[TW]Fox;29205213 said:
This is absolutely key. As a rule, a lease is the most expensive way to have a car. It generally doesn't get more expensive than leasing.
The exceptions come when there are manufacturer supported deals - perhaps to lift sales of a flagging model or to generate quality used stock for a few years time or whatever.
It is THESE deals that it's crucial to get. This means, to get a good leasing deal you need to:
a) Not have a specific car in mind. If you want a BMW 325d with Option X, Y and Z leasing is not for you. If you want 'some sort of premium saloon' and you don't care what, leasing might work.
b) Not order any factory options. Options are almost always charged at full price divided by the term, its a ripoff.
c) Be aware that most of these deals are for low mileages and ensure you either do low mileage or have factored the excess mileage cost into the deal
d) Make sure you amortise the deposit over the term to give you an effective monthly cost! It's no good saying WOW ONLY 90 QUID A MONTH if the deposit is £3k!
Yup, very good points. When the time comes to sell my VRS, I'll be looking at what I can get for it and working how much I've paid on Tax, insurance etc, and then working out what costs more monthly on average over a 3 year term. The MKIII VRS PCH deal from Skoda looks good, but like you say, the deposit is £2k, so with the deposit, monthly fee, insurance etc, I'd be looking at £10k after 3 years. What I want to do is work out what I think I could get back by selling my car after three years (estimate I'd get about £3.5k-4k for it) and what I've spent on insurance etc and compare the two.
Granted you can hardly compare like for like a brand new lease car against a 5 year old (when I bought it) used car with 60k, but no matter what car you buy (unless you look for something that you can guarantee to hold value like a collectable) it is going to cost you money, whether it be depreciation or 'rent'.
SO far, unless I'm doing it very wrong, the leasing option is quite a bit more than simply buying an older car used, but then that makes sense really. It's a choice of spending less and paying to fix issues as they arise, or lease a brand new car and get them sorted under warranty, but risk getting robbed if they deem damage to the car (scuffs etc) to be user fault.