Leasing Cars

[DaiRees]

This isn't directly due to the fact that my car's currently unwell.....

I've been thinking for a while about leasing a car but I don't really understand the financial impacts and benefits. Anyone got any advice or experience about company cars, business lease, personal lease etc.?

[teamster1975]

My brother always leases his cars Dai, I'll have a chat with him when he gets back off hols.

[DiscoPol]

Dai my C5 is leased but it seems to have a different meaning over here at the end of my lease its mine, so i think over here its more a case of HP than a lease, I do have the option of giving it back at any time and walking away from the deal the only issue with that is the 10% deposit i gave on the car initially would be lost, I am under no obligation to have mine serviced at the dealers other than its only a year old so if i didnt i would invalidate my warranty and i must have full insurance and breakdown cover on the car at all time, otherwise it is a case of treating as if it was mine, which it will be when my payments are up anyway.

Sorry i cant be of much more help.

Disco

[Bailes1992]

My old man leases his Volvo. For the simple reason of he likes the thought of a company car, but his company only let him have Vauxhalls.
Basically he like the way if he has a puncture he just takes his car into the garage and it's sorted for him, if he needs s ervice he phones up the leasing company and they arrange him and give him a curtosey car etc etc.

I think my Dad pays around £500 per month for his T5. and after 4 years he can take out a new policy, end the policy or buy the car for around £6000

He leases with a company called Provecta.
they gave him free car mats with provecta on them, and now they're in my car, if you ever wanted to have a look at the logo dai

[STALLED]

It can work out favourably for tax purposes and the like - best speak to an accountant, as opposed to a clueless bunch of 406 owners (inclusive of myself)....

[Welly]

Lease Hire is just that; 'Hire' and you really just pay for the depreciation of the car, give it back and then carry on with a new car all over again (if you want). Business users can claim the VAT back against there accounts but private users pay the VAT full stop. If you're self-employed I think you can claim back a proportion of the lease as business expenses.

There are schemes with mileage limits and schemes with servicing built in.

I'd decide on a realistic mileage and probably avoid the servicing package - most new motors are fairly cheap to service for the first 3 years with just basic stuff.

I've seen that top-end stuff like Mercs and Audi's can come in cheaper than Peugeots etc to lease because they will be worth more in the end.

My car was £7K and on HP costs £244.00/month over 3 years = nearly £9K (I foolishly bought a couple of policies in there like Gap Insurance, tyre insurance and a car-like 'scotch guard' ).

At the end (next Feb thank god) it will be mine in full and I plan to keep it at the moment - the car will probably be worth nearly £5K still so that 'money' is mine. If I had leased then I'd have nothing in the pot at the end and would have to continue leasing to get a good car.

Using HP you can 'bank' an ever-increasing equity in the car and build on it until you'll be buying £20K+ cars every 3 years but obviously with continuing payments.

Leasing gets you a brand-new car that you wouldn't really be able to finance normally but it would kinda feel like dead money - but then again depreciation is unavoidable and often overlooked or ignored. One thing I do know for sure is that when you hand back a lease car they will charge you for every chip, scuff, kerbed wheel, anything and everything I heard of one guy at a company I know had £1K in 'charges' at the end of his term I understand that where these companies are competitive on monthly rates they will be damn sure to get some money back this way.

[DaiRees]

Yeah I'm going to have a chat with the accountant about it, she was coming in this morning but can't make it now , so it'll be next week.

She just needs to tell me the cheapest way to do it and how much it's actually going to cost me in real terms (after tax and VAT relief and any BIC taxes etc) then I'll make a decision.

Strangely in my old age I'm finding that I'm not at all bothered by performance. As long as whatever I get will have lots of room and will waft along happily at 70 in some kind of luxury, sipping fuel slowly, I'll be a happy camper . Cost and comfort are much more important than speed