First time leasing a car - dos / donts?

Caporegime
Joined
24 Oct 2012
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25,023
Location
Godalming
We've always owned our cars outright but I'm looking to lease a car and see what it's all about.

It'll be a Mini 4 door if that makes any difference, are there any comparison sites? Options are a nono apparently, is this true?

Don't even know where to begin tbh.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
I couldn't find any good deals for leasing a Mini - they are very option sensitive cars and options really make leasing very expensive.

Just bought one in the end.

Leasing is best if you don't care what you have, if you've something specific in mind it's probably going to work out expensive.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2006
Posts
15,940
Leasing is hard to do well unless you take a deal that is going. If you want a certain car/model - it's harder to find a good deal.

Leasing is generally about what stock a dealer/supplier has to punt on and you get a reasonable deal - very rarely will you find the car you "dream" of on a good price lease.

Pistonheads above is a good place
 
Soldato
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
4,896
I just finished my lease on a focus. I find there are lots of deals around dec/jan/Feb time. So if you are looking for a leasing deal now you probably won’t find anything decent.

Also the trick to get decent leasing deal is to find the car that can hold decent amount of residual value and low in initial price that suits your needs obviously.

So I would recommend you to google some leasing websites and go through the kind of cars you want and see what’s available. Don’t go for options as they are expensive and not worth it. Basically select trim levels to get the kit you need.

It took me a good part of 12 weeks to find a decent deal and it is purely based on what’s available at the time. Also in most cases, the dealer will have a car but it’s colour is not the basic one so they will charge you extra for metallic paint or the car has some options like LeD lights that you don’t care but you have to pay for. You can always ring around a few dealers to see what they got.

The best way to start a lease is to understand what range of cars you accept and what your monthly budget is and how much you want to put down for the initial rental. With those in mind you can narrow down suitable cars very quickly on the lease sites and then it is just a process of working out if any one of them are decent by working out if the lease is more than depreciation or less than and factor in discount from dealers for buying out right.

Lastly, the end of lease you will need to remedy any damages you incurred during the lease such as body work, alloy wheels - kerb damages. Don’t get alloys that are laser cut if you are thinking about leasing as refurb is expensive. I didn’t take out a maintenance option. But some make will give very competitive maintenance regime such as VW group brands.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,298
There are some simple rules for leasing a car that usually if not always apply.

1: If you want a big additional spec then don't lease. Adding spec will kill the value of the deal.
2: If you want to do over 10K miles per year, it is likely going to be inefficient cost wise unless it's a really cheap car.
3: Be willing to accept the best deal over the perfect car and watch the end of quarter special offers for the best ones.
4: Be ready to move quick as the very best deals are usually 24 hour deals, the second best within a week of first advert.
5: If you want to buy the car at the end of the period (seems odd to do that) then lease will hardly ever offer that option.

It is not an alternative to buying if you want to build a car to your spec, do high miles or need to find the perfect model, colour and spec. If you want to build your dream car, buy it don't rent it.
 
Caporegime
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17 Jul 2010
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25,658
Add all the figures together to get your total deal and work this against buying the car on finance. Remember you're borrowing the car and will have nothing to show for it at the end.
 
Associate
Joined
25 Dec 2008
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918
Location
Norwich
dont know how good they actually are but there is a site called carwow.co.uk that will get you deals from multiple dealers across the country they advertise multi thousand pound savings but i'm a bit dubious about leasing in general last time i had any experience of it was when my parents use to use ford options.

as an example i entered this car
Ford Kuga
1.5 EcoBoost 2WD Zetec, Manual, Petrol
Total RRP £24,175

my first offer for pcp came back at

PCP Finance
carwow offer
£18,978
You save
£5,197 (21.5%)
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,298
Add all the figures together to get your total deal and work this against buying the car on finance. Remember you're borrowing the car and will have nothing to show for it at the end.
The best lease deals will work out cheaper than you can buy an equivalent. They are structured as lease only deals to ensure used car stock in 1-2 years etc. My Polo was 33% off list price. You could not at that time walk in and buy the car for 33% off list, not even close. The dealer I believe bought 200 at that rate and all had to be put into a lease term of 12-24 months. Limited colours, limited spec, you want one or not. Those deals are worth doing, most will work out more or close to the same. It is all about up front cost, x lease cost for period x mileage over spends and can be very dealer group dependent.

Most see £250 a month and forget the 2K up front. It's cheap at 250 quid, less so at 350 quid.
 
Caporegime
OP
Joined
24 Oct 2012
Posts
25,023
Location
Godalming
Cheers all!

I've since decided against leasing, it just seems like a waste of money when I can get an ex-demo for considerably less and let someone else take the initial hit.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Aug 2006
Posts
6,339
Just took delivery of a Seat Tarraco Xcellence 2L:
  • £500 deposit
  • £260 monthly
  • £19 maintenance pack
  • 8k miles per year
  • 24 months lease with road fund and breakdown included.
Went with Zenauto and the whole experience was 10/10.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
19 Dec 2005
Posts
1,429
There are some simple rules for leasing a car that usually if not always apply.

1: If you want a big additional spec then don't lease. Adding spec will kill the value of the deal.
2: If you want to do over 10K miles per year, it is likely going to be inefficient cost wise unless it's a really cheap car.
3: Be willing to accept the best deal over the perfect car and watch the end of quarter special offers for the best ones.
4: Be ready to move quick as the very best deals are usually 24 hour deals, the second best within a week of first advert.
5: If you want to buy the car at the end of the period (seems odd to do that) then lease will hardly ever offer that option.

It is not an alternative to buying if you want to build a car to your spec, do high miles or need to find the perfect model, colour and spec. If you want to build your dream car, buy it don't rent it.

Got offered my Audi A4 2.0 190 S Line with B&O for 19k end of lease, so can be some bargains to be had. If I liked the car more would have been a great deal.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Aug 2006
Posts
6,339
Still waiting for word back on servicing schedule, whether 12 monthly or variable. WRT tyres - i am in Lincs and in 18 months alone my previous motor went through 3 blowouts on the Lincolnshire pot hole roads which the council have not accepted responsibility for - grrrrr!!

I think maybe i could have done without the pack, but even one service and one tyre and i have recouped my spend - and come hand back time if it needs 4 new tyres, it won't cost me.
 
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