For me - £1000 bike.
£71x12 monthly payments.
£70 (for 3years) or £250 (total ownership I think it was.
So:-
£71x12 = £852
+ £70
= Total of £922.
Used to be a good deal... like everything since the increase in popularity of cycling the amount saved has gone down....
I'd have to see the maths on that to figure out what's going on.
It's nothing to do with the popularity of cycling - the deal has not changed.
The only change has been to do with residual values, insofar as they can't give you the bike saying it has zero value, which is fair enough, because it doesn't. That change is a few years old, though. Even accounting for that, it is still always a better deal. I defy anyone to show me how it can't be.
As already said (at least kind of), the only time it would be a better deal to get something else would be if there was a sale on somewhere and they either weren't part of the scheme or (which is more often the case) they won't let you get sale items on the scheme.
OK, but outside of the bike being available on the scheme at place X, versus available at a massive reduction at place Y, it will always be a better deal. Even then, that's assuming zero cost of finance and zero benefit from spreading the cost.
That isn't what Mr Jones has posted. He's posted a saving of 150 on just over 1000,
Depending on your tax bracket you will be
£1000 £1000
-20% tax -40% tax
-12% NI -2% NI
£680 £580