Lease/buy - help please!

OddballJamie

We've sold an 03 KA (Duratec) couple of weeks ago. In the last six months, new alternator, two springs, heater control valve, thermostat, rocker cover gasket and a fanbelt. Not the best car we've ever owned, although it had great handling and was fantastic in the snow.

Strider590

Once you start leasing, it's very hard to stop without losing A LOT of money.

I see leasing as a trap, a trap to keep you paying interest for decades to come. At the end of the lease, you either pay a large sum (more than the car is worth) or you take out a new lease.

For example, on a 20k car, if you lease for 3 years and then buy it out with a lump sum, it'll have cost close to 30k. Your paying £300+ per month for the car, so the chances are you'll never save that lump sum at the end of the 3 years anyway, so your only choice is to carry on and get another car and sign up to paying crazy interest rates for another 3 years.

Not only this, but often as it's leased they can demand you have it serviced with them, if my example was a German car, you'd be looking at £500+ per service.

Be careful, because once they've got you, they've got you.

OP your best bet would be to purchase a motorway/rep style barge, they're built for the fleet market (highly competitive) and last much longer than small hatchbacks (built to fail and bring business into dealerships).

From_St_Neots

Strider590 wrote: »

Once you start leasing, it's very hard to stop without losing A LOT of money.

I see leasing as a trap, a trap to keep you paying interest for decades to come. At the end of the lease, you either pay a large sum (more than the car is worth) or you take out a new lease.

For example, on a 20k car, if you lease for 3 years and then buy it out with a lump sum, it'll have cost close to 30k. Your paying £300+ per month for the car, so the chances are you'll never save that lump sum at the end of the 3 years anyway, so your only choice is to carry on and get another car and sign up to paying crazy interest rates for another 3 years.

Not only this, but often as it's leased they can demand you have it serviced with them, if my example was a German car, you'd be looking at £500+ per service.

Be careful, because once they've got you, they've got you.

OP your best bet would be to purchase a motorway/rep style barge, they're built for the fleet market (highly competitive) and last much longer than small hatchbacks (built to fail and bring business into dealerships).

Don't forget to add hand back penalties for every dent and scratch if you decide not to buy the car at the end of the lease.

eschaton

Surely if you can afford to pay for a lease then you could do some quick saving and buy a reasonable car?

Once you get the reasonable car, keep saving what you would pay on a lease car ready for when you next need a car.

plane_boy2000

Strider590 wrote: »

Once you start leasing, it's very hard to stop without losing A LOT of money.

I see leasing as a trap, a trap to keep you paying interest for decades to come. At the end of the lease, you either pay a large sum (more than the car is worth) or you take out a new lease.

For example, on a 20k car, if you lease for 3 years and then buy it out with a lump sum, it'll have cost close to 30k. Your paying £300+ per month for the car, so the chances are you'll never save that lump sum at the end of the 3 years anyway, so your only choice is to carry on and get another car and sign up to paying crazy interest rates for another 3 years.

Not only this, but often as it's leased they can demand you have it serviced with them, if my example was a German car, you'd be looking at £500+ per service.

Be careful, because once they've got you, they've got you.

OP your best bet would be to purchase a motorway/rep style barge, they're built for the fleet market (highly competitive) and last much longer than small hatchbacks (built to fail and bring business into dealerships).

There is no interest rate on a lease, you pay an agreed amount per month for the use of the car. You are referring to a PCP product as a lease give you no right to buy the car at the end of the term.

Why do you think anyone would pay more that a car is worth at the end of the term????

My own experience with leasing is very different to your statements. Last car I leased was 21K list, but with the best broker discount I could have bought it outright for 18K.
Actual cost over the 3 years I had it were £720 initial payment plus 35 X £240 so £9120 and I was offered the car for £7K at the end of the lease so I could have owned the car outright for just over £16K.

The lease company paid the road tax so thats £360 saved and I paid £340 for the two services it had. Couple of items of damage at the end of the lease, but they waived them as the value was so small.

I just ordered a new car and jumped into a £28K motor for a slightly higher 250 per month. For me its a no brainer, I get to keep my 20K in the bank and drive a new car for less than I could buy it for. I've no interest in owning a car outright, its a depreciating asset, and I just want to pay for the use of it.

Back to the OP I don't think a lease is the solution for you - you usually need a pretty good credit rating, you cant get out of a lease easily if your circumstances change (big penalties) and short term leases tend to be really expensive in relation to what you get. Depending on what you have had done / need to have done to the Ka I wouldn't be so quick to get rid of it - better the devil you know.

TradePro

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

My own experience with leasing is very different to your statements. Last car I leased was 21K list, but with the best broker discount I could have bought it outright for 18K.
Actual cost over the 3 years I had it were £720 initial payment plus 35 X £240 so £9120 and I was offered the car for £7K at the end of the lease so I could have owned the car outright for just over £16K.

I have to say these numbers don't appear to stack up - who did you the favour of 'subsidising' your use of a brand new car for three years?

Somebody somewhere must have made a profit...

albionrovers

Strider590 wrote: »

Once you start leasing, it's very hard to stop without losing A LOT of money.

I see leasing as a trap, a trap to keep you paying interest for decades to come. At the end of the lease, you either pay a large sum (more than the car is worth) or you take out a new lease.

For example, on a 20k car, if you lease for 3 years and then buy it out with a lump sum, it'll have cost close to 30k. Your paying £300+ per month for the car, so the chances are you'll never save that lump sum at the end of the 3 years anyway, so your only choice is to carry on and get another car and sign up to paying crazy interest rates for another 3 years.

Not only this, but often as it's leased they can demand you have it serviced with them, if my example was a German car, you'd be looking at £500+ per service.

Be careful, because once they've got you, they've got you.

OP your best bet would be to purchase a motorway/rep style barge, they're built for the fleet market (highly competitive) and last much longer than small hatchbacks (built to fail and bring business into dealerships).

This sounds nothing like my last 3 personal lease deals. You would need to have < no brains to sign up for this?

PJMardy

Hi everyone

Thanks for your responses. I'm still completely unsure what to do! But not sure leasing is going to work for me, unless it is short-term. The other option could, potentially, be that work lease a car for me - as they're the ones kicking up a fuss about me having a car that breaks down every five minutes! Of course if they decide it's too much hassle then I won't need a car anyway as I won't have a commute to do!

Saving up each month has been my plan all along - but I've paid £100-£350 each month I've had the Ka on repairs so it's been quite difficult (this alongside trying to pay off my debts and start to repair the credit rating...)

So... I'll keep pondering and doing all the sums. Thanks again for all your advice - it's really valuable to get other people's input and, whilst I'm still confused, at least I can be confused with some real facts!

PJ

PJMardy

eschaton wrote: »

Surely if you can afford to pay for a lease then you could do some quick saving and buy a reasonable car?

Once you get the reasonable car, keep saving what you would pay on a lease car ready for when you next need a car.

This would be my ideal solution - the problem is that any money I've saved for a new car keeps being spent on repairing the current car... but yes, I'd much MUCH rather own a car than lease one - but it has to be a reliable one or I'm facing trouble at work

OddballJamie

What problems have you had with the KA?