I've had two cars (2 year leases) through a Zenith scheme with my employer and am about to order a 3rd.
I compared PCP schemes for similar cars and I found Zenith cheaper considering it included:
- Insurance - Big factor for me with a few accidents in my history and living in a high risk B1 post code. I also added family members/friends at no extra cost.
- Tyres
- Tax
- Servicing
- No deposit necessary
- European insurance and breakdown (I took one car on a massive road trip to Italy and the other to Spain).
You're also paying for the service, which I found faultless. Cars delivered and collected to any location, servicing organised at short notice, tax discs just arrive in the post and they managed an insurance claim very efficiently. The second time I also forgot to request my european documents and they sent my insurance docs to me by email within 20mins the day before my holiday at no charge! I'm not sure how much of this is Zenith or my employer but I honestly can't fault it.
I've been given the option to purchase both cars at the end of the lease, but they were at market value, better off looking elsewhere.
Just mock up a spreadsheet with your choice of car with estimates of the above running costs. If you want a no hassle new car, I think it's a good option. If you'll consider used that will more than likely be significantly cheaper.
Other things I noted in the scheme:
I don't know if I've just been lucky, but I've returned both cars with what I would consider unreasonable scratches/dents on them which I couldn't be bothered to get fixed. I never got charged anything even though they were noted by the driver collecting the vehicle.
Exit costs are crazy high if you decide you don't want the car anymore, but you can transfer them between people at work for a very small fee.
If you don't get a car allowance and claim mileage at the HMRC rate of 45p a mile most of that will be taxed as a benefit in kind (the difference between the fuel amount of 18p per mile and the maintenance up to 45p - those figures might be slightly out of date now though!). This doesn't apply if you have a car allowance rather than claiming mileage.
I pay it just for the no hassle motoring - I know whatever happens I've got a car sat outside for work and if anything goes wrong someone will collect it from my door with a courtesy car. I don't need to sort insurance annually, send off any forms, just a fixed monthly amount and forget about it. (This mean't I could put all my concentration on my MX5 track day car...
).
My bad, didn't customise them. About £15-20 a month more expensive for a 2 year lease.