Petem95

Found out I might be getting a car allowance with work, so just been looking into some prices for cars to lease, however I dont fully understand how it works. (looking at personal leasing)

Most places it seems you pay a deposit of say 1k, then monthly payments - Im guessing you get that deposit back?

All seem to state 10,000miles/year as max - I may do a little more, so does that mean I'll have to pay so much per mile for the extra?

And what about insurance? Do I insure it as if it was my own car, or is that all included in the leasing deal?

Any advice appreciated

The Chief

I was gonna ask the same question looks like you beat me too it

i think you have to sort out your own insurance.

i always thought the deposit was non refundable

Say what happens after the 12/24 lease is up - and say the car has a few supermarket dents in it, are you charged???

Petem95

Oh yeah didnt think about that either!

come-on, someone must have a leased car on here surely?!

mart360

we have lease cars at work,

however we pay no deposit, and a fixed monthly sum depending on what scheme we choose, All in, or ins and servicing paid by the lessor

after 8 or 10 months the vehicles are changed, although at the moment we are running on 6 month changes

each car has a pdi at handover, and an inspection on return, our shemes use a points system, if you under xx points no charge, between xx & yy and its £100 and over yy its £150, if you keep returning cars with over the allocated points allowance, a letter is sent to your dept manager,

Mart

Mark A

iTrader: (1)

Personal leased wife's car

1. Paid a £600 deposit and not expecting it back
2. Insured by me but explained I'm not the owner
3. Taxed by the lease company
4. Maintained by me
5. Not expecting any issues when its returned as the leasing company don't nomally view them, straight to auction.

This site explains it pretty well Car Leasing: UK Car Contract Hire for Business and Personal Use - Nationwide Vehicle Contracts

Mark A

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Keep the car allowance and buy one! No need to worry about mileage, dinks, dents, etc.

I get almost £400/month and run a complete shed to do 30k a year.

Its not called a workhorse for nothing.

Jaydee5

Ditto what Boro said

R 14NS R

the first payment is 3 x the monthly payments, then normally 35 payments of the agreed amount, i work for peugeot and this is how ours work,

with mileage, when i do an original quote our system generates a gfv (guarenteed future value) so we input the mileage you say you do, and this adjusts the gfv, therefore the more miles you do the less the car will be worth at the end of the term so the gfv will lower so your monthly payments will be higher.

you can also get a maitanance contracts which will include tyres, brakes, servicing etc which most people take out.

lease hire should also be cheaper than regular hp as we get a large subsidy from peugeot towards the car aswell.

any other questions, let me know.

ian

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Do Peugeots last that long?

mart360

peugeot?

at least we get bmw's

Mart

Petem95

Sounds like leasing isnt as good as I thought then, I had assumed the car insured by the leasing firm

Seems to work out cheaper to buy the car new, and sell after 2 years, then to lease for 2years, however I just dont like the idea of having so much money tied up in a car when the outlook for the economy is erm... uncertain!

KiwiGTI

Don't forget the hassle of having to sell a car, the uncertainty of it's future value etc. I've always ended up losing more than I originally planned to and now think that leasing is quite a good idea.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Work out cheaper to buy the car new and sell after 2 years? Not the most economical way of buying a car if your worried about depreciation.

How about buy a 3 year old car from auction, run it for 6 months, then sell it. Hopefully limiting the depreciation, repeat until eternity.

Petem95

I agree thats the sensible option, but Im being sucked in by the temptation of the new models!

It does have to be said selling is a hassle however - its ok for people running 2 cars, but I generally buy my new (2nd hand new) one then sell my old which isnt ideal.

Is a tough call!

mart360

we get 2 options, insure and take all running costs yourselves, or a fixed all in price to the lease company each month. we also get lease to buy, as an alternate method. given that we get cars replaced every 8-10 months, its a good deal if you can afford it. if i recall a 320d touring or softop is around 300pcm

Z4,s are cheaper


Mart

Petem95

Which firm is that with?

Im thinking of a new shape 320d Coupe (out early next year with 2.0d), and I'd be tempted if I could get one for around 300quid/month..

325i Coupe's are about 400 inc vat which is a bit much..

2000TLondon

I lease my Jeep and a mate leases his golf.

Basically, in my opinion you are paying for half the value of the car over three years. Most schemes are very similar. They work out the depreciation (50% ish) and add a bit on for themselves, then divided by 36 months (or whatever) and there's your monthly payment.

