Car leasing?

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Hi I sold my car just before I found out I was pregnant with DC2, with hindsight, this was a bit silly but I really wasn't using it. Im due next month.

We have a good sized family car which primarily DH needs for work.

I could really do with a car for the year for mat leave but don't really need it when I go back to work as public transport links to/from work are great. I would consider 2 year lease if that offers better monthly costs etc

Can anyone advise on car leasing in general, it's not something I've ever done before and more specifically where to start looking?

Is it a good idea or hideously expensive?

Thanks

It will be more expensive, I have no doubt about that - the lease company is an extra mouth to feed. I've not seen leaser for shorter than 2 years, but I'm sure they're out there. In any case, the shorter the lease, the more expensive the monthly payments (depreciation is much greater at the beginning of a car's life).

I would recommend buying a cheap secondhand runabout - with a bit of care and searching you could buy one for less than the lease will cost you. The cheapest lease I've heard of is just under £100 per month over 3 years, with deposit you're looking at about £4000. Even if you could get something that cheap over 2 years you're still looking at about £3000.

Pick up an old car for under a grand, when you no longer need it it doesn't even matter if you can't sell it - weigh it in for £100 or more. Saving - over £2000.

Leasing is effectively like taking out a loan - if you have savings, use that first - debts will always cost more than you make in interest on savings (except maybe a mortgage).

Agree, leasing is for people who want new cars, or would use finance to buy nearly new second hand ones. Get a cheap second hand car and sell it when you don't need it any more

I looked at leasing rather than buying my new car. My old car has suddenly developed very serious faults ( fortunately has turned out not to be as expensive as I'd feared, but I still want to change her) and I wasn't expecting to have to buy a new car for another couple of years. Ling's website had some very good deals on 2 & 3 year leases and I thought it might be fun to get a more sporty/exotic/fun car than I usually have as it would be just for 2 years. When you add the 3 months deposit to the monthly payments it all begins to look like a big price to pay for the convenience of no car worries for 2 years. You also have the problem of disposing of your old car, and my conscience would not let me sell outside the trade as I'm not confident the faults will not come back.

In the end I drove the hardest deal I could on a good spec new Panda and took out a bank loan - it worked out quite a bit cheaper and I'll still have a new car for 2 years and hopefully it will be worth something when I come to sell on again. Although my faily are in the trade ( not new car dealers) I still find car buying a very stressful process.

Thanks for the advice having done a bit more research I think I'd concur with everything that's been said, it is actually an expensive option in the long run.

So I'm off to have a look at used cars to see if it's a viable option.