Car lease catches....am I missing something

[Poppyliveshere]

Looking for Skoda Kodiaq, have always bought used 2-3 years old either outright or HP. This time was looking at PCP with 1/3rd deposit, 3 year term with plan to change after 3 years, but friend mentioned car lease. Seems lower deposit and sameish monthly payments. Am I missing a catch here? Hidden costs? Advice welcomed

I went for a lease in the end, I was convinced there must be a catch I had missed but there doesn't seem to be. Low monthly payments, no deposit, they pay the road tax.

You do get charged for any damage to the car when you return it though so you want to be very confident you won't scratch it. You also pay for any mileage that you go over the agreed limit

Me and DH both lease cars. It works out slightly more expensive than buying a new car on finance, and of course after 3 years you have to give it back, but if youre buying a brand new car anyway, the amount it depreciates after 3 years would be similar to what you’d pay out if leasing.

The catch is that you don’t ever own the car so you pay for it and then hand it back. You need to be a bit careful that you guesstimate the correct annual mileage too. I leased my last car but really begrudged paying out every month and having nothing to show for it at the end of the term so saved my money and bought an older car outright instead once the lease was up.

I lease but haven’t worked out all the costings. It seems a reasonable price, but I do it for convenience and ease of everything. No unexpected bills, just pop in and get tyres done if I need them, servicing arranged with a courtesy car, they take old car and deliver new one. It’s brilliant.

Much more difficult to get out of a lease, often 90% of all outstanding payments to terminate early. With a PCP or similar it’s only going to cost whatever negative equity (if any) there is.