Do you own or lease your cars?

[Turkeycondundrum]

We currently own two cars. Both bought second hand with cash when we had some spare. They are not fancy cars, one is 4 years old, one is just over 10. We want to replace the older car, it's got high running and maintenance costs and we need something bigger as we now have two growing kids. So, we want to trade it in and get an estate. This time round, we have no spare cash and don't want to deplete our savings.

My DH is desperate for a 'nice' car and has worked out that we can afford to lease a fairly decent car. So we pay a monthly fee and then after 3 years, we just hand the car back and get another one.

I think we would be better off buying a decent second hand car on finance. But the monthly repayments are higher and the car isn't so nice. But at the end of it, we at least have an asset to our name.

DH is convinced lots of people lease their cars - and why their cars are much fancier than ours. I'm not sure he's right!

So anyway, long story short, do you own your car/s or lease?

[greendale17]

Own. Don’t like leasing and it worked out worse for me

[Boxlikeahare]

Lease here for the first time ever. I pay £310 a month for 45 months for the same car I used to own.

Car I owned was bought for £22,500 when 12 months old and kept for six years when it was worth £3,500. Because I kept it so long I had to replace things like the cam belt (£850). The depreciation alone cost £264 per month over the longer ownership period. If you add in £50 a month for servicing over the life of the car then the lease car costs more or less the same.

I do have to pay for servicing but it doesn’t cost as much on the newer car and I won’t get to the stage where I replace the cam belt/expensive items in 45 months.

I am lazy when it comes to cars, end up keeping them longer than I intend to because it isn’t that important to me so see the fact that I have to change a car after a set time as a positive.

[evaperonspoodle]

We buy bangers and just replace when it breaks or needs a big repair. Currently have a 15 year old one that was £800 2 years ago. A car is never an investment so I don't see the point of spending big money just to have a nice one. I would rather put the money towards travelling.

[lastqueenofscotland]

Company car here so it is leased but not by me

[SiblingDifference]

Own- but we’re into older good cars. Mine is a 15 yr old BMW estate and it’s a wonderful cheap donkey of a car. No issues.

The last got to 22, no issues, before I got rid.

[LoopyLu2019]

Lease 2 cars.

DP is a car enthusiast so we're willing to spend a little more than most. But the key thing is we always look for a good deal and check the t&cs.
So we've got a BMW 1 series at £320pcm for 8 months no initial payment and includes all costs, we just fuel it. Milage is very strict on this scheme as its £150 penalty + 15p per mile. It's a work scheme so not open market opportunity. We can return if our circumstances change.
We've just taken advantage of Santander's car leasing and will be replacing our golf with a Volvo V90cc - so a land barge of a car. 18 months at £272pcm no initial payment. That was their January best deal. Its 8000 miles pcm but it's only 13p per mile over and that is cheaper than paying a higher pcm for more miles. We'll have the car for 18 months so always in warranty. Just have to insure and fuel. Being a Volvo it has a reasonable insurance premium.
I won't own a car again. I used to have a Vauxhall Astra 4 years old when I bought it, base spec. Bought it for £4500. 3 years later I sold it for £1800. I'd paid out ~£800-1000 in repairs/maintenance and ~£400 in tax. It was a shockingly awful car but got me through uni. In total I spent ~£4100 on the car without including insurance as I'd pay this on Lease too. For £4100 I had a base spec car with 6 previous owners, it had poor fuel economy and wasn't the most reliable, safe or comfortable.
For a bit more I get a well spec'ed, safer, brand new, premium brand car and I get to change it regularly which is fun. I don't have to worry about unexpected costs because it's all in the monthly fee and all in warranty. The Volvo is my big comfy cruiser for business miles - much better than the Astra!
I also think there's no point investing in a car to run into the ground any more because it won't be long before fuel becomes very expensive and electric cars take over withgood range. It might not be long (5-10 years) before most people don't own a car.

I wouldn't get a lease if you're scraping the barrel. We are comfortable. Cars are 17% of our take home pay per month and we still save 15-20% of our take home.

[havingtochangeusernameagain]

We have two cars we own outright. Neither are very special, one is a 5 year old Ford Focus and the other an 11 year old Auris. But they both work, get us from A to B and we have no ongoing costs other than petrol/tax/MOT etc.

Can you get any finance deals for second hand cars? What you want is something about a year old which has already lost some of its value. We got our Ford when it was a year old, the Auris was 3 years old.

[Snog]

Own because it's far cheaper than leasing.
If you want a fancy car it's an expensive luxury! I have other priorities to spend my cash on.

[legolimb]

Timely thread.

We have always owned our cars. Usually buy a virtually new, just enough miles on the clock to save a bit on the depreciation from brand new.

However we want to free up some cash so DH is considering seling his (only 13 months old bmw 5 series) and going for a lease.

Will find out all the figures obviously first

Some good tips on here though.

[scaryteacher]

We own, but we buy Saabs from an independent we trust, and who does all the servicing. We both have Saab estates at the moment; Dh's was just under £2k, and mine was £3.5 k. Dh has put over a 100,000 miles on his since 2013 when he bought it.

I know they don't make Saabs any more, but there isn't an issue with getting parts, and they are roomy, reliable, and go on for ever. The battery died in mine recently, and it was the original. My car is about 10 years old.

The estates are roomy; enough that we could get all ds's stuff for uni in one car if dh did the packing.

