Pro's & Con's For Leasing of cars

I can't believe you said the 'B' word on this site... how could you???? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked2.gif

I looked at leasing and it seems to be chiefly beneficial if you are a business user and can have VAT knocked off and whathaveyou. For private buyers, it seems to end up costing an arm and a leg in absolute terms.

Yes you get more car than you could otherwise but it looks as though you do pay through the nose for it in the long term.

The trick with private contract hire is to get something that doesn't depreciate like a Boxster or a Mercedes SLK200 because then the monthly payments are really suprisingly low for the type of car. I don't think that an SLK200 costs much more per month than an A3 3.2 but it certainly lists for a great deal more.

The only 1-series worth buying will be the 130.

if you are vat registered there is an elemant of unrecoverable vat that you cannot get back.
The other thing to be wary off is that the lease company will recover the total cost of any extras over the length of the lease, so for ease of maths £1800.00 worth of extras on a car you are leasing for 3 years will add another 50 squids a month to the lease charge of the model.

While it is a great feeling (once you get used to the payments) of picking your car up from its service and driving off without paying, the downside is you have to use people like qwik-fit for your tyres, where they dont believe people like us actually order tyres by model, and not just size. Happened to me, you would not believe how astonished they were that I made them put my run-home tyre back on when my wheel came out with a michelin on rather than the primacy I had ordered.

Racingteatray is right about resale. If you get a car for 3 years @ 12K per year, the lease conmpany will get a buyback figure from the garage for a 36K car and take that into account. The more they get, the cheaper the lease.

Lastly remember to shop around. I spent new years day mailing everyone in the back of TG and WhatCar magazines. Sifted out the lowest 5, mailed them again, picked the lowest, rang up and got the car.

Big downside is I cant do FA to it now, unless we get a one click for the 2.0tdi from AMD I'm ********, and just have to read of everyone having all the fun. I do think that will stop me leasing again.

Hope it helps

Mick

IMO the A3 S-line 2.00 tdi seems the pick of the bunch, with a good stock of standard gear. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ok.gif

your right tdi, also if you are leasing throught your company as its catIV emmisions it only attracts 15% company car tax, which is the lowest % you can pay. Theres not a lot of other cars out there with good performance in the 15% bracket.

You would be better off talking to someone like Lombard, and get a car that is 6 moths old, it will have lost at least the VAT and probably a little more, on average cars loose the following.....

Drive away in it to 6 months old -18% (remember 17.5% goes to the vat man)
1 year old another -7%
2 years old another -10%
3 years old another -10%


Meaning after 3 years the car should be worth on a forecourt around 55% of the original value.

We bought a 3.0 A4 Cabriolet 3 months ago, I was going to buy new, the spec. I wanted was......

3.0
Metallic
leather
Auto
Bose
Heated seats
18" alloys
DVD Nav+
Sport spec.

New price for that car was just under £36k, £34k after discounts, after 48 months the final payment was £12k, meaning the monthly repayments were £690 after a £3k deposit.
In the end I bought an 8 month old car with that spec and a bit more that invoiced for just under £37k for £26k.

It was advertised for £29k and I got Lombard to give me a quote over 48 months, they came back with a balloon of £11k after a £3k deposit and a monthly payment of £409 including GAP insurance.
In the end I got the seller down to £26k so I didn't even pay a deposit.

I like you get bored easily and didn't think much to the Cab to be honest, I just sold it for £27k this week, so I made a nice grand after 3 months and 5k miles, if I had bought the new one I would have been down by £8k!


Out of all the above cars the 120d is the best if you can live with the room, I bought the A3 S-line over it but that was only because I couldn't get the dog on the back of the 120d.