120 mile commute- is high mileage lease w/maintenance better than 2nd hand?

sd183

Hi All

I drive 120 miles a day with a company car that I sadly have to return, meaning I'm in the market for a "new-to-me" car. Including weekend driving I'm averaging 3.5-4k miles a month.

I can either go for a 3 year high mileage lease agreement on a new Focus at circa. £390 a month (already have the quote, vehicle is in stock, I just need to give the magic word) including ALL maintenance, or a I can buy a reasonably low mileage c.30k Focus for £8k.

The maintenance is a sticker for me- at that mileage it seems like a no-brainer to go for the lease and not have to worry at all about cambelts, major services etc.But part of me can't help but think I am burning my money by agreeing to a lease.....

Any thoughts would be very warmly received!
Thanks
S

foxy-stoat

I would spend £8000 on the second hand car and start a maintenance fund in NS&I premium bonds for £200 a month and see how you go. If you get nothing serious in 90,000 miles you should have over £5000 left over and your car which should be worth at least £2000.

I would look at a Gen 9 Civic as well though - no cam belt and very well put together cars for the money.

scaredofdebt

Leasing is the safest option but it isn't going to be cheap for that mileage, but definitely worth getting a quote and check what is and is not covered. A good lease deal will mean you are not going to have to pay for servicing, tyres and repairs. The type of car I would be looking at would be diesel Mondeo, Passat or Octavia. These are comfy for the longer distances but pretty good on fuel economy and have reasonable performance too. Mondeo will probably be best value for money if you don't mind the badge, to be honest it is also probably the best for reliability and performance out of the three.

If you don't mind taking a risk then buying something around 3 years old will probably be better economically but you are risking a major bill if something goes wrong, look at getting something with a warranty if you can, if the figures add up.

I ran a Mondeo for 2 years doing ~50k per annum but the repairs started to rack up around the 200k miles mark, but I was the 9th owner!

I've owned both a Focus and a Mondeo, the latter is hands down the better car, Focus slightly better handling if pushing it around country roads, Mondeo is a bit front heavy ie understeers if pushed. Much better on motorways though.

scaredofdebt

Apologies, just spotted your figures, missed that first time round!

So, if you buy over 3 years for £8k, that's about £225 a month, depending on finance deal.

Do you think you will spend ~£170 a month on repairs, servicing, tyres etc?

You'll have some residual value in the vehicle after 3 years, maybe around £1-2k so the real price is a bit less than £225 a month, probably ~£175 - have a look on Autotrader at 6 year old cars with a mileage like yours will have to help work out depreciation.

When I was doing 50k a year I was spending around £150 a month on repairs, but that was due to two very big bills at 170k (DMF @ £900) and 190k (2 x Injectors £600). If you can get a lowish mileage car you may avoid those kinds of bills if you get rid and never go above say 150k.

It's a bit of a gamble so depends how risk averse you are, personally I'd buy the car and hope to get lucky, odds are probably in your favour but make sure you service the car religiously!

Put the money you are saving away over the lease ready for any big bills, if you are lucky you will have some cash spare.