[Lauren83]

We got a 2 year old KIA Sportage on PCP and happy with it, pay £160 a month. I had a small car I owned but got DS2 on the way so needing something bigger to fit a double buggy in and didn't have the spare cash so traded the old one in and put the cash down as a deposit

[Aenn]

Currently me and dh each own a car. The cars aren’t fancy. One is 7 yrs old and one is 8yrs old.

These are the last cars we will own. Next car we’re trying a lease. Getting a car we couldn’t afford new and it will have a warranty/get fixed by lease co. We’ve had ridiculous bills on our owned cars, I no longer think it’s the right thing, to own them.

[Villanellesproudmum]

I lease mine, however work pay me a car allowance because I have to have a ‘professional’ car. I don’t use all my allowance, prior to that used to buy older second hand. However always worried around MOT time and ended up having to pay the odd repair which cost more than the car was worth.

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

We lease our main car ( we are on our third lease now ) and own our second car.

We need a very big main car as we camp so we were looking at an estate car. We can't afford to buy brand new and found that most of the second hand ones were diesel. With the changes in rules about emissions we were worried about getting stuck with a diesel car that didn't meet the new standards.

Instead we leased a brand new one which we will hand back after four years.

We have handed back two lease cars that have been used to ferry young kids all over the place and have never been charged for any damage. Normal wear and tear is fine and I bought seat covers and protectors to stop the kids feet damaging the back of the front seats.

[oreoxoreo]

I owned my 9 year old car until I sold it. That was a good car, 3k in value and low to maintain, basically recouped most of the value after keeping it for 2.5 years (Honda).

I replaced it with 3 year old second hand car with some bank loan. It cost me 9k altogether. I expect low maintenance (another Honda), but I am aware it will depreciate in the few years I will want to sell.

I was always against lease/PCP/HP but it is looking like lease actually could make sense.

[GaraMedouar]

Thanks GiantKitten - I didn't think leasing was great for high mileage. I'll have a look at that kia link.

[Thecrown3]

I meant to add , over 4 years my lease car will cost me around 8.5k , that was for brand new car, only needing mot in 4th year.i weighed up what I could afford for same on 2nd hand market and couldn’t get the spec or room/design for what I needed for same price.

[CloudPop]

We lease. It's a short term way of getting a better car in a more affordable way. Cars depreciate so heavily they aren't a great asset anyway after a few years

[Doodlebug5]

Lease via Pcp on both our cars.

If my income dropped I'd hand the car back. I'd be more fucked if that happened than worrying about a car payment.
I drive a lot of miles and don't want to be lumbered with fixing a car. I want a reliable car that if something does go wrong I can hand my car keys to the garage leave in a courtesy car and then pick up again without paying a penny. My previous car also a lease went wrong. The total cost was £3.5k and I didn't pay anything as it was in warranty. I don't have that kind of money saved unfortunately.

[MrsJBaptiste]

Lease car was £280pm

That’s a big additional direct debit we’d have to pay in additional to our monthly outgoings though.

I have a Hyundai i30 (absolutely love it) but the monthly payments on that would have a real impact on our outgoings/savings. Yes, I’d have a brand new car instead of the 3 year old one I do have but I’d much rather pay outright for a car than lease one and worry about the mileage, etc.

[pinkandstripey]

With a finance lease, the dealer sells the car to the finance company for say £30k. You pay the finance company £350/month for 3 years. After 3 years, a 3rd party inspection company inspects the car, and takes it to auction, where it will sell for around £12k.

You'd have to be mad to return the car with any damage - they will charge you a fortune!! Get any damage sorted before contract ends - including alloys.

We've leased through Nissan, seat and skoda directly, the only issue to date was nissan's finance company RCI being an utter shower of shit. Would never recommend leasing through Nissan for that reason.

[OlderThanAverageforMN]

Own. We have always bought ours either outright or on HP on low finance deals. We never buy new, generally low mileage 1 or 2 years old. My 6 month old ex-demonstrator was basically new, came with everything, including the 5 year service pack, and I got a hefty discount as I bought on March 31st, end of their financial year, the also p/xed my old Golf. DH has had Jaguars and BMW's but would never lease as he doesn't want to be limited in his choice of next purchase, and the value of the asset is always worth more than the lease cost would be.

I think lease is OK if you have no deposit, but if you have some spare capital or a decent p/x cash or H/P is always better.

As always Martin Lewis has the lowdown: www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-finance/car-leasing/

[WhatHaveIFound]

We own both of ours at the moment as we bought the last one off the lease company when the 3 years were up. Just been offered more than we paid for it last year on a trade in against a new car which i'm really pleased about.

[eggsandwich]

We have leased both our cars for a number of years and wouldn’t go back to buying one again, we lease for two years and then get a new car what ever make and model we like within our budget.

[moonfacebaby]

I’m on my third lease.

I don’t pay more than £180 a month - this gives me 8000 mpa, and I think if I go over that, it’s only 7p a mile.

I did pay about £1000 upfront and it’s a 3 year deal. It’s a good size Peugeot 2008, so a great size for a family.

They generally accept some marks on the seats and a few light scratches on the bodywork, but any alloy damage or bodywork and they will charge you. I think I got charged £60 for an alloy and a deep chip in the front bumper. I may consider pricing up repairing it myself in the future.

I can’t afford to buy a car outright, I refuse to get a loan on something that loses so much value and I had a terrible experience with a Honda, prior to leasing. It cost me a fortune and I bloody hate dealing with mechanics as I just don’t trust them!

I don’t bother with GAP insurance - I may after a year of leasing it, but i will look online, as some of the leasing companies seem to charge a fair bit for it.