Car leasing

There is a huge difference in price between a brand new car and one that is pre registered by the garage. They have not been privately owned and often have minimal mileage.

I think the garages keep their sales figures up by doing this. Personally I prefer to know that a car is mine and I'm not under an obligation. I think the cars have to be pretty immaculate when you hand them back.

Whatever you decide, I'd read the small print with a magnifying glass!

X

We leased a car for a number of years until it sunk in that after a certain number of leases we could have bought a new car anyway.

The trouble with this scheme is its never yours. The deposit is effectively lost money as at the end of the lease you have neither car nor deposit so you have to fork out all over again.

I worked in a large group of several car brands in the 90's and the best advice i ever got was from the dealer principle . He said buy a second hand car of 6 months to a year and you'll get the best price.

A new car loses value as soon as you drive off the forecourt and by the end of the first year will have lost around 40% of its value. This varies a lot though and the best may lose as little as 10%.

Depreciation slows as the car gets older so you may find that a nearly new car (one to two years old) is better value than a brand–new one.

If your annual mileage is low then a high mileage ex-fleet car could be a good buy. You get the benefit of higher depreciation when you buy but the total mileage might be closer to average for its age by the time you come to sell.

Best solution is a secondhand car from a reputable dealer. Modern cars are generally so reliable these days that the old days of secondhand cars being dodgy and unreliable are long gone.

I bought my current car in 2007. It was 4 years old. It has never broken down in all the years I have had it and it has now done nearly 130,000 miles.

Thanks for your responses. I've discovered in the meantime that two of my friends lease cars for personal use and one of them has plenty of money, and I do mean plenty, so I'm a bit puzzled why she is leasing.

Nanaandgrampy you have raised a point which puzzled me too, that of the deposit. You return the car and where does the next deposit come from? You have to put down another sum presumably.

I also agree it would feel strange not owning the car and being responsible for it. If it's mine and I do something daft, I only have to answer to myself! I would be in a constant state of anxiety, so ownership is important to me. I drive all over the UK for work and my mileage is quite high, sometimes 2,000 + per month.

I bought my current car through Ford Direct, it was just a few months old with low mileage, and I think I will go and enquire about another one.

Thanks again everyone, the discussion has helped to clear my thoughts. xx

Do not forget that the road tax for most of today's cars is very cheap if not free. I paid £20 when I bought my present second hand car one year ago.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean Charleygirl. I pay around £160 a year road tax on my Polo...

We don't have a car now but the last two were "demo" models with very few miles on the clock. Both were very good value cars. The two before we bought from a neighbour who had bought his company car and immediately sold on to us, again good value and good cars.

Just read Ana's post our last car was £30 a year.

Yes Ginny42 each new car means a whole new deposit .

Glad the info helped .

I see from the Car Tax website that the rate is based on the Vehicle CO2 emissions - obviously my elderly Polo isn't green enough to qualify for such low rates!

Ana my "new" car is 3 years old. My previous Micra was elderly, around 13 years old so I also paid a fair bit on road tax, I cannot remember the amount.

I think leasing a car is not a bad option. Some leases include road tax, servicing and breakdown cover. It might not be yours but neither are any of the problems.

A big consideration is that I'll have to use savings to buy it and when there's only one person's money to buy, tax and run a car it seems like a huge outlay.

I think I'm going to have to buy though. I'd be nervous driving 'someone else's' car all the time. Some car park spaces are very narrow and when people open doors onto other cars it's annoying, but if it's not my car I'd be inspecting the car constantly to see if it had been scratched or scraped.

I'm coming down in favour of buying. There may be some offers on.

I would buy if I were you. DBH's parents persuaded us into leasing years ago, which was fine until he lost his job and his car had to go, as we didn't know how long it would be before he got another one. We hadn't even noticed that someone has caused the merest hint of a dent to the rear back right... They went around that car practically with a microscope before they would take it back, and although we had thought it was near-perfect for a three year old car, they obviously wanted it back brand spanking new. It cost us hundreds, as they made us valet it too. I thought what a con it was - and that was Vauxhall!

That sounds very unpleasant. Your experience bears out J52's advice about them wanting it returned in pristine condition. I've got marks on my car that I didn't do. I was actually sitting in the car one day when another car parked alongside and the passenger got out and opened the door so violently my car shook. Another time it was hit by a frisbie which left a dent. I'm going to dip into my savings in the Spring.

I did take it for a free winter check at Halford's yesterday. Worth a trip to town btw if you haven't already done it.