Is leasing a car a good idea?

gazfocus

As we could be looking at a fairly expensive fault with our car which we won't be able to afford, we're looking into the possibility of leasing a new car instead but have a few questions.

We'd be looking to pay a max of £250 per
month and I know most lease cars include free road tax but what I'm wondering is are things like servicing and repairs included? I would hope nothing would go wrong with a new car but don't want to be leasing a new car to still be worrying about repair bills.

Also can anyone offer any advice about what to look for when leasing a car? Any other tips?

Also can anyone recommend a good car leasing company (preferrably cheap).

Thanks

CheltBloke

The benefits of lease cars can be
Included Insurance
Included SMR (Service Maintenance Repair)
Included Breakdown (AA / RAC)
Included RFL (Road Tax)

However each offer you need to look into may or may not include the above there is no hard and fast rule. Also there is a contract term which you have to subscribe to which includes mileage. I.e. if you go over on the mileage then you will have to pay say 15p per mile. You really have to look at every single deal you are offered very very thoroughly, for example there are deals which do not include SMR, however force you to get them serviced at main dealer.

Personally I would never ever ever get a lease car direct from a company, I might be tempted if there was a reduced cost (i.e. as an employee of a company and they offer me a reduced lease). As I used to work for one of the bigger lease companies and know their quotes system inside out I see it as a bit of a con.

I could spend ages explaining various aspects of the lease market, however what i would always say is that there is a reason why all the big companies LEX, leaseplan, Arval are all owned by banks. It's because they have a reasonable profit. If they make profit then they are making profit on you. I agree that they have mass and so yes they do get their cars cheaper, they do get servicing cheaper (but only at main garages). You can get servicing cheaper if you go to the local independant, you can get the car much cheaper if you buy it when it's 3 years old. You just talk a risk in the fact that the car is a dud.

I can't really recommend a good cheap lease company, they don't exist in my opinion. They are either good or cheap.

However if you do look down that root make absolute certain that you are fixed rate otherwise in 3 years time you could well be paying £320 a month.

If you could consider purchasing a second hand car then I would highly recommend finding a 3 year old car (these will be mainly ex-fleet) and phoning up the car sales man. Ask them who owned the car before hand. My own tip is that if they say Arval then you know that the servicing and repairs are very good. The ex-Arval cars go for more than other ex-fleet because they are very well maintained. Arval do not (to the best of my knowledge) to lease cars direct to public. They used to do PCP but that's a diferent ball game.

Personally I've just bought an ex-Arval car, it has 108,000 on the clock is 4 years old and I have no worries about it.

If you have an idea of the kind of car you need and you could mention it, then I'm sure that there are many people who would suggest if they've had problems or if they know of cars which go and go. Personally I say german or Fords are great, French will start falling to pieces (internally) and far eastern are also good but can be expensive to service.

Good luck, and if you want any knowledge of how lease works then please just ask the question.

Empty_pockets

Do you need a new car?

Leasing is only any good if you want a new motor imo.

Plenty of good reliable cars out there for a lot less than a lease would cost.

vikingaero

I would recommend https://www.lingscars.co.uk

She's sometimes on here and has gone above board in helping some people with the spurious Mercedes Finance scam repair charges.

You can lease with or without servicing/maintenance packages included but generally most standard leases with or without servicing include road tax.

You need to work out whether leasing is right for you. Amongst other things I would say that if your lifestyle and employment are steady then leasing is for you. For example if you drive to work every day, drive a bit at the weekends and the odd holiday then fine. If you have a yoyo lifestyle then you could find yourself exceeding the mileage limits.

gazfocus

Thanks for the replies. We're ideally looking at something like a 5 door fiesta or astra automatic. The whole reason we're looking for a leasecar is to get rid of potential repair bills. Therefore buying a 3yr old car probably won't be an advantage. Our last car was a T reg astra and that died needing a complete new engine after 7 months and our current car is a 53 reg fiesta which looks like it might need a new automatic gearbox which would pretty much be unaffordable.

Mileage wise, work is pretty static. Three days a week I travel 30 miles a day for work and 2 days a week I travel 70 miles a day.

I was under the impression that you could get lease deals which include insurance but haven't been able to find any yet.

I did look at ling cars briefly but they didn't seem to offer smr packages and they charge £120 delivery which no other lease company I looked at charge.

thegirlintheattic

Do you need the car to get to work? Are you pretty sure that you will have a stable income?

My main concern with a lease car is that if you need a car but your income changes, you may end up with no car.

gazfocus

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Do you need the car to get to work? Are you pretty sure that you will have a stable income?

My main concern with a lease car is that if you need a car but your income changes, you may end up with no car.

Yeah I do need the car to get to work. I'm sure my income is stable but then again I couldn't guarantee that for 3 years.

I know what you mean though. That's why I've never considered buying a car on finance.

vikingaero

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Do you need the car to get to work? Are you pretty sure that you will have a stable income?

My main concern with a lease car is that if you need a car but your income changes, you may end up with no car.

This is a risk that gaz will have to take or weigh up:

a) Reliable car = job = income
b) Unreliable car = no job = no income

For most people in work they have to take the risk on a) and paying for it through HP, bank loan or leasing.

Empty_pockets

Cheap reliable car = job = income

Unreliable leased car = no job = no income

A new car can still break down, and is in fact likely to have higher repair costs due the the complex systems used these days.

gazfocus

vikingaero wrote: »

This is a risk that gaz will have to take or weigh up:

a) Reliable car = job = income
b) Unreliable car = no job = no income

For most people in work they have to take the risk on a) and paying for it through HP, bank loan or leasing.

Thanks. That was kinda in line with my thinking. The one company I currently do work with have been giving me work for almost 2 years. The moment they told me they had no work for me and released me to go to another company, they realised they needed be back again so now I work with both companies so I'm about 80% certain my job is secure.

Empty_pockets wrote: »

Cheap reliable car = job = income

Unreliable leased car = no job = no income

A new car can still break down, and is in fact likely to have higher repair costs due the the complex systems used these days.

I get what you're saying but it's hard to know whether a cheap/used car is going to be reliable before buying it. I mean, yeah you can have checks and things but at the end of the day, they won't tell you what will happen 6 months down the road.

Let's take my current car for example. I paid £2500 for my 53 reg Fiesta in December last year. It's been a great car with no real issues for the past 9 months. However, no-one could've predicted the car would break now. Doesn't mean it's an unreliable car.

I understand that a new car can still break down, etc, but I would imagine majority of things on a new car would be covered by the manufacturers warranty. Additionally, if I were to lease a car with a service/maintenance/repair package, it would be a non issue anyway.

mikey72

Are you self employed, or an employee of both companies. Leasing is much more attractive if you can write a large amount of it off against tax.

Having said that we have a £500 peugeot that does about 300 miles a week for work.