ok so here goes on my steep learning curve on leasing 

 

luckily i worked for vauxhall in previous job and bought my wife a brand new corsa with every option on it retail was circa £19k (i know for a corsa wow) anyway with discounts and partners deposit paid etc car cost about £11k to me 

 

car was 5 years old nearly and we went to trade for the citigo on lease (my first lease car) and the sales exec was offering £6k trade in which i was happy with after 5 years.

stupidly we did 2 things 

1) put the max deposit in with a cheque back for the dfference i think the max you can put in is 33%

2)ordered every option on the citigo 

 

that was feb 2013 and we got a 62 plate elegance 75bhp 3 door fully loaded 

 

fast fwd to now and it has done 21k and i was offered 5200 with a balance out standing of 5500 so a shortfall of £300ish 

 

so we have just ordered a roomster on lease and this time i have put nothing in as deposit and as its a run out model no options can be added 

 

yes the monthly payments are a bit higher by putting nothing in but i still have the money at the end of the lease where as when leased the citigo i may aswell set fire to the £3k

 

future note to self is put as little upfront as you can aslong as the monthly payments dont exceed your budget 

That is the most important thing with a Pcp and second is to get a car with a few options as possible as these add zero value to the car.

That is the most important thing with a Pcp and second is to get a car with a few options as possible as these add zero value to the car.

 

But then you've got 3 or 4 years of driving a car with no options!!! I'd rather pay the extra.

 

In the savings of driving a citigo over my current car I think it will cost me £30 a month more than I spend currently. Yes over 3 years I will probably lose £6k in depreciation, but at £11k new, £11k is the maximum I can lose! If I had bought a £35k Audi S3 then in 5 years I would have lost over £15k. The % loss looks massive but remember they aren't that expensive to start with.

I can see no point in people worrying how much the Citigo is depreciating by.

 

The MGFV is a set figure.  If it's worth less than this, it's not your problem.

If it's worth a bit more, great.  But you shouldn't be relying on it being worth more than the MGFV in order to get the depoist for your next car.

When you hand over the deposit for a PCP it's gone.  Sucked away instantly in depreciation.

Anything you get back over the MGFV is a bonus after the term is up.

 

Jumping ship to another new car makes no sense to me at all if you are worried about how much the Citigo has depreicated by.

You are buying another new car that will then depreciate by thousands as soon as you drive it out of the showroom.

So you've watched one car plummet in value, got an unpleasent surpise and decided to repeat the experience again in a short period of time...

 

Waiting until the PCP is up and seeing if your are in negative equity (which isn't your problem) is far superior to buying another car that'll lose £3,000 as soon as you drive it.

Even the lack of an expected deposit back or going over on your milage (which aren't sensible, but understandable) aren't going to be as bad as the second new car depreciation loss.

But then you've got 3 or 4 years of driving a car with no options!!! I'd rather pay the extra.

 

 

Sometimes it can make sense to go up to the next trim level and get the extra kit as standard. The starting price might be a bit more but the residuals will also be higher, keeping the monthly cost the same.

Whilst the options don't change the MGFV, they may change the actual value. 

 

On 0% apr your deposit just lowers the monthly payments, you don't loose any money, the car price-(deposit+total monthly payments)=MGFV.  If the apr was 5% then the more deposit you put don't the less interest so the less you pay overall, so it makes sense to pay the max deposit you can.

I had a theory and its just that

You would sit in negative equity all the way through and when the lease was up and wanted another skoda you would suddenly have a small deposit for the next car if you walking away and going elsewhere then it would be 0

That is just my opinion

We had to change the citigo early as much it was a cheap car to run we have a little bundle of horror(joy If the wife is reading this)

And although it was able to carry everything we needed just upgrading to the roomster thats on special offer was a nobrainer at the moment

its £40 a month dearer and I will have to stump up road tax but for some reason the insurance is cheaper

its £40 a month dearer and I will have to stump up road tax but for some reason the insurance is cheaper

 

Citigos are driven by less experienced drivers and crashed quite a bit on average.  Good choice of a first car.

I see quite a few with front end smashes in the salvage auctions.  Usually with less than 2,000 miles on the clock...

ah i see the opposite is true of my roomster then time to buy a pipe and slippers and a bag of wethers originals 

Citigos are driven by less experienced drivers and crashed quite a bit on average.  Good choice of a first car.

I see quite a few with front end smashes in the salvage auctions.  Usually with less than 2,000 miles on the clock...

 

Bet there's quite a few people wishing they'd ticked the "Citysafe braking" box in the options list...