Hello, just looking at various ways to 'own' a Superb and the way that seems to make most sense in my current situation is to lease for 2-3 years.

 

I understand that you'd have to tell your insurance company that its owned by a lease company etc but I've only just found out that you also don't benefit from European breakdown cover (as you would if you actually bought the car outright). I'm very surprised by this and wondered if anyone else knew if there were differences regarding going to PCH route compared to actually purchasing the vehicle? Thanks.

I had a dilemma of owning vs PCH before i ordered mine. It'll be my first ever lease.

I would add that i'd never buy a new car, so it would be vs a used one (say 2 years old).

 

Firstly, breakdown would never be an issue as I get European cover as part of my bank account so cant help you there.

Secondly, ive never liked PCP because i always felt the large deposit was just a huge loss - most of us after 2-3 years would want a new car if we could, plus a PCP can tie you down to a certain dealer/brand.

Thirdly, if you get the right deal PCH costs can be very reasonable. My SE Business deal works out at £5148 for the two years. I would hope the only costs ill have is a 1 yr service. If i bought a 2-3 year old car, firstly i'd have to shell out at least about £13k of capital. After 2 years its value would be in the region of £8-9k (albeit I accept you'd probably keep it longer). 

 

The big reason though was down down to simple running costs.  At beyond 2-3 years things start to need replacement- tyres, brakes MOT fixes etc all stack up. I spent £700 in one service on my 5 year old ford the other month (4 tyres, brakes, service and need the roll bar fixing). My old Kia needed £300 of work to get it through its MOT (I spent £700 earlier this year on  to fix a drive shaft). I've decided I just cant be bothered with these expenses anymore so hence leasing (as long as its a small payment upfront, monthly payment, hand it back). Plus you get the benefit of having the new car (with no dodgy history) with your own spec (albeit the only thing i chose was the colour!)

Edited 19 October, 201510 yr by peld

I had a dilemma of owning vs PCH before i ordered mine. It'll be my first ever lease.

I would add that i'd never buy a new car, so it would be vs a used one (say 2 years old).

 

Firstly, breakdown would never be an issue as I get European cover as part of my bank account so cant help you there.

Secondly, ive never liked PCP because i always felt the large deposit was just a huge loss - most of us after 2-3 years would want a new car if we could, plus a PCP can tie you down to a certain dealer/brand.

Thirdly, if you get the right deal PCH costs can be very reasonable. My SE Business deal works out at £5148 for the two years. I would hope the only costs ill have is a 1 yr service. If i bought a 2-3 year old car, firstly i'd have to shell out at least about £13k of capital. After 2 years its value would be in the region of £8-9k (albeit I accept you'd probably keep it longer). 

 

The big reason though was down down to simple running costs.  At beyond 2-3 years things start to need replacement- tyres, brakes MOT fixes etc all stack up. I spent £700 in one service on my 5 year old ford the other month (4 tyres, brakes, service and need the roll bar fixing). My old Kia needed £300 of work to get it through its MOT (I spent £700 earlier this year on  to fix a drive shaft). I've decided I just cant be bothered with these expenses anymore so hence leasing (as long as its a small payment upfront, monthly payment, hand it back). Plus you get the benefit of having the new car (with no dodgy history) with your own spec (albeit the only thing i chose was the colour!)

I'm totally with you Peld. A work colleague is suggesting its a waste of money as you pay it out and don't have anything to show for it after two years but my reply was that if I bought new, even with a sizable discount, id be loosing ££££'s more in terms of depreciation.  He couldn't really disagree at that point.

 

Can I ask who you sourced your lease through as the cheapest I do find for an SE Business is £5417 over two years, thanks.

mine was with freedom contracts, 2 yrs, 8k p.a, £198pm on 3+23. There was the £240 admin fee to add on too, i just noticed its now £205pm for the same deal.

 

I had real difficulty getting over the "you wont have anything to show for it" point especially as I was never comparing a brand new car vs a lease. But as I said the flip side for me is the  hassle free motoring. Even if it does work out a bit more expensive, its always painful spending a fortune to get a car through an MOT or on a service, especially for stuff that you dont really "see". 

I've spent about £1k on each of my 2 cars this year just keeping them on the road, im hoping the only time i ever take the Skoda to the garage will be for its service.

