Is it good to apply for Personal Contract Hire (PCH)?

BeenThroughItAll

lloydyd wrote: »

Ive got to disagree with that. If thats the experiance you have had then great. Mine is quite different. Almost 13 months ago, i bought a 53 Reg A Class auto for my wife (cost £2300). 13 months down the line, it needs a new gearbox (cost £1800). Thats 13 months. I could have leased a brand new corsa for three years for the money thats costing me. Older cars will reach a point where they become uneconomically viable to repair. You then have to start again with another older car.

As the post above says, some are good some are bad, but in my experiance Cheap usually costs more in the long run. (unless of course you are very lucky or know enough about cars not to get caught)

That's my point though - used cars come in good and bad, and if you'd done some research first, you'd have found plenty of information about the well-documented fragility of A Class automatics. But that doesn't translate into 'a new car is better'. In fact, it supports it - plenty of people suffered the same problem with their A Class within the first three or four years of buying it.


You may well have been able to lease a brand new Corsa for the same money - but equally, I could have bought a 15 year old diesel 5 Series outright for the same money.

Shielder

It all depends on your situation and what you want.

For me, as a consultant, if I can't get to work because a car is not reliable, then I don't get paid. So I needed a car that would be reliable, therefore, an older car is out of the question for me.

My choice was a 3 year old car (with approx. 30k on the clock) for ~£400pm over 3 years or a new leased car for ~£400pm over 3 years.

I chose to lease the car for £400pm with an annual limit of 30,000miles (which I may exceed at 7ppm excess mileage).

My view is that after 3 years, I would be in the same situation, so why not lease? Reliability is a big issue for me, so I went with the new car.

I know quite a few people who lease little cars for less than £100pm who are very happy. If I wasn't consulting, I would have kept going with my 54 plate Avensis. But it is getting a little long in the tooth now, so I went for the modern version.

BeenThroughItAll

Shielder wrote: »

For me, as a consultant, if I can't get to work because a car is not reliable, then I don't get paid. So I needed a car that would be reliable, therefore, an older car is out of the question for me.

For me, as a consultant, I need a car that's comfortable, well equipped, capable of hundreds of miles at a time, reliable and economical enough that I can make money at £0.45 per mile.

Doesn't mean I buy new cars though. My current vehicle is 12 years old, has 125K miles on, and cost me two and a half grand. I sold a younger, lower mileage car to buy it too.

I just don't buy in to new=reliable, old=unreliable. It's simply not true. The amount of time my colleagues' cars (mostly under 3 years old and of 'premium' brands) spend in the garage and the bills they generate is unbelievable.

No wonder I can afford a nicer house and better restaurants.


On another note, are you saying you pay £400 a month for an Avensis? That's more than I've spent on my car in the last six months and 14K miles.

Shielder

Like I said, it depends on your situation and what you want. I could have bought the 3 year old car for the same price as that I'm paying now, and I would have probably been happy with it.

My old Avensis was hammered over the past year by driving up and down to the far north of Scotland, over 60k miles in one year. All that went wrong was a puncture (twice) and the EGR valve decided to get stuck.

All in all, it probably cost me £2-3k in parts and servicing. But, and it's a big but, because of the EGR problem, and the garage not listening to me when I described the symptoms and told them what it was, my car was off the road for over 2 weeks. At the time, that could have cost the company about 3-5k in lost work. (Ok, so it was the garage not the car that was the issue, but it left me thinking about reliability a lot more).

I suppose I could take the risk with a 5 or 6 year old car that has 60K on the clock, to save money, but having a car off the road is not acceptable to me.

So I had to choose between a car that was 3 years old or a new one for the same outlay. I chose the new one.

Mankysteve

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

That's not the flipside of my statement. I never once suggested buying new, or PCP.

New cars are, in my opinion, overpriced fashion statements for mugs who want to impress their neighbours. Leasing's just a way to do that whilst ending up with nothing for your money.

I guarantee I've been running cars over the last five years which in total (including depreciation which is minimal on an older car) have cost less than it would have for me to have leased, PCP'd or bought outright a new one. None of them have been unreliable, and none have been base model Euroboxes either.

Someone's got to buy them otherwise they'd be none for the rest. I'm a buy used preferably with a bit if warranty type guy. I know cheapest option is buy a Banger but there more to buying a car than that.

gilbert_and_sullivan

fantasyvn wrote: »

May I ask this question?

I saw the website skyfleetcarleasing.co.uk which said Personal Contract Hire (PCH) is "is the best way to finance the car you want (but perhaps can't otherwise afford), and make considerable savings in the process".

Is it true? Is it better than buying a car?

My sincere thanks,

Its the best way to finance a car for skyfleetcarleasing's wallet.

forgotmyname

My car is a 2004 model. The car before that was also around £2000 and ex lease but the driver bought it direct from them. So lease + 1 owner. But it had receipts for things like brake fluid changes that tend to be forgotten as the cars get older.

The trick is the mileage 120 - 130k miles.. Prices are much less than similar vehicles with 100k miles.

Plenty more life in them. I have pushed this one past 170k already. High 50's MPG on a run. High 30's towing a caravan.

Mankysteve

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Its the best way to finance a car for skyfleetcarleasing's wallet.

Pretty much this everything a business does is to line there own pockets we should never forget that

BeenThroughItAll

Mankysteve wrote: »

Someone's got to buy them otherwise they'd be none for the rest. I'm a buy used preferably with a bit if warranty type guy. I know cheapest option is buy a Banger but there more to buying a car than that.

I agree - no matter what my thoughts, there are plenty of fools and their money to be parted.

jimjames

roonaldo wrote: »

Probably high miles and good servicing. I'm not too suprised.

Definitely best way to get a car. High miles puts so many people off but gets you a bargain if it has proper servicing.

Most recent car was under £1000 with 240k miles. 6 months on and still going strong with no issues.

£1800 for gearbox sounds very high, are there no recon or secondhand ones cheaper? Or just ditch the car for that sort of cost - but bear in mind a replacement car may have same issues. At least spending the money on your car means you know that problem is now sorted.

Buying a car you can't afford seems crazy to me, this scheme is just another way to convince people they can afford something that in reality they can't.

An older car may be cheap to buy and cost more to repair but I'm pretty sure it will still work out cheaper than depreciation on a new car if you find the right vehicle.