Would be good to know for sure if it's possible to do the lease after arriving. Anyone have any contacts at IAS?

Maybe JennyJRoe can find out for us and report back.

Thank you all for the help. I'll post back findings in a day or two.

I've recently dealt with a guy called Brian Stanco and he was very helpful, I have been quoted for a Ford fiesta, focus and escape to compare. I am looking at two cars, 1 for me and 1 for my wife. Like most people I've been in contact with others to compare service and prices, expatride wouldn't even give me a quote without submitting personal documents such as letter from my employer, visa etc etc. Fairlease have advised they need a copy of my UK credit report so havnt got quotes from them at this stage. I am waiting for VW to get back to me as they have an expat programme, I also contacted autonation ford and they have quoted me for the same cars as intl AutoSource and have come out better priced in monthly payment plus a lower down payment, discount from MSRP and also potential rebates of up to $2250.

Intl AutoSource have said they will beat any quote so going to go back to them on Monday. It useful to know that they will reimburse your rental

petitefrancaise; thank you, VW Charlottesville can offer me an international person's leasing option and a nice golf. My only remaining question is am I better to lease or purchase outright? Any help welcomed
Thank you.

Will they only lease, not finance a purchase?

as Pulaski has said, ask if you can purchase the car through them rather than lease. Leasing or purchasing will both help with your credit history.

If you can't purchase the car over a 2/3 yr deal and your aim is to build credit history then I would think that leasing a car is an expensive way to to achieve this. I mentioned AIG Inbound before because we got an unsecured credit card almost straight away with their help. I think we had a $3k limit and the interest rate wasn't great but the point was building credit history.

We leased a ford through IAS and had this credit card and that was enough for us to get a decent mortgage rate after we'd been here only 6 months. Bills were paid on time etc.

Thank you Pulaski and petitefrancaise for your advice. I don't think leasing is for me so, as you suggest, will ask VW about a car loan on Monday when they re-open.

If you can afford to pay cash, but are looking for the loan to build credit, I would ask for a loan of only 20% of the purchase price, and then look to pay it off in (only) 12 months irrespective of what the loan terms actually say, which could easy be 36 or 48 months.

That is good advice, thank you.

Just a quick question on the same subject.

Has anyone purchased the car after the lease end and are there any additional fees added? Or is it better to finance the vechicle straight away ? Trying to figure out the pros and cons

Thanks

HI Lanyu;11756829

I purchased the VW Golf (perhaps not the best decision given the recent press but I didn't buy diesel) and paid half in full, and took out a loan for the remainder which I will pay off in 12 months, as recommended by an earlier suggestion on this forum. The interest on the loan is high (around 3.9% but USA colleagues tell me it's not that bad).

To answer a few other queries posted on the forum, International Auto Source never got back to me about purchasing a car whilst in the USA, so I guess that was a 'no'. ExpatRide did get back to me and are worth a look.

The service at VW was good, so definitely recommend you explore if you're not put off by current press.

Hi Jennyjroe

Thanks for the reply I'm not bothered by the press still quality cars in my opinion disappointed they fiddled test though did they really need to with all the gas guzzlers on the road here í ½í¸• hope they don't make redundancies so no innocent people become involved.

I've had to argue my way to a good rate with Autosource but 3.9% isn't bad at all if I knew I could have secured that when in the UK I wouldn't have bothered with Autosource would have liked the freedom to choose other cars lots of test drives may have been tempted to go Subaru Impreza/crosstrek although there a lot smaller than the Passat were getting.

So far as I can tell, having never looked closely at leasing myself, you have no right to buy a car that you have been leasing. If you do buy it, the price isn't fixed ahead of time, so if you look after your vehicle nicely and don't put too many miles on it, you risk somewhat shooting yourself in the foot because the market price of the vehicle will be higher at the end of the lease than if you hadn't looked after it so well.

Thanks for that Pulaski I shall be asking that very question. I seem to remember them saying though that the price to purchase at the end of the lease is written into the the agreement.

I called the dealership to ask what fees are involved and was told the only fee would be transferring the title and then when on to say there are 3 options

Inherit/ refinance
Trade In
Walk away

I was planning on just paying cash to buy it. But thanks for the heads up as now I know the questions I need to be asking.