasing scheme for the NHS. It was one of those tax-deductible ones. About scratches etc, everyone has to sign up to the government guidelines on fair wear and tear. Basically, can you get your fingernail in a scratch? Is a dent bigger than a 50p coin? Now how much they charge for you handing back is NOT regulated, so if you think they're going to charge you too much then the answer is simple, take it to a body shop of your choice before you hand it back.
My last few cars have been done this way, but I change before the balloon payment about 2.5 years. I currently have a late 14 Aygo X and am paying just under £100 a month. But I do pay the max deposit to keep the payments down and am a low mileage user
I just took delivery of my first leased car today. Working better for me so far! I like predictable monthly costs. I can't afford to suddenly have to spend £500 on fixing a broken widget on my car or whatever. New car every two years? Absolutely fine by me, it'll be in warranty all that time if something major goes wrong and I only need a daily runner with low miles. If you're flexible on what car you want there's always good deals to be had. I saw those cupra deals you're on about and they are pretty nuts. I took a Fiesta Zetec S 140PS Red Edition for a song and I am well impressed so far. Just bear in mind that the leasing agents will be slow: you'll have to keep chasing them. Get your driving license, and a bill or bank statement scanned and ready to send to speed it up. Ring every other day. And forget any idea of getting trade in. They say they buy second hand cars but frankly they offer less than webuyanycar.com and if they take away your car and the buyer decides to lowball you, you'll have to pay to get it back.
Just ordered my 2nd VW Up! on the facelifted model's launch day (last Thursday). Garage only got their 3 new demonstrators yesterday! JUST been informed (by post) that they've extended my lease by 3 months pro rata. Now I don't have to worry about being without a car if the new one doesn't arrive until after the first lease expires.
