Anyone still buying rather than leasing their car?

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Just wondering, because there are so many new plate cars around and there seem to be relatively few 3-5 year old cars for sale. I have been looking for a 3-5 year old Mondeo or Mazda 6 and the choice is very sparse! Leasing is clearly here to stay and tempting, but part of me still thinks £6-7K over two years including up front admin fee renting a car you will never own is quite a lot!

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RSK21 said:

nickfrog said:

If people tried and stop making assumptions and look at it rationally with an open mind they will realise that not only lease can often be cheaper overall than cash for new volume cars but also that the delta with an older second hand car (say up to 6/7 years old) is also very small, when all parameters are taken into account.

I am however delighted if people carry on making assumptions or if a majority pay over the odds for their lease as it allows a minority to get great deals as it's a highly yield managed industry.

Btw, there are no mileage limitations on leases. The excess mileage is usually very low (7.2p for VW) which actually means that exceeding the mileage lowers the overall average cost per mile over the term.

No no no no no - you simply don't get it. This is PH where rationality and open mindedness are alien concepts

If you acquire your cars via lease, PCP, or HP you are living beyond your means and personally contributing to all that is wrong with society today.

If you buy your cars for cash you are mean, minted or stupid.

There is absolutely, positively, never any circumstance whereby one might exercise flecibility of thought and over time consider acquiring ones cars using more than one financing approach i.e. perhaps one for cash, and one using a financial product.

Have I summed it up correctly ?

I think you hit the nail on the head. I started this thread to ask an honest question, "who is still buying their cars", just out of interest and all I seem to have got is ultra defensive types defending their choice of purchase, the most vehement being those who are leasing!!! Well there's no need for you to justify your choice of leasing, I am more interested on hearing from anyone still buying their cars.

I don't have a problem with people leasing cars, I have been mightily tempted myself, but equally, I like the idea of getting value from a used car. My current car cost me £1600, I've done 33,000 miles in it in 3 years with zero breakdowns and just a few small repairs and its still probably worth £500, so £1100 in 3 years, plus tyres and about £500 of non servicing items like bushes and brake calipers= cheap motoring and that gives me a good feeling; but I do understand that buying any used car carries a risk and a new car lease removes all that potential stress....