Anyone made a profit on the GFV of lease car?

[philcray]

I have always bought cars for cash so have no direct experience of this. However I was thinking today if your lease is coming to an end and the GFV was set 3 years ago, with the Covid boom in 2nd hand car prices you could be quids in?

eg a new Boxster with decent spec would have been about £50k 3 years ago. £5k down and £25k GFV would seem about right, 3 years later you owe £25k but WBAC price for car is over £40k. Sell, pay off finance and you have had 3 years in a new Porsche for less than £10k as opposed to c£25k (plus interest costs)

Anybody struck luck with this particular Covid quirk, or am I missing something?

[12TS]

Yes. I won on my 135, can’t remember the exact figure but it was some of the order of £3k.

Although thinking about it winning is handing it back when it’s worth less than the GMFV

[Mandat]

Are you confusing lease with PCP finance?

Lease cars don't have a GFV.

If you do mean PCP, then the value of a car and the end of the PCP term can be higher than the GFV, and in that situation you can choose to sell it or part-ex against something else, if the figures stack up.

[Nyloc20]

We’ll have to pay just under £11k to keep our 2018 Focus ST3 diesel next month when the pcp ends.
Looking at forecourt prices for similar cars and allowing for the dealer mark up It looks like we’ll be a few grand in front.
Doesn’t really matter as it’s going to be a keeper.

[The_Doc]

My UP! Gti has a £5k ish balloon after 36 months.

Same year, same miles, same specs ones are selling on Autotrader for £11-12k. (and I'm keeping it.)

The actual residual of my car at 36 months is about 85%.
Can anyone beat that?

[Muzzer79]

I bought a new Golf on pcp in 2007

PCP ended in 2010 and I was up on the GFV, so I bought it and ran it until 2012.

[WelshPetrolhead]

i30N

26k in 2018. GFV 12.8k due 1st September

Agreed a trade this week with it valued at 20k.

Edited by WelshPetrolhead on Wednesday 28th July 22:02

[jonwm]

I was offered my leased cupra 290 in December 2018 for 16k, they are that now on auto trader. If only i had of known...and had 16k knocking about

[Diderot]

End of May got £3.5k more than the GFV on an X3 35d from WBAC. PCP was a good one too: 0% finance and didn't put any deposit down.

[J1990]

Another i30N here.
2019 £21.6k. £0 down and £296/month, GFV of just over £14k. Sold in April for £23k because it wasn't getting used and it felt daft not to at that price. May get another now the DCT is available as Mrs has a bad knee and couldn't handle the heavy clutch on the manual.

[Truckosaurus]

Surely you are a 'loser' if the car is worth more than the GFV, as you've been paying over the odds on the monthly payments.

The real winning is when the car is worthless and you hand it back and walk away...

[Lee540]

Truckosaurus said:

The real winning is when the car is worthless and you hand it back and walk away...

Ha.. Yes!

[ilikejam]

We 'won' on a Kia Sportage (a good few years ago now).

GFV after 3 years was £9k, but ended up getting £15.5k for it

[Volvolover]

Lee540 said:

Truckosaurus said:

The real winning is when the car is worthless and you hand it back and walk away...

Ha.. Yes!

I've just WBAC'd my wife's Fabia Monte Carlo at the end of the PCP and paid off the balloon, had £3.2k left in my pocket.

Obvs its been a perfect storm of circumstances but I was quite pleased

[Dohnut]

Had a Q5 on a 4 year pcp back in 2011. Sold it a year early back to Audi who’d offered £1.5k more than what I owed on the Finance.

Then a year later out of the blue I got a cheque in the post from the finance co, apparently they had mis-calculated the interest… another £2k!

[Volvolover]

Mandat said:

Are you confusing lease with PCP finance?

Lease cars don't have a GFV.

If you do mean PCP, then the value of a car and the end of the PCP term can be higher than the GFV, and in that situation you can choose to sell it or part-ex against something else, if the figures stack up.

PCP is a lease in everything but name, you just have an option to buy baked in at a fixed price

[Nyloc20]

Truckosaurus said:

Surely you are a 'loser' if the car is worth more than the GFV, as you've been paying over the odds on the monthly payments.

The real winning is when the car is worthless and you hand it back and walk away...

That’s a very valid point, we’ve always made sure we were comfortable with the monthly payments but it would be easy to get drawn into paying a bit more for something better.

[quintonside]

Truckosaurus said:

Surely you are a 'loser' if the car is worth more than the GFV, as you've been paying over the odds on the monthly payments.

The real winning is when the car is worthless and you hand it back and walk away...

This is spot on!

It used to be that Audi went high on the GFV and low on the monthlies, whereas Skoda were low on GFV but higher on monthlies.


I bought an A5 cab in Sep 17 on a 48 month PCP, no money in from me but a huge discount from the dealer. After 3 years it was already worth less than the GFV! luckily i was able to VT after 3 years and lease a cheap Cupra

[Blackpuddin]

Volvolover said:

Mandat said:

Are you confusing lease with PCP finance?

Lease cars don't have a GFV.

If you do mean PCP, then the value of a car and the end of the PCP term can be higher than the GFV, and in that situation you can choose to sell it or part-ex against something else, if the figures stack up.

PCP is a lease in everything but name, you just have an option to buy baked in at a fixed price

Exactly. Odd that many PCPers seem to think they are doing something other than renting a car.

[GT911]

Using the word profit in PCP deal is ambitious.
If it’s worth more than the GFV at the end of the term it just means you overpaid on the monthlies and will get some of that back.
You have still lost money on the original value of the car.