Ex lease cars?

ddebski_us

Hello

My VW Polo '52 reg is back in the garage having more repairs to the emissions system and as luck would have it, an e-mail from Hitachi Capital landed in my inbox and got me thinking.

http://www.hitachicapital.carsite.co.uk/carSearch?make=Any&model=Any

They seem to be selling ex lease company cars at a discounted price before they get offered to the wholeseller. For £75, you can reserve one at a low price and RAC do a thorough check on it. The only downside I can see is that you don't get a test drive first, although it does seem like you can pull out of the purchase if you're not happy for any reason.

Any experiences on this? I'm looking at maybe an Astra/Focus with an '07 reg and less than 35k miles.

Cheers

xDx

Hintza

Sounds interesting. Lack of a test drive doesn't worry me but I would be assuming that if it wasn't right then I could walk away or choose another.

Just research the prices and warranties offered throughly.

chrisw

I have a Hitachi lease car and they are very stringent with the condition it is returned in so I tend to be very careful with it, parking well away from other cars, etc. They are also strict on the servicing requirements.

However, check everything works as they tend not to fix minor niggles towards the end of the lease.

My last one would have been an excellent buy for someone - I'd have bought it myself if I wasn't getting a replacement, and I will probably consider one when my wife changes her car.

harveybobbles

Basically all HC are doing is trying to sell them before they off load them all to BCA to sell them into the trade.

HC cars are always well presented and I always pay an extra hundred or two for their cars.

loofer

harveybobbles wrote: »

Basically all HC are doing is trying to sell them before they off load them all to BCA to sell them into the trade.

HC cars are always well presented and I always pay an extra hundred or two for their cars.

How do these prices on the website compare to what a private individual could probably get it for at an auction?

ukjoel

Yep Harvey is spot on - We used to pump in thousands every year to Hitachi and they are pretty rigourous with their checks.

They also tend to have lower milage cars or certainly used to as they were never the most competitve leasing company once the miles went up, but were very strong on the lower milage stuff.

Obviously how well each car has been driven is down to the driver but this sounds like a good way for them to offload direct to the public without getting stung by BCA fees.

I believe they used to do some bulk sales to the car supermarkets as well (batches of 50+) for the same reason.

Just had a quick look and prices look similar to auction prices (once you have added on the BCA fees) I have only looked at a few so am sure there are some anomolies but would feel happier buying through hitachi than via a third party who has added no value but is making a comission. Looks a good idea.