Advice needed on new car (A4/Giulia/XE/3series) and on leasing

Leasing is a really tricky area, I must admit I was very close to getting a lease this time round. So I did the math, asked myself some simple questions and got an answer.

Leasing a new version of my one car was £11,500 for three years (with no resale value as it's a lease)
Buying the 3 year old version of my car was £6,500 with a 1 year main dealer warranty (with a resale value of around 3,800 after the 3 years)

Factoring costs (like MOTs etc) it was basically a question of spending ~£10,500 (lease costs vs savings via getting a new car) vs ~£2,700 over the three years (or £216 PCM). And they key decision maker is "do I value having a newer car for 3 years at ~8k"? For me the answer was no. If you're skint you'll need to add on the loan % too the cost of the buying option.

In general (just IMHO) cars that are 3-6 years old (from a reliable manufacturer) are low cost and don't seem to be blighted with expensive costs, do for me I see it as a sweet spot to buy.

Leasing is a great tool if you have no money and credit is expensive to you, and you massively value a new car vs a 3 year old car.

Cheers

UL
 
Th
ultralaser said:
Leasing is a really tricky area, I must admit I was very close to getting a lease this time round. So I did the math, asked myself some simple questions and got an answer.

Leasing a new version of my one car was £11,500 for three years (with no resale value as it's a lease)
Buying the 3 year old version of my car was £6,500 with a 1 year main dealer warranty (with a resale value of around 3,800 after the 3 years)

Factoring costs (like MOTs etc) it was basically a question of spending ~£10,500 (lease costs vs savings via getting a new car) vs ~£2,700 over the three years (or £216 PCM). And they key decision maker is "do I value having a newer car for 3 years at ~8k"? For me the answer was no. If you're skint you'll need to add on the loan % too the cost of the buying option.

In general (just IMHO) cars that are 3-6 years old (from a reliable manufacturer) are low cost and don't seem to be blighted with expensive costs, do for me I see it as a sweet spot to buy.

Leasing is a great tool if you have no money and credit is expensive to you, and you massively value a new car vs a 3 year old car.

Cheers

UL
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Thanks for this perspective, I have now had a look at a few second hand options. I think for 300 a month I could borrow around 15k at ~3%. I could buy a BMW3 for example that would be be worth ~£7.5k at the end of the 4yr loan. It is definitely worth considering. However there are additional hassles with buying/selling cars and I would expect some high service costs on a 3-4yr old beamer.
 
EdwardTeach said:
Th


Thanks for this perspective, I have now had a look at a few second hand options. I think for 300 a month I could borrow around 15k at ~3%. I could buy a BMW3 for example that would be be worth ~£7.5k at the end of the 4yr loan. It is definitely worth considering. However there are additional hassles with buying/selling cars and I would expect some high service costs on a 3-4yr old beamer.
Click to expand...

If you buy approved used it will come with a warranty, you will be able to extend this after first year if needed (and you can drop the level of cover if needed to say just the driveline warranty)

You can find common service costs here: https://www.bmw-service.co.uk
 
ultralaser said:
Leasing is a really tricky area, I must admit I was very close to getting a lease this time round. So I did the math, asked myself some simple questions and got an answer.

Leasing a new version of my one car was £11,500 for three years (with no resale value as it's a lease)
Buying the 3 year old version of my car was £6,500 with a 1 year main dealer warranty (with a resale value of around 3,800 after the 3 years)

Factoring costs (like MOTs etc) it was basically a question of spending ~£10,500 (lease costs vs savings via getting a new car) vs ~£2,700 over the three years (or £216 PCM). And they key decision maker is "do I value having a newer car for 3 years at ~8k"? For me the answer was no. If you're skint you'll need to add on the loan % too the cost of the buying option.

In general (just IMHO) cars that are 3-6 years old (from a reliable manufacturer) are low cost and don't seem to be blighted with expensive costs, do for me I see it as a sweet spot to buy.

Leasing is a great tool if you have no money and credit is expensive to you, and you massively value a new car vs a 3 year old car.

Cheers

UL
Click to expand...

Honestly, that just sounds like a crap deal. Leases can be good value, do the sums and decide what works for you. You need to be prepared to go for the deal, not the car.

I just got out leasing a BMW 330e and it was exceptional, both the car and the deal.

330e M-Sport + Pro Nav, 15kpa, 6+23 £294.99 a month. That's £8554.71 over 2 years. The RRP on the car was £38885 + £900 odd for the pro nav, (ok you may not have paid this, but I can't check brokers for a car from 2 years ago) and now they're worth 22-24k.
 
BongoHunter said:
If you buy approved used it will come with a warranty, you will be able to extend this after first year if needed (and you can drop the level of cover if needed to say just the driveline warranty)

You can find common service costs here: https://www.bmw-service.co.uk
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will look into that.

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. As I mentioned in the op, I am totally new to this so all advice /suggestions are helpful.
 
Personally I wouldn't even be thinking of finance if you only average around 20 miles per week and your goal is to save money, that's complete madness IMO! At £300 for 80 miles a month that's close to £4 a mile just for the cost of the car....

I'd buy something for a few grand that's known to be reliable, fairly low mileage and has a bit of poke/lots of space/whatever your requirements are and just enjoy it for what it is, your wear and tear will be minimal with the miles you do.

You can get a lot of car for not a lot of cash these days.

Just my opinion of course, each to their own :)
 
He didn't say his goal was to save money, he said he wants a nice car having put up with a cheap old banger for years and years.
 
Kenai said:
He didn't say his goal was to save money, he said he wants a nice car having put up with a cheap old banger for years and years.
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Agreed, he did say that he wanted to hold onto his savings though, so car on finance + holding onto savings don't add up to me when you are essentially paying for the privilege of renting a car for a few years and having nothing at the end of it except another deposit to wack down. You can get a lot of 'nice' cars without leasing, though I guess everyone's definition of 'nice' is different...

As I said, each to their own :)
 
Funky-Melon said:
Agreed, he did say that he wanted to hold onto his savings though, so car on finance + holding onto savings don't add up to me when you are essentially paying for the privilege of renting a car for a few years and having nothing at the end of it except another deposit to wack down. You can get a lot of 'nice' cars without leasing, though I guess everyone's definition of 'nice' is different...

As I said, each to their own :)
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He said he has £300 in disposable he can use for the car, nothing about using savings?
 
Chris1712 said:
Honestly, that just sounds like a crap deal. Leases can be good value, do the sums and decide what works for you. You need to be prepared to go for the deal, not the car.

I just got out leasing a BMW 330e and it was exceptional, both the car and the deal.

330e M-Sport + Pro Nav, 15kpa, 6+23 £294.99 a month. That's £8554.71 over 2 years. The RRP on the car was £38885 + £900 odd for the pro nav, (ok you may not have paid this, but I can't check brokers for a car from 2 years ago) and now they're worth 22-24k.
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I'm not suggest he doesn't get a lease, I'm suggesting he does the math for himself and come to a conclusion based on that. I think a lot of folks rush to point out how leases vs new buy can be attractive because the high depreciation rates in the first few years. Buying / leasing / buying second hand all come with different costs and it's always good to do the sums on all the options.
 
Chris1712 said:
330e M-Sport + Pro Nav, 15kpa, 6+23 £294.99 a month. That's £8554.71 over 2 years. The RRP on the car was £38885 + £900 odd for the pro nav, (ok you may not have paid this, but I can't check brokers for a car from 2 years ago) and now they're worth 22-24k.
Click to expand...

To be fair though a brand new 340i can be had for £30k and a 2 year old one is worth £24k or so..... the lease was cheap because the supply cost was low?
 
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