Personal leasing - do you get the deposit back?

[richard300]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine (well, his wife) has a Toyota that they run on a personal(i think)leasing contract.

They paid a £3000 deposit (including the PX on their old car) and have been paying £250 a month for the last 3 years. The contract runs out at the end of the month, and whilst they plan to visit Toyota to find out the details, they asked me if i thought they would get their deposit back.

Now i know nothing about car financing and leasing, and i only have an interest in their situation, as they have said that if they get the deposit back, they they would be interested in buying my wifes Clio 172. If not, then they will have to carry on leasing.

Thanks,

Richard.

[em177]

richard300 said:

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine (well, his wife) has a Toyota that they run on a personal(i think)leasing contract.

They paid a £3000 deposit (including the PX on their old car) and have been paying £250 a month for the last 3 years. The contract runs out at the end of the month, and whilst they plan to visit Toyota to find out the details, they asked me if i thought they would get their deposit back.

Now i know nothing about car financing and leasing, and i only have an interest in their situation, as they have said that if they get the deposit back, they they would be interested in buying my wifes Clio 172. If not, then they will have to carry on leasing.

Thanks,

Richard.

So they handed over £3k cash and entered a contract without asking?

[B3Svert]

Personal lease as in one of those "6+23" type deals? No they won't get any money back.

[OdramaSwimLaden]

No.

If it was £250pcm and a 3 x 35pcm deal then the would pay 3 months deposit (£750) and the remaining 35 months payments until the end.

They paid £3k and a car deposit.....what car was it they px'd and leased??

The deposit is there by and large to cover costs, limit losses etc, etc....if the hirer cancelled or defaulted for any reason.

Non-refundable but still suprised they didn't know this....

Eta the high deposit and the px car would have brought down their monthly payments dramatically. By what you've told us of them they have probably been pinching themselves at the good deal they got not realising that they get no deposit returned at the end of the term!! WOW.

Edited by OdramaSwimLaden on Tuesday 11th September 16:28

[Deva Link]

richard300 said:

They paid a £3000 deposit (including the PX on their old car) and have been paying £250 a month for the last 3 years. The contract runs out at the end of the month, and whilst they plan to visit Toyota to find out the details, they asked me if i thought they would get their deposit back.

Assuming it's a Personal Contract Purchase and not a lease, then the only way to get the deposit back is if the car is worth £3000 more than the Guaranteed Final Value (GFV) stated in their finance agreement.

If they were p/xing the car for another PCP then there's a chance that could boost its value, but otherwise they would have to sell the car and it's unlikely to worth even the GFV, never mind more.


I hate PCPs, I think they're a scam. I've come across quite a few people who honestly think they can hand the car back at the end and their deposit will be refunded, same as if they'd rented a car for a couple of weeks.

[ColinM50]

Pretty sure they won't get it back and indeed subject to any damage done to the car since they've had it they may have to pay for repairs. Hope they've kept the main dealer servicing up to date too otherwise that's another charge they'll get.

So they've paid £9k in monthly payments plus £3k deposit, plus servicing, tyres, brakes, insurance etc so at least £14k to effectively hire a car for 3 years? Hmm, seems like a good deal to me. Though for Toyota not for them.

Out of interest you can hire something like a Mondeo size car on a six month deal with insurance and maintenance included for around £15 a day so over three years that'd be about the same and no hassle with getting it serviced etc

[richard300]

I dont know what car they px'd but the car they lease is some kind of Toyota hatchback that looks like a scaled down 4x4. I also know that, now it's time to give it back they had a letter through listing the costs to address any damage (which by all accounts does not give any margin at all for wear and tear over a 3 year period). Even if they would have received their deposit back, i think bearing in mind that there are scrapes on all four corners and a scuff on a wheel arch and a light dent on a door (unsure of the condition of the interior) - They wouldnt see much change for three grand after the repair work had been billed at Toyota's applicable rates.

[anonymous-user]

According to the BRVLA guidelines, fair wear and tear is things like stonechips and very small scratches. Scuffed bumpers etc are regarded as damage not wear and tear. They need to get them fixed before giving the car back or the lease company will take them to the cleaners with an enormous body shop bill.

The bill won't be paid out of the "deposit" they will have to pay it, assuming it is a personal lease it's not a deposit as such It's an initial payment and you never get it back.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 11th September 17:18

[Deva Link]

richard300 said:

I dont know what car they px'd but the car they lease

It doesn't help with car finance if you use the wrong terms - it can't be a lease if they paid £3K deposit.

richard300 said:

... i think bearing in mind that there are scrapes on all four corners and a scuff on a wheel arch and a light dent on a door (unsure of the condition of the interior) -

As mentioned by the poster above, they're going to get absolutely shafted if they hand it back like that.

