Leasing is at the forefront of today's automotive market, meaning whether to jump on board is a conundrum faced by many PHers. Even the most knowledgeable petrolhead can struggle to wrap their head around the intricacies of the options at their disposal, meaning it can often be difficult to figure out if it's the right decision over an alternative such as PCP. However, there's a thread at hand to help...
Let's start with leasing - leasing, or PCH (Personal Contract Hire), is a long term rental agreement for new cars, usually running from 24 months right up to 48 months. These rental agreements have a variable upfront payment, which is usually equivalent to three to twelve months' worth of payments, and a mileage limit carrying a penalty should it be exceeded. In a lease agreement, the car is never yours, it is owned by the leasing company and you give the car back at the end. Lease deals tend to favour those that want care-free motoring - you can often pay a little extra to cover servicing and tyres, meaning you can simply give it back at the end of the agreement, and get a new car on a new agreement (if you so wish).
Then there's PCP - a finance agreement where you'll be borrowing the full amount of the car and paying interest on this amount. It is very likely that you'll pay a deposit, but there are no-deposit options available. The main difference with PCP is that your monthly payments only cover part of the cars cost, and at the end of your agreement term you should have a car that's roughly the same value as the amount you still owe. That is unless you buy savvy, and get a used car on PCP that doesn't go down in value... At the end of the agreement you can decide whether you want to return it to the lender without any further payments, pay off the remainder of the finance (balloon payment) and keep the car, or trade the car in and settle the finance (if the car is worth the same or more as the remaining sum). This means that PCP obviously favours those that want to own a car at the end of their agreement.
With many of those in the market looking to get into the car they want as easily as possible, leasing is on the rise. This popularity is demonstrated by one of our largest ongoing threads on the forums - "Best Lease Car Deals Available?" - which was started back in 2013 by S8QUATTRO and is now on its seventh volume, which, staggeringly, means it's closing in on 70,000 posts! Can't be many threads with more contributions than that...
The popularity of the leasing world means that PHers are finding increasingly competitive deals, with cars like the Tesla Model 3 available from £499 a month and the Fiat 500 up for grabs from just £99 per month from ZenAuto. Those are just some of the deals that PHers are talking about in Volume 7 of Best lease car deals available - so join them in posting and finding the best deals here!