There'll be a great deal of variance in monthly costs between pch'ers making it difficult to compare unless you have same contract term, mileage, vehicle spec, colour, options, etc.

I'm paying more than both above posts if it makes you feel any better, but I'm still happy with monthly cost for what looks like a great value car :-)

yup, i doubt many will be paying less than me at the moment unless they put a bigger initial amount up front - i think they were the cheapest when the deal came out and i didnt spec anything extra at all.

That is cheap! I'm after Canton audio as the only option but that's not included in my above figure (think it brought it up to £170 x23 with the same £1990 up front)

Obviously there are other more well known issues:

- you have to return it in immaculate condition to avoid surcharges

- any parking tickets/speeding fines will carry additional admin fees

- extras are extremely expensive to add on a short term lease

Btw, I went for 2.0 TDI DSG metallic leather canton fully serviced on a 6+23 I think I'm paying £258 * 29

Edited 19 October, 201510 yr by thewinelake

My dealer said they can put the car on a long life service (2 years or 20k miles) which means it goes back before it requires a service. im just trying to work out if I change from 3 to 2 year lease and put the £300ish service cost towards a deposit on a new one.

My dealer said they can put the car on a long life service (2 years or 20k miles) which means it goes back before it requires a service. im just trying to work out if I change from 3 to 2 year lease and put the £300ish service cost towards a deposit on a new one.

I think you'd be 'Mad Jamie' to expect not to have to service the car within that time frame. Based on my own past experiences, making it a full 2 years without a service being demanded will be slim - unless it spends most of its time parked up at home. I got closest with my current car (Seat Leon 2.0tdi FR 184) but still fell 3 weeks short of maxing out the long life regime requirements despite doing 85% motorway/dual carriageway driving. As this is likely to happen again with the Superb I'll be handing back a very recently serviced car much to Skoda's benefit.

Maybe you (and others) will have more luck than me in this respect, but perhaps it would just be better to stick to plan A, account for one service cost over ownership and get 12-15 months of value from that expenditure..?

Obviously there are other more well known issues:

- you have to return it in immaculate condition to avoid surcharges

 

 

Is this any different to, for example, buying the car on a PCP and opting not to buy it at the end of the term? As I hear on countless radio adverts for new cars and PCP's, "You do not own the car until full payment is made" or words to that effect. So could you also be penalised for handing back a car that isn't "in immaculate condition" at the end of a PCP?

 

As someone on the Yeti forum was good enough to point out to me when I asked about this, for car leasing there are detailed industry-wide guidelines describing acceptable wear and tear and they do allow for some degradation. I don't get the feeling you have to keep the car in a bubble - just don't abuse it.

Edited 19 October, 201510 yr by Citigopher

Obviously there are other more well known issues:

- you have to return it in immaculate condition to avoid surcharges

- any parking tickets/speeding fines will carry additional admin fees

- extras are extremely expensive to add on a short term lease

All the lease companies I've spoken to support the bvrla guidance so wear and tear should be reasonable and inline with condition expectations of a two year old car. http://www.bvrla.co.uk/service/fair-wear-and-tear-guides. I've not yet had a ticket or fine so I don't feel that's a worry for me and I can understand the fact that you pay for the options fully during the course of the hire period as they don't add value to the vehicle once it goes up for sale. The best value lease has got to be an option free car lease imo.

Is this any different to, for example, buying the car on a PCP and opting not to buy it at the end of the term? As I hear on countless radio adverts for new cars and PCP's, "You do not own the car until full payment is made" or words to that effect. So could you also be penalised for handing back a car that isn't "in immaculate condition" at the end of a PCP?

 

As someone on the Yeti forum was good enough to point out to me when I asked about this, for car leasing there are detailed industry-wide guidelines describing acceptable wear and tear and they do allow for some degradation. I don't get the feeling you have to keep the car in a bubble - just don't abuse it.

 

Agreed - you should treat it like you own it, i.e. most people would keep a 2-3 year old car they owned it pretty good condition but it does not have to be as if it just came out of the showroom.

