A question for those of you who lease cars...

[ProseBeforeHoes]

Hi all,

Apologies if this had been clarified somewhere else already, but after extensive googling I'm no clearer about this!

I am looking to replace my 15 year-old banger of a Vauxhall sometime this year (inherited from my Nan as my first ever car... It was free, so can't complain!)

Myself and DP keep swinging back and forth about buying used or going with a lease. DP is giving up his motorbike this year too and will then inherit the banger for a short while until we can sort out a second car for him (that's a whole other quandary...)

BUT: I can't for love or money get a straight answer about the initial down payment on lease cars - I get that this is not refundable and is part of your contract, but can this then be reused and go towards your next lease when it's time to renew?

If so, great. Makes the leasing option more viable. If not, I seriously can't justify paying £1k + every three years or so on top of the monthly payments!

Any wise Mumsnetters know the answer?

I've done 2 leases and both times the initial down payment has not been reusable.

It is a lump payment which decreases your monthly payments for the duration of your lease.

In my case it was around £500 on each lease.

Hope that helps

Be really careful what your actually signing too. I know too many people that thought they were getting a lease car but what they essentially got was a loan of a loan company for cars so when they tried to give the car back due to financial difficulties they couldn’t unless the car went to auction in which there could be a big deficit.

Nightmare

You pay the 3 months deposit and admin fee
You don’t get that back
We have leased loads of cars over the years
It’s also much cheaper to find a car on line than in the main dealers generally
What we do is pick a few cars that we like then check them out in the dealers to see if they are what we like and also watch the reviews on you tube
If your not fussy about the colour then you can often get a good deal as the more popular colours will often be in stock so no waiting
Be realistic about mileage as if you go over the agreed mileage it can be very expensive
Also even on line the prices from various companies can vary but not as much as the dealers

You can usually use their calculator to increase/decrease the upfront payment, length of contract and yearly mileage to change the monthly price. I used zen auto through Parkers.co.uk and they did me a brilliant deal.

Thanks so much everyone for your responses! So helpful to know one these things.

I am leaning towards going second hand tbh, but haven't completely ruled leasing out just yet.

I'll check Zen Auto out @Quinceandmedlarsrule