leasing a car

[grth2004]

My car has finally died and im now in a situation where im fed up with buying doomed second hand cars and im thinking its time to get a new one.

I have a mate who leases his car from fiat over 3 years , its a punto and theres no garage bills and £25 tax a year , all sounds good for £120 a month

Anyone done the same?

[FoxyPV]

Try Gumtree for decent second hand cars.

Apart from that I can be no help. Apologies

[danny.]

I lease and would highly recommend it.

I've got a smart car over 3 years which is £80/month, £20/year road tax, insurance £150/year (last car was £750), came with touchscreen sat nav, ipod + usb connector, bluetooth phone kit (all factory fitted), aircon, auto/tiptronic gearbox and the stop/start engine thing. Does about 50mpg round town and I don't have to worry about anything going wrong.

[Houdini Logic]

Never had one, though know a lot of people who have and think it's value for money.

Only word of advice/warning is to check the contract for 'return condition' clauses - I know someone that was trying to be charged 3k extra because the company didn't like the condition of the car when his lease expired. He was forced to buy the car in the end and sell it rather than pay money for nothing

[foxoffderby]

I did many years ago. There maybe milage restrictions e.g if you drive over 10k your are charged and you will probabley have to give the car back at some point or pay a premium to buy it. Read the small print very carefully.

[grth2004]

I lease and would highly recommend it.

I've got a smart car over 3 years which is £80/month, £20/year road tax, insurance £150/year (last car was £750), came with touchscreen sat nav, ipod + usb connector, bluetooth phone kit (all factory fitted), aircon, auto/tiptronic gearbox and the stop/start engine thing. Does about 50mpg round town and I don't have to worry about anything going wrong.

sounds good where did you get that deal

[danny.]

sounds good where did you get that deal

smart coventry - would highly recommend, the service there is fantastic (it's a merc dealership and smart customers aren't treated any diff to the merc customers). They gave me 3k trade in for my mg zt as well which needed about £3k spending on it in repairs/tyres/belt changes etc. and was probably worth about £5. They will pick up the car and return from Leicester for any repairs/servicing needed during the lease too.

You do have to give the car back after 3 years (hence it being a lease) or you can buy it for about 5k, although that doesn't make much sense. They will charge you for damage etc. too but they allow for fair wear and tear so stone chips, minor scratches etc are fine.

The specs I stated are all standard on a smart too so you don't have to spend anything on extras.