The deposit should be negotiable, and the more you pay at signing the less you pay per month, you should be paying about the same amount in total. Obviously you have to pay for tax and registration. And insurance and maintenance / servicing will be covered by you in general, although there are companies that will do the whole thing as one package, but obvioulsy you pay for it somewhere along the line. If you were to lease through your work, obviously this would all be covered.

Scratches and dents smaller than a credit card are generally ignored.

I don't have any strong opinion about whether it is financially better than buying, it really depends, but it is more convinient for me. Obviously servicing is a priority as it affects the resale......

You have to have the mileage set accurately as if you go over you are paying a few pence a mile (can get steep) so it's worth over-estimating. Although in my case they offer to "sell" you miles at the end of each year which they "refund" if you don't use them, but my mileage is at 15,000 and I get in just under that..........

Most importantly, what you thinking of getting???

Petem95

Interesting. If they generally ignore small dents and scratches thats definately a good thing as I usually pick up a few of those!!

Thinking of the new (just released) 3-series Coupe in 320d guise (would like the 330d, but expect that wouldnt be worth the extra outlay each month).

Thing is the car would probably cost about 26k new, retaining 65% of its value in 3years (so losing 9k in 3years). Leasing is likely to cost 350/month at least, plus say 1k deposit, so thats about 13.5k in 3years, ie more..)

Obviously I would rather not tie up so much cash in a car, but then if the saving is worthwhile... its a really tough one!!

druddle

My wifes Golf SDi is a leased car. 18 month lease, 5000 miles pa. I worked out the depreciation on the car and we are actually paying less than that on the monthly payments plus insurance (170 per month). 20k/2 year service intervals means i only have to put oil in it and will only have to fix tyres if she gets a puncture.

Dave

mart360

our lease cars are provided by the firm we work for, the rates are set by them, i would have to confirm the exact pricing, the figures i quoted may not be exact
for each individual model

mart

2000TLondon

If you were to borrow the 26k, you're obviously paying a fee for it, and if you are to use your own cash, you are also losing potential returns from having it invested.... At the end of the day, from your rough figures, you're paying about a grand a year (or less with cost of borrowing) for the hassle of not having to sell / advertise it and not having to get the paintchips and dings sorted. And when did anyone ever get the genuine book price when selling / trading a car?

It's definetly six of one, half a dozen of the other and there is no massive benefit one way or the other, I think. I would say if you intend to keep the car for more than three years, defo purchase it from new, other than that, flip a coin! Oh, and don't test a 330d if you don't intend to take it as it will ruin the 320d for you!

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Just to throw a spanner in the works...

How about a PCP?

Dave1980

i am interested in this now, interesting post pete. it is a tough one.

Petem95

Leasing does seem like a pretty good option dave - I'm not sure how much you'd be looking at paying for an R32 tho - probably £350 - £400 a month at least..

Not sure what happens when you want options on the car either.

TopBanana

Try Car Leasing, PCP, Lease Cars, Contract & Lease Hire from Ling at LINGsCARS

GaryK

Straight forward contract hir can be a good option depends on the car. Example I got an 02 WRX (back in 02 funy enough!) and as subaru were having trouble shifting them I got it on 3+23 for 264+VAT per month non maintained on 12K p.a mileage allowance. Tax was paid insurance wasn't.

In my situation then I got a 21K on the driveway for a little over a grand in deposit. 3 months after I got mine Subaru UK slashed 3k off the list price which didnt bother me. Had the car two years yes had to pay servicing but gave it back with it having cost me £7K for 2 years, well when I gave it back no way on earth I would have got £14K for a bug eye, they were selling for between 10-11K so I was well chuffed.

Bottom line, done it before definately do it again, check out the premium brands such as bmw and mercedes, residuals are higher so you get a better deal on your monthly rental.

Gary

Suresh

Leasing can be operational or financial. An op lease means you are never the owner. A financial one means it becomes yours and the lease fee is essentially interest.

My company scheme is an operational lease (my company leases them from the lease comany, which they happen to own too) including maintenance, road tax, petrol and insurance. I then get a taxable allowance for such a lease car. Unfortunately I'm limited to the most fuel efficient cars in each size class, which doesn't give that many interesting opportunities. e.g. best beemer possible is a 523 touring .... even a 525 is off limits.

Chris L

Christ - has she heard of this wonderful thing called web design! That's the busiest looking site I've ever seen

TopBanana

Quite something isnt it? I's got steadily worse over the last couple of years! Still, the prices are hard to beat