Cars - Buy/PCP/Lease?

[cheekydeeky]

Looking for someone who can explain the pros and cons of each in layman’s terms please.

We currently have a 4 year old corsa which we bought new on a 0% finance deal. Neither of us are particularly into cars, we only do approx 6k a year so current car has 24k on the clock. We share a car as OH has a van for work. I work at the other side of town (would take approx 45mins to walk) but have been working from home since March and unlikely to ever return to the office more than one or two days a week.

In essence we use the car for evenings and weekend trips.

While the Corsa does the job I’m quite frankly bored of it and don’t find it a particularly smooth ride. I love golfs but they are expensive (or am I just tight)?

I’m stuck as to what’s the most sensible option. A new car every three years is appealing as I do tend to get fed up after that but is that just throwing money away? Is servicing etc included in PCP and lease options?

Should we keep the current car and just run it to the ground?

I’d be interested to hear opinions

[Bozza]

There’s a big recent thread here which may be worth a scan:

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...hlight=Leasing

[Bootrip2]

My last car i bought new and ran into the ground. It took me 6 years to pay it off, 3years0%, 3 yesrs 6%, £80 a month. It ran for15 years and usually cost about £200 a year in repairs ( very rough cost) for the 12 years after free servicing. It died last year and i got another new one and plan to do the same.

[Tsoski]

I just went from a Corsa to an Insignia as we were needing something bigger. I am already much more impressed with it than the Corsa and it’s only costing me £80 a months more than the Corsa and to be honest like you it’s just for evening and weekends.

[YorkshireT]

Lease would be ideal for you with that mileage. Corsas etc can be leased for peanuts. Go look on Nationwide Vehicle Contracts who are usually amongst the cheapest- I’ve had 5 cars through them no issues.
Many leases are under the depreciation level- if that’s the case it makes no sense to buy. Some people though seem to think they have to “own” a car even if it’s more expensive- illogical but my dad is like this.
If it depreciates lease it if it appreciates buy it is usually still good advice.
I’m on a PCP with my latest car though intending to hand back at the end of term so effectively just a lease- unusually in this case a PCP was cheaper but that’s quite rare in my experience.

[kiwiinabd]

Running your Corsa into the ground is going to be the cheapest option for the next few years until repairs become more costly.

Changing every 3 years is going to be the most expensive option as you are taking the biggest depreciation hit !

Buying a more expensive car that you are happy with then keeping it for longer (8 to 10 years) is probably your best option.

We have always purchased new cars through a broker such as drivethedeal.com and look to get a decent discount

[catherinesian]

I have always kept cars for many years, not so much driven them into the ground but kept for a decent amount of time. I also always buy second hand (although tend to buy with under 30k on the clock).

I find the loss on depreciation + the running cost is always FAR cheaper than any sort of lease deals, but then I never buy new cars so they will have already depreciated quite a bit by the time I buy them.

Eg, my new car is a 2016 model with 22k on the clock, we saw the original paperwork and it had depreciated £21k since new and goodness knows how much less the previous owner part exchanged it at too!

I am not fussed about a new car every 3 years but I do always buy top spec at the time so it takes longer to become obsolete. Eg the car I currently have has more gizmo's than my colleagues brand new car (which she was not best pleased about...!).

[OLS]

I lease my cars (have used Nationwide Vehicle Contracts like Yorkshire T and also National Vehicle Solutions is who I am with now & last time). It's personal preference really and I think it comes down to if you like new cars or not.

Some people are happy to buy second hand (even like 6-12 months) with a personal loan to discount the depreciation, however I have been stung with big bills on older cars in the past so now both myself and DH lease as we like new cars under warranty that go back once the warranty expires. The reason we go lease is because we can get better spec'd cars at a better price - I like sporty cars so wanted the Skoda Octavia VRS which is £28k plus on the road new price, going with Skoda PCP they wants a hefty initial payment (think it was £4/£5k) and then the monthly payment was nearly £400 per month, on lease it was £860 down plus an admin fee (think it was just under £200) and then £240 per month! I have had the VRS now the last 6 years as usually selected 2 year lease but due to covid I extended this one an extra year - it's due back in March and I will be getting a new one (hopefully, they have not released the new VRS yet!)

The main thing to be wary of when leasing is the return charges for damage (same with PCP) so you need to pick your brand carefully - Merc's are apparently one of the more expensive ones, but VW finance (i.e Skoda, VW, Seat) are very reasonable, I didn't have any charges on my first return, my second one was £400 but then I argued and they halved it, not sure on this one yet, shouldn't be anything really!

If you like Golfs take a look at the Seat Leon as a cheaper alternative, same engine - also if you select the 5k per year millage you should get a very decent deal on a Leon (or golf to be fair!)

[mitch84]

I’m with catherinesian, I tend to buy cars that are 3 years old with low mileage, and run them until I need a new one.
Keeping the corsa would obviously be the cheapest bet, but you could sell and upgrade to a slightly better private car. Can highly recommend the Leon too

[barryp1]

Originally Posted by OLS

I lease my cars (have used Nationwide Vehicle Contracts like Yorkshire T and also National Vehicle Solutions is who I am with now & last time). It's personal preference really and I think it comes down to if you like new cars or not.

Some people are happy to buy second hand (even like 6-12 months) with a personal loan to discount the depreciation, however I have been stung with big bills on older cars in the past so now both myself and DH lease as we like new cars under warranty that go back once the warranty expires. The reason we go lease is because we can get better spec'd cars at a better price - I like sporty cars so wanted the Skoda Octavia VRS which is £28k plus on the road new price, going with Skoda PCP they wants a hefty initial payment (think it was £4/£5k) and then the monthly payment was nearly £400 per month, on lease it was £860 down plus an admin fee (think it was just under £200) and then £240 per month! I have had the VRS now the last 6 years as usually selected 2 year lease but due to covid I extended this one an extra year - it's due back in March and I will be getting a new one (hopefully, they have not released the new VRS yet!)

The main thing to be wary of when leasing is the return charges for damage (same with PCP) so you need to pick your brand carefully - Merc's are apparently one of the more expensive ones, but VW finance (i.e Skoda, VW, Seat) are very reasonable, I didn't have any charges on my first return, my second one was £400 but then I argued and they halved it, not sure on this one yet, shouldn't be anything really!

If you like Golfs take a look at the Seat Leon as a cheaper alternative, same engine - also if you select the 5k per year millage you should get a very decent deal on a Leon (or golf to be fair!)

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I'd change lease company if I was you. £6,800 for 2 years is excessive