I’m looking to change one of my company vehicles and are considering 3 or 4 year leases. I’ve either purchased outright or hire purchased vehicles before and have no experience of leasing. Other than the obvious penalty of exceeding the agreed mileage, are there any other pitfalls / tricks of the lease companies I need to be aware of ? Cheers

I’ve been leasing for just over a year. Only negatives are a constant paranoia about damaging the car. Even the slightest scuff to the interior fills me with dread. They’ll apparently go over the car with a fine tooth comb when you hand it back and charge you for any remedial repairs. The whole normal wear and tear clause is a bit of a grey area.

In addition, the leasing company will automatically pay any parking tickets and charge you for them plus an admin fee. I had this dispute with my lease company. They paid over £1k in private parking tickets without telling me. They tried to use the contract wording but that only dealt with council tickets. I successfully argued the case and got my money back but I was still out of pocket for several months.

If i’m honest, I won’t lease again. The novelty of a brand new car wears off.

We lease through work and it’s excellent.

Just make sure you look after the car and get a lease with maintenance included.

They paid over £1k in private parking tickets without telling me.

Maybe just park legally in future? 🙄

Definitely worth checking the fine print, and it’ll depend on the exact car, if you choose one with good residuals you may do better to buy.

I’m looking to change one of my company vehicles

Would this be the Company Secretary’s beemer? 😉

Leaseplan fair wear & tear guidelines are here: http://www.gateway2lease.com/pdf/FairWearandTear.pdf – I think they’re in line with BVRLA member guidelines. Not too onerous – small dings, minor wheel scuffs, etc are OK. Pretty much in line with what you’d need to do before handing back a PCP or selling a car privately if you don’t want to be knocked down on price for it being scruffy.

You don’t hold the V5 so going abroad needs a little more planning – you need a VE103 and letter of authority instead. They do charge an admin fee for that. I needed something to send to the council for a residents permit (to show it was leased to me, instead of the V5) and they did it quickly without any charge.

Leasing is fine, and can work out very cheap if you want one of the ever-changing special deals that the brokers do. Downside is more restrictions especially around getting out the deal – make sure it fits your needs, budget and mileage!

Cheers guys

Nettles – Nope. Looking at getting shot of the defender and Emma’s for a disco

We’ve used this company for quite a few years for cars and vans with good service (and prices) and no problems when handing back (even with usual scrapes):
http://www.dsgauto.com/ Bloke called Phil Kehoe was the contact
cheers

Will follow this thread with interest.

Currently weighing up the pros/cons of leasing v buying used.

Can someone check my logic on the finances here and let me know if I’m missing anything?

Using an STW favourite as an example:

Lets say a 2009 A4 2.0 TDI costs £15k and is sold 3 years later for about £7k. Total cost (before MOT, tax and servicing) is £8k.

A new A4 2.0 TDI seems to be about £376 per month including maintenance (that’s not hunting around for a deal, just googled it). So that’s £13,536 over the 3 years. plus a £2k deposit, so £15,536

At a rough guess, tax at £200 per year (normally included with the lease deal), MOT at £50 and annual servicing at £250. That’s an extra £1,500 for the used car, taking its 3 year total to £9,500.

So, it’s about £167 a month more expensive (£6k difference over 3 years) to lease a new car….provided you don’t have any repair bills for the used car over 3 years. One or more hefty repair bills would eat into that figure. Add into that a likely better fuel efficiency in the newer car. I spend about £200 on fuel in a quiet month, so a 20% more fuel efficient car would save me (hypothetically) £40 per month straight away…that would take the gap down to £127 a month for me, before repair bills.

Anything I’m missing up there?

Other cons are limitations on mileage and condition at handback (although of course a used car in less great condition will result in a loss come sale time).

Anything I’m missing up there?

Don’t forget to factor in ‘extras’ on the car you want to order.

A lot of stuff that costs more money on a new car will be included with (and not really affect the price of) a second hand car, but will cost lots up front and will affect your lease price.

I’m talking about stuff like climate control, cruise control, bluetooth etc.

Dave

Maybe just park legally in future

FYI I was parked perfectly legally on land I own.

Peter – I’m of a similar thought. Mines going to be ran through the company, so there is a VAT benefit to leasing as well and the same ‘model’ falls in a lower co2 banding so the car tax reduces as well.

cheers, dave, I hadn’t thought of that!

aye marcus, I’d prefer to continue to own my car, simply because I don’t ever have to worry about minor damage (although to be fair, there hasn’t been much), but some of the deals that have been popping up over the last 12 months have got me thinking. I’ve mentioned it a few times, but they were doing a 330D touring at xmas for £300 per month. That’s super cheap (considering the value of the car new) and i’d struggle to get a used equivalent for a similar monthly cost.

plus the benefit of paying 15k off your mortgage (or investing it) instead of using the capital on a car

A new A4 2.0 TDI seems to be about £376 per month including maintenance

I have an A6 3.0TDi V6 Avant Black Edition Auto Quattro and that only costs £400 a month over 4 years.

You could get an A4 2.0TDi for <£300 easy peasy.

That’s a cracker of a deal john. A quick google is showing that up between £500-600 for me. Where are you getting that?

Leaseplan UK

EDIT – It’s £445.27 inc the VAT but I can claim 50% of that back (my business is a Partnership).

Ah right, is that £400 per month before VAT? The figures I quoted above were including VAT.

A quick Google found this one, not a million miles from my lease cost.

http://www.contracthireandleasing.com/car-leasing-companies/independent-brokers/applied-lease/audi/a6/25461857/