Is it any wonder people lease/PCP?

BOWFER

This forum can't help me thinking, is it any wonder the majority of car buyers lease or PCP new cars....?
The amount of posts with faults and the stress of having to deal with used car dealers (big or small)
Maybe those who scoff at lease/PCP need to appreciate why people do it......

neilmcl

And equally there are plenty of posts of people wanting to get out of their leases/PCP arrangements because they've realised they can't afford them.

jimjames

People generally post when they have a problem. The ones that are happy with their car don't tend to start threads saying how fantastic it is. None of my cars are on PCP/lease, all are over 10 years old and all are brilliant!

m0bov

Can be leasing or PCP and still have stress of faults.

ilikedrawing

BOWFER said:

This forum can't help me thinking, is it any wonder the majority of car buyers lease or PCP new cars....?
The amount of posts with faults and the stress of having to deal with used car dealers (big or small)
Maybe those who scoff at lease/PCP need to appreciate why people do it......

I completely agree. Buying cars is a nightmare. I completely understand why people lease. 

I've come to realise the best scenario when buying a car is to buy from someone you know who is simply upgrading or stopping driving. 

BOWFER

neilmcl said:

And equally there are plenty of posts of people wanting to get out of their leases/PCP arrangements because they've realised they can't afford them.

People don't "realise" they can't afford them, affordability would have been obvious when they took the deal out.
People's circumstances change, especially in the past year, that's a whole different ballgame.
Could equally happen with a loan or finance on a 'bought' car.

daveyjp

I've bought from dealers in cash and also had PCPs on new cars.

Neither way guarantees you will get a trouble free experience, especially in my experience if the dealer is part of a huge group selling supposedly premium brands.

The small family owned dealer I now use is excellent.

BOWFER

daveyjp said:

I've bought from dealers in cash and also had PCPs on new cars.

Neither way guarantees you will get a trouble free experience, especially in my experience if the dealer is part of a huge group selling supposedly premium brands.

The small family owned dealer I now use is excellent.

No, but, regardless of how good or bad the dealer is, the bottom line is the majority of faults will be covered by the manufacturer's warranty and any hassles with a dealer can be taken a level higher by speaking to the manufacturer's customer service department direct.
I've seen a good few posts here lately where people have spent all their money on a used car, nothing left for any repairs....nothing.
So they come on here clinging to hope they can get the supplying dealer./seller to pay instead.
It's heart breaking to read, I can't help thinking these are the precisely the sort of people who should lease/PCP.
If you're on a limited budget, it's as close to fixed cost motoring as you can get.
No huge nasty surprises in waiting.

DrEskimo

BOWFER said:

daveyjp said:

I've bought from dealers in cash and also had PCPs on new cars.

Neither way guarantees you will get a trouble free experience, especially in my experience if the dealer is part of a huge group selling supposedly premium brands.

The small family owned dealer I now use is excellent.

No, but, regardless of how good or bad the dealer is, the bottom line is the majority of faults will be covered by the manufacturer's warranty and any hassles with a dealer can be taken a level higher by speaking to the manufacturer's customer service department direct.
I've seen a good few posts here lately where people have spent all their money on a used car, nothing left for any repairs....nothing.
So they come on here clinging to hope they can get the supplying dealer./seller to pay instead.
It's heart breaking to read, I can't help thinking these are the precisely the sort of people who should lease/PCP.
If you're on a limited budget, it's as close to fixed cost motoring as you can get.
No huge nasty surprises in waiting.

People are on a limited budget....so the most financially sound thing you advise them to do is buy a brand new car every 2/3yrs.....read that back to yourself and think for a minute....

What these people should be doing is buying a much cheaper car without finance, and ensuring they still have a fully funded emergency fund.

Herzlos

It's a fairly sound idea if they can afford the lease as it's a much easier way to budget and doesn't require a savings pot. You can lease some cars fairly cheap albeit they'll be pretty small.

On the reported horror stories thing, the bulk of them seem to fall into 2 camps:
1. Someone bought a car really cheap (often from far away) and it's broken.

2. Someone bought a lease/PCP and is having problems returning it.

BOWFER

DrEskimo said:

People are on a limited budget....so the most financially sound thing you advise them to do is buy a brand new car every 2/3yrs.....read that back to yourself and think for a minute....

What these people should be doing is buying a much cheaper car without finance, and ensuring they still have a fully funded emergency fund.

Yup. that's precisely what I'm saying.
If they really need a reliable car with limited budget, decide on what that budget is per month and lease one.
Keep the thousands they've managed to put together to buy one in the bank to go towards the payments.
Just today we've got someone who's bought a mini for £3600 and can't afford to repair the clutch.
We've got someone else with a Ford with a fancy gearbox that will cost £XXX(?) to fix and they can't afford it.
Wouldn't they better putting £50 a week towards leasing a car?
£200 a month gets you a surprising choice of cars.