Buying a car from a lease company. Should I get my hopes up?

One of our service cars is at the end of its lease and is shortly to be returned. I have asked for a price to buy it. Should I expect a bargain?

Autotrader has them at about £12-£13k

The car is in good condition and has been looked after. 3 year old, 26000 miles. Not a thrashed pool car.

I run our fleet and often get asked for a price to buy from drivers. Price is usually higher than Autotrader, but like anything else you can haggle
Most don’t buy though because they expect to get the car super cheap and they’re not
Depends if a known history matter to you, fleet cars are well maintained but not always cared for by the driver
I think you’ll be shocked by first asking price

Our fleet cars are collected by a company who sell them on to garages, this company deal with everything on behalf of the lease company (paperwork, checking for damage, getting damage repaired, chasing up spare keys, collection etc)

It is actually more hassle for somebody to buy the car direct than it is to get the 3rd party company to sort it all out. Hence the price.

I bought a car from the lease company at the end of the contract and it was a bargain – at least 30% less than I could have bought one Autotrader.

I had previously extended the lease by a year so whether that enabled them to reduce the price further I don’t know.

the lease companies always ask a price way over there actual book value. Some of our vehicles are taken direct to the auction and sold the next day at a silly price. No harm in asking though.