The Joys of Car Leasing

Hintza

Having taken delivery of my nice spanking new Chrysler 300C Touring on 2nd February, I have now realised it was all a moment of madness.

I have it on a 12 month lease with 10,000 miles on a cracking deal.

BUT I have totally under estimated the number of miles I will drive, the first month is not yet over and the car is already at 3,200 (500 of which were delivery mileage). So in my first month I have racked up 2,700.

I have had 3 unexpected trips in the last month to the Lake District, Norwich and Sheffield and I live in North Ayrshire. Hopefully the next few months will be better but I suspect at least another two long trips before the end of April.

The penalty is 20p + VAT per mile over 10,000..arghhh.

So all you guys thinking of leasing please make sure you are realistic about your mileage.

Although this is a mildly panicking rant I do have one question.

Will the lease company give me the offer of buying the car at the end of the year and are their prices reasonable, bearing in mind it will save them money and hassle and will allow me to hide the mileage and potentially spread the cost over a few more years?

DavidHM

Will the lease company give me the offer of buying the car at the end of the year and are their prices reasonable, bearing in mind it will save them money and hassle and will allow me to hide the mileage and potentially spread the cost over a few more years?

Ask them, but the answer is likely to be yes. (Bear in mind though that they'll want the value of the car at 10k miles from you, not at 25k or whatever it might actually be, unless you're paying excess mileage on top).

Hintza

DavidHM wrote:

Ask them, but the answer is likely to be yes. (Bear in mind though that they'll want the value of the car at 10k miles from you, not at 25k or whatever it might actually be, unless you're paying excess mileage on top).

Thanks David, I realise that and no doubt will be frantically working the spread sheet a month before the lease is due to end, trying to decide whether the first cut is the cheapest or not!!

Astaroth

I must say that I am either looking in all the wrong places or just at the wrong sort of cars but with only one exception I can never find decent deals on lease vehicles.... my employers offer a leasing scheme and their prices are certainly competitive and often the cheapest but still not that good a deal compared to the other options.

peterg1965

Hintza, what leasing company did you use? and was it a private or business lease?

Hintza

peterg1965 wrote:

Hintza, what leasing company did you use? and was it a private or business lease?

It ultimately went through flexxilease although it was brokered by V1 its on a private lease.

peterg1965

Am in a vaguely similar situation with my car, a BMW 320d M Sport, which i got last september on a PCP, 10K per year over 3 years. Five months in and i am already over 7000 miles and that is with using the train sometimes on long journeys. I reckon I might trade it in at the end of the year whilst it still has a modest mileage. Next car will be another diesel but I will purchase outright on a personal loan. Thinking of the new 1 series 118d M sport or a Honda Civic Type S GT 2.2CTDi.

Hintza

peterg1965 wrote:

Am in a vaguely similar situation with my car, a BMW 320d M Sport, which i got last september on a PCP, 10K per year over 3 years. Five months in and i am already over 7000 miles and that is with using the train sometimes on long journeys. I reckon I might trade it in at the end of the year whilst it still has a modest mileage. Next car will be another diesel but I will purchase outright on a personal loan. Thinking of the new 1 series 118d M sport or a Honda Civic Type S GT 2.2CTDi.

Peter would you not be better off waiting until 18 months are up and then just dropping it off at the garage (paying any penalty for excess mileage). These PCP deals can normally be terminated after half the lease has expired for no financial penalty (you will just need to keep it below 15,000 miles).

peterg1965

Thanks for that Hintza, I should have a fair bit of equity in the car, I put £8K deposit down, so hoping that it will give me £3K or so for a deposit on the next one.

DealDrivers_company_representative

Our experience shows that over 60% of people taking finance where mileage is critical always, always (!) underestimate their annual miles in the initial quote - as it brings the monthly payments down..but of course long term they are bitten big time by going over-mileage and then owning the car becomes stressful and they stop enjoying it.

Always be realistic with your miles....consider UK holidays, visits to distant relatives etc.

Some funders give decent get-out clauses so it is always worth asking about the "what if's" before signing on the dotted line.