[GoneAnon]

If they were to look at their current car as if they were about t buy it from a dealer forecourt, would they be happy to pay full retail value for it in its current condition compared to another car without the scrapes and bumps?

If the answer is "no", that is why there will be a refurbishment charge.

[Deva Link]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

It's not comical when you get hit by a massive (and unexpected if you're a bit dim) bill. I haven't heard bad things about Toyota in that respect - the marques legendary for trumped up and inflated charges are Mercedes and VW.

[Rawwr]

I'm not sure how to put this delicately but your friend's wife sounds like a moron.

[OdramaSwimLaden]

Rawwr said:

I'm not sure how to put this delicately but your friend's wife sounds like a moron.

You weren't entirely successful......

[HTP99]

Deva Link said:

I hate PCPs, I think they're a scam. I've come across quite a few people who honestly think they can hand the car back at the end and their deposit will be refunded, same as if they'd rented a car for a couple of weeks.

How exactly are they a scam?

What you have illustrated above doesn't make them a scam, it means that the PCP hasn't been explained properly, the salesman has told a porky or the customer hasn't understood it.

In the early days of when we took over the dealership that I work in now customers who had PCP's that were coming to an end had told me that they were told that the GFV was an amount that they got at the end of the agreement to put towards a car, the whole of it not the difference between the value of the car and the GFV, the equity, now this doesn't mean the PCP was a scam it meant that whoever sold it to them lied or didn't explain it properly.

[whoami]

OdramaSwimLaden said:

Rawwr said:

I'm not sure how to put this delicately but your friend's wife sounds like a moron.

You weren't entirely successful......

But sadly accurate.

[bennyboydurham]

I've not had a PCP for nearly 12 years, but when my grandad was alive I had plenty of Fords under the 'options' scheme thanks to his employee 'privilege' voucher which iirc got me 33% off. Low deposit plus a PCP got me into a new Ford every 10 months, most of them with free insurance. I started with a Fiesta Si, then an Escort Si and Ghia X, an Escort GTI, a Focus Ghia, a Puma Black and finally a Cougar. I started off with an £800 deposit on the first one which moved into each car and then I got back when I traded the Cougar.

No complaints about PCP for me. As long as you know what you're getting into they're fine.

[anonymous-user]

This is the latest version of the "Fair wear and tear" booklet from BVRLA, most lease companies will be members and if they are then these are the rules a returned lease car will be assessed against:

http://www.marshall-leasing.co.uk/wearandtear.asp

[Mr-B]

Many moons ago (early nineties I think) I bought a Rover (don't laugh) on one of these types of scheme. Gave my old car as deposit and then paid £xxx per month (by Direct Debit, this bit is important) over 3 or 4 years, then had to pay something £5 or £6k if I wanted to keep the car at the end.

As I got to the end of the contract I thought the dealer or finance company would be in contact to go through my options particularly as they may persuade me to get into another contract and newer car but the didn't they just took the £5/6k out of my account via direct debit. No follow up from either dealer or finance co so I just kept the car. I was probably going to keep it anyway and pay the money but I thought how many people would have been caught out by having a great lump of money taken out of their account without notice?

[HTP99]

Mr-B said:

Many moons ago (early nineties I think) I bought a Rover (don't laugh) on one of these types of scheme. Gave my old car as deposit and then paid £xxx per month (by Direct Debit, this bit is important) over 3 or 4 years, then had to pay something £5 or £6k if I wanted to keep the car at the end.

As I got to the end of the contract I thought the dealer or finance company would be in contact to go through my options particularly as they may persuade me to get into another contract and newer car but the didn't they just took the £5/6k out of my account via direct debit. No follow up from either dealer or finance co so I just kept the car. I was probably going to keep it anyway and pay the money but I thought how many people would have been caught out by having a great lump of money taken out of their account without notice?

Lesson there is to actually read the finance agreement, it's all in there, however you should have been contacted to at least let you know your options come the end of the agreement by the dealer and finance company.

[Mr-B]

HTP99 said:

Lesson there is to actually read the finance agreement, it's all in there, however you should have been contacted to at least let you know your options come the end of the agreement by the dealer and finance company.

I knew what I was signing up for, don't get me wrong, but I just thought it was pretty bad practice to assume they could help themselves to 5 or 6 grand from my current account without as much as a "hello sir we are going to take a big lump of money from you next month or would you like to come in and discuss your options with us (so we can sign you up for another 3 years, etc, etc..))

If nothing else they seemed to be missing a big opportunity to keep someone on their HP scheme or whatever they called it at the time. Instead they effectively lost a customer.