Is a lease car better then loan?

t3rm3y

My car is 11 years old and started to have costly repairs , but a car is crucial for my work. when I bought it I took a loan out and could afford the repayments, I have calculated that with cost of living so high now I would have about 150 per month max spare for a car, would I be able to find a lease for that? Would that be a good idea?  Or a loan and a 2nd hand car. (I doubt I'll get a loan for a new car and payments would be too high). I also need a reliable car so looking at low milage and only 3 to 4 years old.
What would others do and what vehicle could you recommend.
Also my company doest do company cars. 

Grumpy_chap

What are the costly repairs on the current car?
Is the current car reliable?
£150 per month is £1.8k per year.
How much upfront deposit do you have available?

born_again

t3rm3y said:

My car is 11 years old and started to have costly repairs , but a car is crucial for my work. when I bought it I took a loan out and could afford the repayments, I have calculated that with cost of living so high now I would have about 150 per month max spare for a car, would I be able to find a lease for that? Would that be a good idea?  Or a loan and a 2nd hand car. (I doubt I'll get a loan for a new car and payments would be too high). I also need a reliable car so looking at low milage and only 3 to 4 years old.
What would others do and what vehicle could you recommend.
Also my company doest do company cars. 

Lease tends to be for new cars.

Have a look at these. Just remember a lease usually means handing car back with no option to buy.
But as above what sort of deposit do you have?
What mileage do you do?
If car is needed for work, what do they give you if no companies cars to cover the cost of car & insurance?

https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-leasing/advice/best-new-cars-for-100-per-month/

HampshireH

You're unlikely to get a lease vehicle for £150 a month.

A quick search on 1 site suggests they have 3 cars available under £179 (but above £150) and think Picanto /Fiat 500 all 1ltr

What sort of car do you need? Do you have kids/need boot space? Or would a small car suit you?

Edit: also consider milage. Lease vehicles offer a certain allowance. After that it could be charged extra by the mile

TadleyBaggie

Really good lease deals can sometimes show up when a model is just out of production and there are lots unsold. A few years ago I managed to get a BMW convertible for less than £200pm, buying the same via a loan would have added £150pm or more.

t3rm3y

Grumpy_chap said:

What are the costly repairs on the current car?
Is the current car reliable?
£150 per month is £1.8k per year.
How much upfront deposit do you have available?

Early April was the service, 2x new tyres and 2 springs set me back around 500, then end of April a fuel injector went , cost another 500 to replace. 
Car runs had been reliable, but now there's a slight vibration, might be me worried that the other injectors may fail soon too. And other running costs - timing belt is due probably next year..
It's a decent car , I just can't be breaking down on way to customers , I do get a car allowance - but that is eaten up by normal bills and shopping. I don't have that full amount spare each month(£200) but reckon could get to £150..

t3rm3y

The car also feels like there's a slight vibration, you know your own car, but since the injector swap it's had slight vibration / shake during idoling, which worries me that something else will fail soon 😕

Krakkkers

Lease deals also require a hefty deposit?

Brie

A lease may be cheaper than a loan but you don't own the car at the end of the period you are comparing when it's a lease.  And in order to buy the car at the end of the lease means having a nice big lump sum ready to do so (or have that credit available from elsewhere). 

When I've looked into this the leasing company couldn't tell me what I'd need to pay in 3 years because they don't know what the market for that car would be so far into the future.  That uncertainty means I can't do a proper cost comparison and as a result I've always gone for buying a car not leasing. 

For me as well I've never had a loan for one per se but used a credit card to purchase and then done a 0% balance transfer to a card with a significant period in which to pay the total off.

t3rm3y

Brie said:

A lease may be cheaper than a loan but you don't own the car at the end of the period you are comparing when it's a lease.  And in order to buy the car at the end of the lease means having a nice big lump sum ready to do so (or have that credit available from elsewhere). 

When I've looked into this the leasing company couldn't tell me what I'd need to pay in 3 years because they don't know what the market for that car would be so far into the future.  That uncertainty means I can't do a proper cost comparison and as a result I've always gone for buying a car not leasing. 

For me as well I've never had a loan for one per se but used a credit card to purchase and then done a 0% balance transfer to a card with a significant period in which to pay the total off.

Ok, so you buy on a credit card with 0%? So you then pay a bit off each month? Then transfer remainder to another 0% card if the first ones offer runs out?
Or you don't have to pay anything on a 0% card monthly until their offer runs out then you pay it all off in one go ? 

Grumpy_chap

t3rm3y said:

Early April was the service, 2x new tyres and 2 springs set me back around 500, then end of April a fuel injector went , cost another 500 to replace. 
Car runs had been reliable, but now there's a slight vibration, might be me worried that the other injectors may fail soon too. And other running costs - timing belt is due probably next year..
It's a decent car , I just can't be breaking down on way to customers 

I know you said the current car is 11 yo, but I can't see that you mentioned how many miles the car has covered or how many miles you do per year.
Other than your concerns about maintenance cost, does the current car meet your needs in terms of size, space, etc?

The current car is reliable; if you buy any used car, you are also buying an element of an unknown quantity.  A new (to you) car might also have some issue at £500 that arises in the first period of ownership.

In considering the maintenance cost of the current car, you need to separate out the costs for the service and tyres (which will arise for any car) so it is only the shock absorbers plus the fuel injector that are "exceptional" items.  I can't advise whether, if one injector went, the others are likely to follow - did the garage doing the work mention anything in this regard?

I was recently running an older car and the approach I took was to assess the maintenance cost against PCP cost for a new car.
PCP would be £300 - £400 per month for a typical car.  So, if I kept the maintenance cost below £1.2k for a year, I was quids in, that is less than 3 - 4 months PCP cost, so well-up on the year.