 

In terms of PCH cost/benefit, for us it was fairly straight forward;

• we knew we wanted a new car (mot and warranty hassles/benefits etc),
• the deposit plus monthly payments work out cheaper than the predicted fall in value (even after the best discount we could have had)
• a higher spec car (in our case the O3 scout) was cheaper monthly than a cheaper car (Fabia 3) - this is because the relative residual value is better in the O3
• we knew how many miles we'd do / its a second car so can moderate if necessary
• we didn't have a whole load of capital to put down
• we don't pay the road tax so any change at the budget (or due to 'the' scandal') is down to VW finance

I think the main thing to consider, is if you'd get a new car if PCH wasn't available - a lot of people have said that they could buy a car outright for our 3 year lease deal (8k-ish), but that would be a car at least a few years old and certainly not to the spec of an O3 scout.

I had a dilemma of owning vs PCH before i ordered mine. It'll be my first ever lease.

I would add that i'd never buy a new car, so it would be vs a used one (say 2 years old).

 

Firstly, breakdown would never be an issue as I get European cover as part of my bank account so cant help you there.

Secondly, ive never liked PCP because i always felt the large deposit was just a huge loss - most of us after 2-3 years would want a new car if we could, plus a PCP can tie you down to a certain dealer/brand.

Thirdly, if you get the right deal PCH costs can be very reasonable. My SE Business deal works out at £5148 for the two years. I would hope the only costs ill have is a 1 yr service. If i bought a 2-3 year old car, firstly i'd have to shell out at least about £13k of capital. After 2 years its value would be in the region of £8-9k (albeit I accept you'd probably keep it longer). 

 

The big reason though was down down to simple running costs.  At beyond 2-3 years things start to need replacement- tyres, brakes MOT fixes etc all stack up. I spent £700 in one service on my 5 year old ford the other month (4 tyres, brakes, service and need the roll bar fixing). My old Kia needed £300 of work to get it through its MOT (I spent £700 earlier this year on  to fix a drive shaft). I've decided I just cant be bothered with these expenses anymore so hence leasing (as long as its a small payment upfront, monthly payment, hand it back). Plus you get the benefit of having the new car (with no dodgy history) with your own spec (albeit the only thing i chose was the colour!)

Nonesense on being tied to a certain brand or dealer you can go to any brand and still use you GMFV.

I'm sold (so far!) on leasing. Of course the clever thing is that you're only paying VAT on the bit you use. That's why it's so much cheaper than PCP - I think!

BTW, adding fully serviced only added £10/month on a 2 year lease. I think it goes up a lot for a 3 year lease (which is itself revealing!)

Edited 19 October, 201510 yr by thewinelake

I'm sold (so far!) on leasing. Of course the clever thing is that you're only paying VAT on the bit you use. That's why it's so much cheaper than PCP - I think!

BTW, adding fully serviced only added £10/month on a 2 year lease. I think it goes up a lot for a 3 year lease (which is itself revealing!)

I too took advantage of a 2 year maintenance & tyre package at £10/month.

After 14 months I've had 1 tyre replaced, 1 tyre repaired & an oil service, so approx £300 so far.

I reckon 2 more tyres will need changing soon & possibly another service before it goes back.

Total expenditure will be ~ £700. Not bad for £240 outlay

"You do not own the car until full payment is made" or words to that effect. So could you also be penalised for handing back a car that isn't "in immaculate condition" at the end of a PCP?

As part of your agreement you will be given return standards. For my merc it includes things like minimum tread depth and quality of tyres fitted at time of release, detailed guidance on scratches, dents, internal condition of car etc. It is therefore easy to know whether to expect any final additnional charges.

By and large these conditions are reasonable for the age and mileage of the vehicle. The charges can be high though, so always best to check it out before hand and if required get things fixed up before you hand it back. e.g. tyres from your local trye fitter will cost you a lot less than merc or whoever back charging you to fit them.

 

hth

 

Pete

Where did you learn that breakdown cover doesn't apply to PCH cars?

Minimum tread depth? I wonder if it might be that the tread is sufficiently worn to merit a surcharge without being worn enough for tyre maintenance to cover it?

Minimum tread depth? I wonder if it might be that the tread is sufficiently worn to merit a surcharge without being worn enough for tyre maintenance to cover it?

Tyres are charged at 2mm on my contract, anything over is acceptable for return without surcharge.

TBH it doesn't matter to me anyway, because if they need changing it's at the lease companies expense anyway

I wonder at which point one can have new tyres as part of the tyre bit of the maintenance contract? I would hope well before 2mm!