Car Leasing Blog

Car leasing has been prominent in the states for years, and is now becoming more and more popular in the uk. You can even lease a car personally, for private use in the uk.

 Haven’t heard about it yet?

There are several good reasons for that, prominently due to the power that car manufacturers and their respective dealerships have, but rest assured its a very real and efficient way of getting a brand new car.

Because this section of the blog is supposed to be the ‘idiots guide to car leasing’ I am going to run through the basic steps to obtaining a personal lease in the uk.

1. Try not to decide on an actual vehicle you require - you will get much more success obtaining a personal leasing special offer if you dont restrict yourself.

2. Set yourself a budget - And dont break it! no matter what the salesman says, stand by your guns.

3. Set yourself a timeframe - try to allow at least 6 - 12 weeks before you want your new car. With leasing, giving the company enough time to get the order and special offer in will only benefit you in the long run.

4. Stay away from the dealerships - they have much higher overheads than your average car leasing company, and you will pay for them.

5. Get a leasing broker - predominantly advertised on the internet, leasing brokers have low overheads and a high volume of vehicles so the prices are usually alot cheaper. Make sure you pick a reputable firm, even ask to see a copy of their Consumer Credit Licence if it makes you feel better.

6. Once you are happy with the leasing company and the quote, make your proposal. This will involve completing a personal proposal form. If the company are doing it right, they should ask you to prove your ID - Normally by faxing a copy of your driving licence and utility bill. This is a great way of preventing ID fraud.

7. When you get the finance descision, its time to order the vehicle. Dont be tempted to now start applying everywhere, this can seriously damage your credit file and wind you up with no offers of finance.

8. Once ordered, alot of leasing companies tend to loose interest, keep calling to get updates. They should be providing you a decent service, after all this is the second biggest purchase most families make.

9. When your new car is delivered, check it over thoroughly. Once you have signed for it, there is no come back. So make sure you do it yourself, dont leave it to a neighbour or friend.

10. Enjoy your new car

If anyone has any questions relating to this post. Please Please dont hesitate to ask. I am more than happy to tap away at this laptop if it helps you to get through the process.

If you go for a PCP contract, there is a fantastic way to benefit financially at the end of the contract, I will go through it step by step:

With a PCP Lease, there is an optional final payment at the end of the term, which is fixed by the finance company.

One of the benefits of this is that you can hand the car back to the finance company, another is that you can buy the car, then sell it.

When they set the MGEV (Final payment), they usually use around 85% of the predicted future value of the car (to cover their back). This means that if you play your cards right, you could make this 15% yourself (or even put it toward a new vehicle)

I always try to ring PCP clients before the end of the term to make an assesment of the value of their vehicle vs the sale price of the vehicle. I have even known clients take their car to the local dealership and get £300 - £1000 more than the final payment figure on the contract.

Food for thought isnt it?

Over recent months, Audi have become more and more agressive with their leasing products, and yet this would seem a strange move, for a multitude of reasons.

Audi have almost always maintained supply, just less than demand. For example with an Audi TT, everyone has to go on the waiting list. To this effect, there is a certain amount of prestige available from waiting for a car.

Keeping the vehicles always in demand has one major influence on the leasing costs - While the vehicles are in demand, the residual value of said vehicle remains with strength.

Once a couple of years have passed, with the RV’s (residual values) holding strong, it is now time to start pushing the vehicles heavily into the leasing market (because you only pay for the difference between invoice cost and residual value).

The added bonus to Audi has been that more and more, car manufacturers are moving toward supply on demand, and not stock piling. This brings everybody else inline with their delivery timescales, so if you want a BMW 1 series instead, you will still have to wait for it now.

The same applies to Golfs,Leons and alike.

Provided car manufacturers continue to stretch delivery schedules for vehicles, removing the option for the customer to stroll into a dealership and pickup an alternative, Audi will continue to flourish in the personal and business leasing world. I have even seen prices for A3 Hatchbacks at less than £200 per month!!!

 At least this article give an insight as to why.