Cheapest "monthly" way to get into a newish 5 Series / A6 / E class?

Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2012
Posts
1,635
A friend of mine really wants to get one of these three cars, preferably a 5 series. He wants it to be newish, automatic and diesel since he does a lot of miles (about 35k a year). He's talking about leasing at the moment, but I was just wondering if this was the best method? He would have no (or a very small) deposit to put down, which probably makes a huge difference. I was looking online and saw some prices for around £500-600 a month, but the mileage on the site I looked at only went up to 20k. How much (roughly) should he be looking to pay per month?

I've never had any real experience with PCP/HP/leasing so I'm just looking to help him make the best decision.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
If you want to put 100,000 miles on a car over 3 years and you have no deposit it seems unlikely the answer is going to be either of those cars! This is going to be seriously expensive as he will be wiping a large portion of the cars value off it.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2011
Posts
10,401
The "cheapest" way to remain covered for reliability issues with one of the desired cars will be to purchase a car a few years old for say £17k and take a loan out over 3 years plus pay the monthly warranty rate...

It'll still end up costing £5/600 per month, but at least any value of the car can be recovered at the end of his use. Buy something with 20-30k miles and move it on with say £120k. It won't be completely worthless

Can't help but agree that this has disaster written all over it though. If he must have a new or very new car one of the Korean offers would be vastly more sensible (the newer Optima is a nice car), or even a boring old Passat/Mondeo
 
Last edited:

233

233

Soldato
Joined
21 Nov 2004
Posts
13,500
Location
Wishaw
The "cheapest" way to remain covered for reliability issues with one of the desired cars will be to purchase a car a few years old for say £17k and take a loan out over 3 years plus pay the monthly warranty rate...

It'll still end up costing £5/600 per month, but at least any value of the car can be recovered at the end of his use. Buy something with 20-30k miles and move it on with say £120k. It won't be completely worthless

Can't help but agree that this has disaster written all over it though. If he must have a new or very new car one of the Korean offers would be vastly more sensible (the newer Optima is a nice car), or even a boring old Passat/Mondeo



this

or if your friend is a dishonest SOB 20k P.A. lease and a haircut every year
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Oct 2009
Posts
9,223
Location
United Kingdom
The problem is that going down route of a lease with premium marque without a deposit and mega miles is the easiest way of throwing money away. Though we have no idea about his finances it sounds like he's trying to get into something he can't really afford. Easily done when looking leases/pcp and the monthlies etc. Someone's gonna have to cover the depreciation of adding all those miles over a short time frame and it ain't the manufacturer. Is a car allowance or company car a possibility? Could he still afford it if personal circumstances were to change?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,297
My car is 10k per annum and around 314 a month. If I took that to 30k per annum it would add circa 100 a month. I put 3k down. E220 AMG
 
Associate
OP
Joined
22 Mar 2012
Posts
1,635
My car is 10k per annum and around 314 a month. If I took that to 30k per annum it would add circa 100 a month. I put 3k down. E220 AMG
I suppose the big thing is the 3k deposit there. He would probably have less than a grand deposit to put down at the start.

I've talked to him and I think he might go down a cheaper road than brand new premium cars. It's his choice at the end of the day, but I think stuff like a kia optima or skoda superb would still be an upgrade over his seat exeo while being much more affordable.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,297
I suggest he sets his sights lower then. This is just my run about car. If you have to stretch to get a deposit or monthly payments then it’s a foolish move.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
22 Mar 2012
Posts
1,635
Yeah, I'm trying to sway him into the nicer cars from "lesser" brands now so hopefully he'll find something he likes for a monthly budget that suits him.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
22,966
Location
London
2 year old 5 series (G30) are still nice cars and I doubt many people would be able to tell they aren't almost new.

Combine that with some kind of finance, and that is a far less crazy of an idea than buying a new car and putting 70K miles on it in 2 years.
 
Back
Top Bottom