Gozit

Here in Canada, you go to the car dealer, say Ford. You have three options

1) Buy (outright or through bank loan)
2) Finance through dealer
3) Lease

Leasing, basically you pick the car you want, and they give you a per month payment, say $470 a month for a brand new 2014 Ford Focus Titanium edition with all the bells and whistles. (retail about $25,000 I think)

The dealer might offer to up the payment to $500 a month and have all maintenance included. That's what happened on one of our recent new cars. The advantage to this as there is no payments besides petrol and your monthly lease. Otherwise, its basically fill and go for 3 years. No extended warranty or any bollocks like that, no depreciation on trade in etc etc. Basically a good way to roll into a new car every 3-4 years, whilst maintaining a similar monthly payment.

Then after the lease term, usually 3 or 4 years, you bring the car back, and renegotiate the lease for a brand new car, walk away no strings attached, or buy out the remaining value of the vehicle.

This is all done through the car dealer and is almost like "renting" the car long term, but you still get to pick the one you want off the lot and customise it to your taste, unlike a normal rental car.

Is this possible in the UK?

deepcpearl

In an earlier post, you complained that Malta doesn't lease cars. Are you seriously going to base your decision of which country to move to on whether or not they lease cars?

Gozit

No. I am just wondering if its just Malta or if its normal practise in Europe not to lease cars ! I'll probably end up in Malta at some point, I don't really care that they don't lease cars. Its an inconvenience, yes, but people get on with the whole buying and trading in thing, so its not un-doable, you just lose a bit of money if you want a new car often.

quiltman

IIRC from my days as an employer, car LEASING in the UK is for businesses.
you can have with or without maintenance but it is expensive.
for private persons the equivalent is Contract HIRE. you need a largish deposit and a final value is agreed on initial purchase - say £3500.
Assuming the car is in pristine condition, then this value can be used as deposit on a new contract. Just google for "contract hire UK" or "Car Leasing Uk" and you'll have the answers.

quiltman

Here you go Gozo. Explains all the different types of lease in UK.
Compare Cheapest Car Leasing & Contract Hire Deals UK - What Car? Leasing

Dashie

Google is your friend Gozit. Leasing is less usual in the UK, but we do have it and know how it works Expensive form of ownership though. Better to just buy something a couple of years old if you can. Unless losing 1/3 of what you pay as you drive away appeals to you

https://www.google.ca/search?q=lease...LefL8geo9YHwDQ

deepcpearl

Gozit

Not particularly. I'll stick to buying in Europe then it seems Thanks all for the information.

Vadio

Our niece & hubby did a 'contract hire' on a new mini 5 years ago. The huge 'balloon payment' was coming up a few months back, so they negotiated a contract on a new vehicle. They ended up with the same payment, but as the new vehicle was more expensive, the balloon payment is also larger. Eventually they will have to just walk away at the end of the contract, which for them is a very expensive way to have a car.

We bought an ex motability car in 2011. We wanted a cheap running car with an automatic transmission, and knew a dealer who could get the really good ones (there are 3 classes, depending on condition/mileage etc.). We paid around £6K for a 2008 Nissan Micra with 11,400 miles on the clock, including MOT and 1 year road tax. Generally those cars are in top condition, and have a warranty. Because we knew the dealer, we looked at the list of what was available at the time. We also knew his cost and therefore his profit. Plus, he knew he could sell it on if we just didn't like it, so no real risk on our part. All in all, it worked out really well for us.