Any opinions? Good or a bad thing?
Looking to replace the family car, could go down the usual 2nd hand route and get a 7 year old job which will come with all the usual things that
start to go wrong with that age of car: cam belt change? worn suspension parts, coil packs, exhaust, etc etc. But that's where the budgets at.
Alternatively, a new car on the never never, or leasing plan could be of interest at £200 or so per month. Never own it, just rent it really. Not
done that before, obviously, so would like to know the pitfalls.
I have chums that use this sort of thing and you have to aware of the mileage restrictions as well as how they deal with any damage that has occurred during your possession. My good mate had a Hilux and it cost him quite a lot to have the bodywork put right. He had a load liner fitted but it had scratched the paint on the load bed. There were a couple of car park dings and the alloys were scuffed. It cost £1600 to put right so that's the amount he had to stump-up to give the car back! The guys who did the assessment mentioned that if there had been any work done without permission of the garage, there would have been a large penalty to pay, plus the cost to 'put it right'.
The other thing to consider is how much the upfront charge is as I've been tempted by adds for leases that want a few 1000 as a pre-rental or
what ever they call it.
Were you looking at PCP or straight leasing? I've never had a straight lease car but I have gone down the PCP route, if you do you really have to
consider what the car will be worth at the end and as Owelly said you mileage limits. I sold that car to trade with a year left on the PCP which paid
off the finance.
Have a look at lings cars .com
Both SWMBO and I have our cars on PCP.
The thing that tempted me down this route was the depreciation on my previous car (BMW 530d M-Sport) cost me £x a month.
This was only a little less (£30 a month) than having a brand new 320d M-Sport on PCP.
My new car does 50mpg and is way more than the old car, so I'm quids in !!
Regarding the mileage, BMW said to me (but it's not written down, so take with a pinch of salt) if I buy the car at the end of the agreement it
doesn't matter, or if I upgrade to another new car at the end of the agreement then it doesn't matter that I'm over miles.
It's only going to count against me if I walk away.
I guess this is their way of keeping you locked in with them.....
I had a 2 year old Fiesta (for myself) and then a 2 year Passat (for my girlfreind) on PCP, both required no deposit and cost ~£200 per month.
Compared to what I could previously afford second hand both have paid for themselves in massive fuel, tax, insurance and maintainance savings so
actually cost less over a year and they were loads less hassle.
Theres nothing stopping you trading early as well, I had the Fiesta on a 36 month PCP but needed a larger family car after 14 months, went into the
dealership and had the change to the Passat sorted in 45 minutes, just had to pay the difference between the owed finance and the trade in value of
the Fiesta.
As for the mileage thats not a problem because you set that when you buy it, if you want higher mileage you pay slightly more per month but then your
final payment is lower because the car is worth less.... but if you do less mileage then you get a better deal when you trade in or pay it off at the
end.
[Edited on 17/4/15 by Doctor Derek Doctors]
And look out for special offers.
A chap I sometime drink with got a fiat 500L thing, it was on a cracking lease deal but only one model. When he went to sign up, the garage was
desperate to get him to upgrade, but it would have cost about 50% more.
OK, you may not get exactly what you wanted, but the savings can be huge.
We've currently got 2 cars on personal lease. after doing extensive sums it worked out the cheapest way to obtain new cars. Have had a couple in
the past too.
Things to look out for. 1. Lots of companies do use large upfront payments and low milages to entice you in.
2. You need to look after the car well. There is a set of industry guidelines that detail any allowable damage. One company tried to charge me to
return a car but after telling them it was within the limits and they shut up and went away.
3. Check the Maint requirements. Most leases can have Maint included but it is pricey. Your responsible for servicing.
We currently have a focus zetec-s tdci for the mrs and I've just had a fiesta st3 delivered and we pay 400 a month for both cars. The money we
save on road tax, fuel, and repairs over the old cars we had is phenomenal.
Leasing companies. I can highly recommend lingscars, website is nuttier than squirrel poo but very good to deal with however her prices have been
creeping up. Nationwide vehicle contracts are very good and my latest one was from Mike at smartlease (www.smartlease.co.uk) again was very good to
deal with however his headline prices are for high deposits low milage so you need to ask for a quote for your needs. I've never paid more than 3
months upfront.
Also get as many quotes as you can and play them off against each other. For the focus we ended up saving a good 25% by haggling with them.
It's a long read - but this guy knows his stuff about Leasing/PCP/PCH etc
http://www.videotrainingonthenet.com/leasevHP.html
Ive just trawled through the Ling website, and don't think I could use them !!!
is there a ling site for normal people ?
But interestingly, you can have a car with a towbar or fit one yourself and it can remain on the car at the end of the term
As all the other sites I contacted a few years ago would not allow a towbar to be fitted
I am still sitting on the fence on leasing, however looking at the costs involved for a brand new Mondeo 2.0 for £275 a month
think I really should go for it
steve
quote:
£275 a month
quote:
Originally posted by Dingz
quote:
£275 a month
Thats £3300 per year to borrow a new car!
If you bought a year old one I guess you would loose £1K per year for depreciation?
Thanks folks for the good info. The read about the leasing was good stuff. Will get the missus to sit down with a cuppa and make her read through it. Still not decided. I bought my saab 9-3 aero 2 years ago for 3k. It's a cracking car, only the occasional thing going wrong ( heater fan, window winder, door lock) each remedied with sub £100 and a lot of swearing. It's a nice place to be to drive and probably nicer to drive than the hatch back things we are looking at. The point being, you can have a nice car at that price but understand that the thing will require patching up through life. Need to sit down and do the sums.