Personal Car Lease - best time?

MoneySaver123

Anyone have any tips on best time of year/month to get a personal car lease? I’ve read that after September (new plates) and in ‘winter time’ can be best as it’s a bit slow but would be good to hear any other recommendations! Don’t want to waste time waiting and only be saving £20 a month or something, but if it’s a £50 per month saving, I think it would be worth it. Obviously, no one knows if there will definitely be better deals at a certain time but just looking for general tips!

Have looked at LeaseLoco who show you a graph of historical pricing and generally last year it dropped at the end of the year and also during March/April this year but guessing that may be due to Covid.

jjdc

Can be a number of factors. Old model being replaced, govt schemes, covid, manufacturer getting rid of a load of stock.
Buy the deal, not the car. Read pistonheads, sign up to lots of lease cos news letters, try leasing.com, hotukdeals. As a (very) rough guide, if the deal is less than 25% of p11d value after 2 years, 10k miles PA, its probably a much better deal than buying new and flogging after 2 years. If its more than 25%, then its probably not much cheaper than depreciation. More than 30% its a rip off, less than 20% either an absolute bargain or, sadly far more likely, a miss price by lease Co to get your details.

The_Rainmaker

Do you know what a good deal looks like?  I suggest you study the market and then wait until you find one.  A great deal is when your monthly payments are less than 100th of the OTR price a good deal is a bit less.  

MoneySaver123

Thanks both very much for you replies!

@jjdc - interesting you say 2 years, as I thought they generally went on depreciation over 3 years?

The car I’m looking at has a book price of circa £42k and the current ‘deal’ is 9 months upfront and £349 p/m for 35 months. I’ll only be doing around 5k miles per year. The cheapest it’s been in the last 12 months was in April (Covid) and last year September, both around £290.

Whadya reckon? I need a new car but not urgently.

DrEskimo

MoneySaver123 said:

Thanks both very much for you replies!

@jjdc - interesting you say 2 years, as I thought they generally went on depreciation over 3 years?

The car I’m looking at has a book price of circa £42k and the current ‘deal’ is 9 months upfront and £349 p/m for 35 months. I’ll only be doing around 5k miles per year. The cheapest it’s been in the last 12 months was in April (Covid) and last year September, both around £290.

Whadya reckon? I need a new car but not urgently.

Im not sure that spending over a £1 per mile on depreciation costs is very 'money saver'...! That's before you add insurance, fuel, servicing and maintenance! But your money

What's the sort discount you can expect (coast2coast or CarWow will give you a good idea)?What of price does a 3yr old one with 15k miles fetch as trade in (stick the reg in AT valuation)? That should give you a better idea rather than relying on RRP that no one pays...

MoneySaver123

DrEskimo said:

MoneySaver123 said:

Thanks both very much for you replies!

@jjdc - interesting you say 2 years, as I thought they generally went on depreciation over 3 years?

The car I’m looking at has a book price of circa £42k and the current ‘deal’ is 9 months upfront and £349 p/m for 35 months. I’ll only be doing around 5k miles per year. The cheapest it’s been in the last 12 months was in April (Covid) and last year September, both around £290.

Whadya reckon? I need a new car but not urgently.

Im not sure that spending over a £1 per mile on depreciation costs is very 'money saver'...! That's before you add insurance, fuel, servicing and maintenance! But your money

What's the sort discount you can expect (coast2coast or CarWow will give you a good idea)?What of price does a 3yr old one with 15k miles fetch as trade in (stick the reg in AT valuation)? That should give you a better idea rather than relying on RRP that no one pays...

This is true! Some things are bought with the heart I guess, just trying to inject a bit of ‘head’.

Thanks will check out carwow and AT prices on 3yo cars. Good idea!

Ectophile

My personal opinion would be "never".

You sign up for a long, and totally inflexible, lease deal.  If your needs change and it's not the right car for you any more, that's tough.  Keep paying, or buy out the contract.  If you lose your job, tough, keep paying or they will put a default on your credit file.

At the end of the lease period, after paying hundreds of pounds a month, you hand the car back, because it's never yours.  And if there are any dents on the car, you will be billed for them.  If you changed jobs, and ended up driving further than expected, you pay for that was well.

DrEskimo

Ectophile said:

My personal opinion would be "never".

You sign up for a long, and totally inflexible, lease deal.  If your needs change and it's not the right car for you any more, that's tough.  Keep paying, or buy out the contract.  If you lose your job, tough, keep paying or they will put a default on your credit file.

At the end of the lease period, after paying hundreds of pounds a month, you hand the car back, because it's never yours.  And if there are any dents on the car, you will be billed for them.  If you changed jobs, and ended up driving further than expected, you pay for that was well.

I agree with this personally as well. Buying used not only saves huge amounts of money, but gives me complete freedom and zero contractual obligations. That is worth a lot to me. I typically buy couple years old and sell around a 2/3yrs later, all while in warranty (or pay to extend where it's sensible).
In all, exactly the same car, for exactly the same period, all under warranty for a fraction of the price.

The mileage flexibility is also an important point. Earlier this year I changed jobs that meant I went from 5,000/year to 15,000/year and that would change to 20,000/year after 6months. So I would have locked myself into a lease contract for that high mileage. Of course, due to the pandemic I am now free to work from home permanently! Suddenly I am back down to <5,000/year.

Would have been a nightmare if I was on a large mileage lease contract....

MoneySaver123

I’ve leased before and happy with how it works. I see having a car these days increasingly like a service as opposed to an asset, where I pay a set amount each month, drive a brand new car, not worry about MOTs, know it’s under original warranty and don’t have to go through the hassle of selling it afterwards. Particularly at the moment with the shift from petrol/diesel to electric.

I wouldn’t shy away from leveraging credit in any situation as long as I believe I can afford it over the term. Same as buying a house I guess!

DrEskimo

MoneySaver123 said:

I’ve leased before and happy with how it works. I see having a car these days increasingly like a service as opposed to an asset, where I pay a set amount each month, drive a brand new car, not worry about MOTs, know it’s under original warranty and don’t have to go through the hassle of selling it afterwards. Particularly at the moment with the shift from petrol/diesel to electric.

I wouldn’t shy away from leveraging credit in any situation as long as I believe I can afford it over the term. Same as buying a house I guess!

You can own a used car for two years whilst it is still under the original warranty (or extend it) and selling a car is no less hassle than handing a car back to a leasing company. I sold mine to a garage and they picked it up from my house.

MOT....a three/four year old car is not going to have any issue sailing through a MOT! It's £40 for a year!!

The arguments for it Vs buying used are really not strong. The only strong argument is that you get to use a car when you don't have the capital upfront. That's it. Fine if that's something you want to do, but it really doesn't have many other advantages, and a rather long list of disadvantages....

As for the shift to EV...well my current car is an EV

MoneySaver123

Agree to disagree

Selling for me has always been a hassle because I want the best price. Anyway, nothing beats that ‘new car smell’ or that’s what I’ll keep telling myself :P