car lease questons?

cirrus1007

Sure, if you can wait until tomorrow I will put something together for you.;)

netgear11

thanks a million, I look forward to it !

cirrus1007

to be fair, there isn't a lot to ask them. However, here are a few bullet points.

1) Firstly, tell them what car you are looking for and if open to their suggestions as it will ultimately end up price driven. For example, an Audi A3 2.0 TDi will cost more on monthlies than say the equivalent Vauxhall Astra.
2) Ask them for any 'special' offers they may have on a certain type of car. If you are flexible here you can pick up a bargain as different manufacturers have pushes on certain models from time to time. For example, a few years ago I was leasing loads of the usual repmobiles - Vectra's, Mondeo's etc. Nissan introduced the new Nissan Primera to the market, had a massive push on it an we had people getting into a Primera which had the same spec as the Vectra / Mondeo for about half the cost each month!
3) Be clear what they are offering on terms - e.g 3 + 33, 3 + 23, 3 + 35 etc.
4) Ask for a price to include maintenance and servicing and a price without. You can then decide what you want.
5) Check if the 1st Yrs RFL is included. Some do - some don't.
6) Be CERTAIN of how much mileage you will do over the course of the term you have the car. If you go over then they will charge you for extra mileage and it is crippling. I speak from example as I handed my car back and faced a bill of £1500 for additional mileage!
7) Ask them if the car is in stock or factory order. If F/O then be prepared because it can mean up to a 12 week wait!
8) Ask them for their interest rates and ask in cold figures how it will impact on you financially - i.e true cost over the full term. Ask how easy it is to 'break' the agreement. Usually if you have paid over half of the payments you can hand the car back with no penalty but check this.

Most of all, your broker WILL work on your behalf to find you the best deal. It is in his / her interest because the more leg work they do, deals they have with manufacturers means the more they earn.

Can't think of anything else just yet........ Good luck!

netgear11

hey cirrus, just wanted to say a huge thanks to you for enumerating that list - i'm sure it will prove invaluable when ringing them up.

also, what sort of finance figures am I looking at with PCP?

like tax, the total, the balloon/residual (are they the same thing??), how much more in total, etc etc... any tips on that??

cirrus1007

No problem. Being honest, I can't comment on finance figures because they have changed significantly since I came out of the industry. As for balloon payments, it varies according to the manufacturer, model etc. Most people I used to deal with just handed the car back after the term and took a new one.

netgear11

Cheers again, but | meant, like, what are the charges that I should be aware of?

For example:

Monthly charges:
Interest?:
Tax?:
Final payment (i.e. balloon and/or residual):
Admin charges:
Maintenance charges:

Like, which of those charges should I expect? And are there any more that I should ask about?

stumpjumper120

don't believe the salesperson.....READ THE SMALLPRINT
I know its hard but you need to BEFORE you sign.

19 years spent working in car finance and I can say no one reads it ....apart from me and my wife

wevet

bumpoowee wrote: »

Well just from personal experience, I've currently got a car on lease/PCP (9 months into a 24 month contract), apart from it being quite an expensive way to obtain a car, I've hit the following problems:

1. My partner got pregnant shortly after we'd taken the lease out and we now have a baby, which wasnt really in our plan - the car is 3 door which isn't ideal for fitting a baby seat in, and if we'd known we were having a baby we would have got a 5 door car.
2. My partner was assigned a company car shortly after we'd taken the lease out which is 5 door + more cost effective to drive hence we don't use the lease car very much any more!

So I guess the problem I had was that my personal circumstances changed which made leasing a car the wrong choice with hindsight. From what I understand of the contract, to just hand the lease car back means I would have to pay half the remaining payments back, so isn't really worth doing in case my personal circumstances change again!

Obviously my problems may not have potential to apply to your situation, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

Next time what I'm going to do is take out a loan, buy the car outright which should be cheaper + more flexible.

Take a look at re-leased.com I put my HP car into their hands and they "manage" it by renting it out. They also do lease transfers -take a look .

Worked for me bu they only take on cars under 4years old I think.