New Car: PCP vs Lease vs Finance vs Outright

[LudicrouslyJuicy]

Hi all

Long time lurker here, decided I would finally make an account and ask for advice

I want a Mini Cooper / Countryman and have been looking at various lease, pcp options. I honestly can't figure out what makes more sense. I could be completely misinterpreting things but to me it looks like pcp makes no sense whatsoever. Here is an example:

Mini Cooper S Sport LEASE - 9 upfront / 23 months - £228 pm inc VAT
Mini Cooper S Sport PCP (from mini direct) - £2000 upfront / 24 months - £391 pm inc VAT
Mini Cooper S Sport PCP Divide (from mini direct) - 51% upfront / 24 months - £1 pm inc VAT then remaining 49% at 24 months

Now I get that with lease you're not supposed to be able to buy the car but in my experience, most leasing companies will sell you the car when you get to the end of the term if you want it. For what price though is unknown.

However, if you take a PCP to guarantee you can buy the car at the end if you want it, you end up paying almost double the monthly cost anyway for it and if you decide you don't want it at the end of the term well its as if you leased the car for 100% more per month.

Am i missing something or does PCP make absolutely no sense? If I want the car it seems like i am better off just buying it outright or with a bank loan and then selling it when i no longer want it which with mini's depreciation being about 10% per year I would be substantially better off. The other option is the PCP divide which you pay 50% upfront for and then 0% interest PCP for 2 years and then pay it off. I guess this could work too

Some advice would be really appreciated

Thank you

[LudicrouslyJuicy]

LeoSayer said:

That's a very conservative figure.

I would be very keen to know what you think an accurate depreciation rate is for it and the countryman? Judging by the used ads I've come across over the last 12 months it seems 10% is about right but I will defer to those who know better

[LudicrouslyJuicy]

fido said:

That's effectively 50% depreciation in 2 years! Think i'd settle for a 1 year old car and not faff around with the optional payment or whatever equity you might, or might not, have left over.

Sorry i am not quite following your train of thought. Why would the upfront equate to the depreciation? The two are not linked are they? By that rationale if I bought the car outright it would be 100% depreciation but we know that's not the case

[LudicrouslyJuicy]

Edible Roadkill said:

Just work our what’s cheapest over the term you’ll want to keep it for and go with whatever works numbers wise.

For me it’s been leasing for the past few vehicles but if you are hard and fast stuck towards a particular car/model and want to add options and view to keep for a while then leasing probably won’t be for you.

It’s all circumstantial !

Yep I completely understand what you're saying. It is what I tried to do by comparing 2 like-for-like 24 month terms : one pcp and one lease. The PCP is what I couldn't figure out because for the same upfront, the same total term, I would be paying twice as much for the PCP over the lease and that didn't make any sense to me. I would have expected the lease would be the most expensive option always

With the countryman the variance becomes even crazier. Can be leased for 221 - 250 pm inc vat but cheapest PCP on mini website is 571 pm inc vat. Like why would anyone ever go for a pcp?