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?

[Rade]

irunlikeahipoo
Despite the horrific website she has we have leased with lings cars for many years
I felt the need to google.
My eyes may never recover

[BagofTeeth]

Despite the horrific website she has we have leased with lings cars for many years

I felt the need to google.

My eyes may never recover

I just made the same mistake. I had to close it before it set off a migraine. Haven't seen a site like that since we played with web design at school back in the 90s.

[DobbyLovesSocks]

@MadameJosephine just be careful of leasing a car through NHs salary sacrifice scheme as this affects your pension. The money comes from your pre-taxed pay, pre-pensioned pay so your contributions are lower. Just something to be aware of. When our current loan is finished DH and I are looking and trading in one or both of our cars and will be looking at leasing/financing. If we do lease we will do it independently of work

[daffodilbaby]

Lease- we did a full spreadsheet and it works out less expensive than buying outright, or PCP/ HP. Monthly payment and just servicing and petrol costs on top. Weigh it up but make sure you factor in depreciation, MOT, maintenance, etc. we costed up buying a five year old golf, vs leasing the Volvo XC60 - it worked out less expensive to lease on a much better brand new car. I would say that's not always the case, if you want a great deal with leasing it depends a lot what deals are available. often it's the best option if you're not bothered about a specific model, but are happy to go with whichever is currently offering good deals - e.g. If you want an SUV flex with what's available, whether that's a Volvo, Audi, etc. Whatever's the best deal.

Potentially might work out less expensive to buy an old banger and run it into the ground - but a newer model with better safety features was important to us, so for us it was weighing up a car a few years old vs a new lease car. An older car wasn't in the equation.