[Educated Guess]

I'm looking to change cars and I keep coming back to leasing (never leased before).

Seems like a good compromise. lost a lot of depreciation on my current car (Audi a6) so the way I see it the cost of leasing is what you would lose in depreciation on a new car.

Anyone leased and can offer advice?

[FZR400RRSP]

Currently doing personal lease (PCH) for my wife's car.
Couple of good websites below.

CAR LEASING CHEAP LEASE CARS FOR SALE CONTRACT HIRE VEHICLES CARS TO LEASE
Contract Hire & Leasing - Cars Vans Personal Business - The Leden Group London UK

I went with the latter, they couldn't have made it any easier.
From first enquiry to collection of car was two weeks.

[Educated Guess]

I've been looking at Lings. Not heard of Leden before, I'll tale a look.

[FZR400RRSP]

Originally Posted by Educated Guess

I've been looking at Lings. Not heard of Leden before, I'll tale a look.

Leden were recommended by Lings, as Lings' deal on the Fiesta I wanted had run out.
Leden got me the car and beat the cost of the Lings' deal.

[CaptainCook]

Leased rather than bought my A6.

Searched on this site Car leasing | Contract hire | ContractHireAndLeasing.com for the car I wanted to lease, printed off a couple of the best deals, then went into the Audi garage and haggled a rate very close to the website price. Need to add VAT onto the business rate to get close to the personal lease price.

[Spy]

I recently completed a 2 year lease on my wife's Freelander 2.

Depending on the deal you finally manage to negotiate, leasing can be a cost effective option. Often, you end up only paying for the depreciation without the need to fork out thousands up front.

I would recommend the following pointers:

• The majority of leasing companies will negotiate on price
• Always compare at least 3 companies to get the best deal
• For personal leasing, always check what the VAT inclusive price is - and remember, VAT is going up in January, so factor that into your monthly payment
• The car is onwed by the leasing company, not by you, this means:
• --> Any fines will go to the leasing company first who will pay immediately pay the fine and then bill you for it plus an admin charge (£20-£40)
• --> Ensure you have adequate insurance cover - a gap policy is recommended so there is no shortfall (these are about £300 for 3 years, online)
• You can negotiate the mileage - most prices are quoted for 10k miles but you can ask for a monthly quote for less or more miles
• When you hand it back, there may be a charge if there is damage above reasonable wear and tear eg scratches greater than 1-2 inches, more than one dent per panel, fabric tears etc

also, I would recommend the following, if you tend to change your car every 2-3 years and don't mind having a monthly payment indefinitely, then leasing is a good option. If you tend to hold on to your car for more than 3-4 years, then leasing is not for you.

Hope this helps

[Educated Guess]

Some good points there Spy, especially about the VAT rate changing soon. Totally forgot about that.

Do most dealers give you the opportunity to purchase the car after your lease term? If so would it be at a competitive price.

Does anyone have any recommended dealers?

[FZR400RRSP]

Originally Posted by Educated Guess

Some good points there Spy, especially about the VAT rate changing soon. Totally forgot about that.
Do most dealers give you the opportunity to purchase the car after your lease term? If so would it be at a competitive price.

With PCP you have an automatic option to purchase at the end of the term.
With PCH you don't, but they invariably offer it to you anyway.
Whether their offer is competitive varies.
I've been dealing with lease companies for years in my work capacity, I've seen attractive and ludicrously optimistic offers from the lease companies.
If the offer is attractive, we sometimes offer the cars to staff for that figure.

Another thing one should note, with PCH, is that the lease company may be open to a deal to extend the lease past the original term.
For example, a mate of mine has been PCH'ing a BMW X3 for three years at somewhere around £350-£400 a month.
He was happy to keep it for a bit longer, they've offered him another two years @ £250 per month.

[signs]

Originally Posted by SupNY

It can get pricey leasing rather than buying, especially if its for personal use and not business use i.e. meaning that your business does not front the main cost of the bill or any gas allowances, so be careful and make sure your getting a good deal on price mate.

Think he might have done by now

[nheather]

Looked at it. You have to keep you mileage low to get a decent rate.

As soon as you say you want to do more than 10k per year, the advertised headline bargain rates that attacted you sky rocket.

Cheers,

Nigel

[wack]

A girl at work contract hired a seat because she was fed up with losing 10k on new cars when she px's them at 3 years old because the warranty runs out

I asked her how much it was a month

She said £250

I couldn't resist saying so you're only losing £62.50 a week now then instead of 10k at the end

She still thinks she's better off

[paulk]

Originally Posted by signs

Think he might have done by now

Yep, Spam.

Originally Posted by nheather

Looked at it. You have to keep you mileage low to get a decent rate.
As soon as you say you want to do more than 10k per year, the advertised headline bargain rates that attacted you sky rocket.
Cheers,
Nigel

I've been really surprised as that was always my impression with leasing and so I've avoided it. I've found it isn't necessarily the case recently. Have a Merc coming at the end of this month (factory order to my spec) on personal lease. 15k miles per year, plenty of extras and £6k less than Mercedes dealer price over 3 years with much less up front. Plus no car to worry about at the end of the lease.
Have always bought outright in the past but the Merc lease deals recently have been ridiculously cheap. Went through a broker I was referred to and (for example as they were mentioned) Lings were well over £100 a month more based on only 10k miles. It really does pay to look around.

[FZR400RRSP]

I currently lease the wife's car.
Only costs me around £207 a month for her Fiesta 1.6 tdci titanium.
I'm in two minds as to whether I'll lease again though.
Basically, she only does around 6000-7000 miles a year.
But under the terms of the lease/warranty I have to get it serviced every year.
So, only two months ago, I had to pay £200 for a service when the car had barely done any miles since the last one.
I'm toying with idea of taking a chance on a used car next time, and we'll just service it when we bloomin'well want to!

[metal.mark]

We've just taken out a 2 year lease on a Citroen C3 with a 10,000 mile per year limit, and a service interval of 2 yrs or 20,000 miles for £159 per month inc vat with 3 months deposit. We used Citroen Leasing as they offered a better deal than the independent lease companies.

[dancarbon]

Sometimes the penalties for going over mileage limits aren't that much, we've only leased once (got a Smart Roadster on special offer at £125 pm inc VAT) and the penalty was only 3.9p per mile over, so an extra 1000 miles was only £39, I had been concerned about the mileage but relaxed when I realised this, and then we still came under the limit so had nothing extra to pay. Cheapest new car we've had.