Talk to me about [private, not corporate] lease cars

The GF's car is slowly dying and she's looking at the option of a lease car instead of shelling out for a new/used car. Hopefully our circumstances will be changing in the next few months and she won't need a car, hence the lease.

Does anyone have any inside knowledge of private leasing as an alternative to buying; any pitfalls etc?

Bump

The biggest pitfalls IMO are, you'll pay almost the same amount as if you were buying the car and one that is often over looked is that a lease is just a long term hire and they will expect that car back at the end of the lease term in good condition and will only allow for wear and tear damage, this will not include deep scratches, bumper damage and damage to the alloy wheels (kerbing).

The lease has just expired on my BMW, if I was to return it I'd probably have to spend £1500 on it to get to acceptable condition, I am however buying it form the lease company and they are only asking auction price which is a bargain.

If you won't need the car in a few months why would you look at leasing? These are long term deals 2-4 years with a monthly fee and are hard to get out of without big charges. Do you mean you want to look at long term rental?

As Steveh says – leases generally are longer term (although there are a few 12 month ones around which are more expensive). Get-out costs are usually 50% of all outstanding lease payments.

steve, I probably mean rental, yes!

If you think you won't need it for long then the cheapest option is to buy a banger (£1k or less) and run it for as long as you need it, get one with decent tax and test and you just can't lose that much money on it.

go with the banger option – I had a £500 rover that lasted 18months – then sold it for £200

We were chatting about the cheapo banger option – at least if it went into the garage once or twice a year the cost would be spread vs a big initial outlay for a better car. It will also be used in and around dodgy parts of Glasgow so the crapper the better, to be honest!

Thanks for the info guys.

A mate is an accountant to lots of small businessesd and sees a lot of deals.

He's said if you need a new car then a good deal can be a v cheap way of getting one. Sounds like you don't tho!