car lease news

The Press and Journal have today published concerns by the Labour party that combined the Scottish health boards spend £11m a year on car leasing.

The figures showed that Scotland’s health boards spend £10.8million a year leasing 7,318 vehicles. Ms Baillie said: “ These figures are astonishing is a main quote with the article. These vehicle combine luxury models o=for senior staff down to vehicles being leased for district nurses for personal visits.  A statement was made that it does not makes sense t spend this amount on vehicle leasing when budgets are being cut throughout the NHS. labour make the point that is they were elected they would spend the money on patient services not executive perks. Staff needed to travel more than 4,000 business miles each year to qualify for a car, as well as being using car leasing schemes for over 20 years, stating they were good value for money.

You can read the concern of luxury NHS cars article here within the Press and Journal.

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Probably the most asked question when it comes to car finances both here and across the Atlantic. Although looking at the trends for car leasing it seems the Americans favour it more than here in the UK, so here we have found a Canadian aspect on leasing versus buying from the Globe and Mail.

Here is a situation where a couple needs a new car, he wants to lease buy she wants to buy, so for their circumstances who is right? The only way to find out is to read the he wants to lease article outright.

The answer that came back for this question was probably to buy because of the huge amount of miles (or kilometres in this instance ) they do every year, 40,000 to 50,0000, this dramatically reduces the final value of the vehicle and pushed up car leasing prices. It is a good example of how everyone has difference finance challenges and so lease is not always the best choice.

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On what has been the most exciting election in memory we now find ourselves stuck in no mans land without any idea who will govern and how the policies will shape the car lease market. There is an argument that there are more important issues to discuss from the nations debt through to the way we vote, but for lease industry as with many other business sectors through Britain, the uncertainty  holds everyone back.

How to plan for 2010 without knowing what the goalposts are and how interest rates or vehicle production will shape the car lease market. What we do know is not good reading, inj that a hung parliament will make all changes slower and will always  be made to keep all parties happy, rather than decisive. We hope the car lease market will endure the times ahead, as the business who normally buy from them and get this sorted, so that every vehicle supplier can adjust their business priorities to suit the needs of the business.

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We are going through the tightest fought election campaign in living history and even with only a few days to go and what looks like  a certain winner, the stats look too close to choose an outright winner and so a hung parliament looks a real possibility.

Uncertain times breeds uncertainty and if the business owners or car buyers are unsure what the next few years are going to bring, then a 3 year commitment in anything is less likely.  This may affect the car lease business where contracts are more forthcoming with certainty.  The availability of finance and and knowing that residual values will possibly fall, may or may not affect whether to buy or just hang on for the moment.

The recent increase in car manufacturing in the UK, suggests some optimism although the manufacturers still state they are not of the woods yet and if this continues residual values will drop as more used cars hit the market in a few years time, increasing monthly payments for lease and contract hire options.

If there is a lack of information here, well that is the point. No one seems certain what will happen over the next few years. Are we out of recession, can we cut costs now, or do we still need to support businesses? No one really knows, so whilst this uncertainty is in the air, brokers and car lease suppliers will just have to hold their breath and hope for the best.

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It doesn’t matter whether you buy a car or lease one, the fact is vehicles will breakdown from time to time and it will depend on which service you have with your car breakdown cover supplier that suits company cars or private ones.

For instance we are all aware of the breakdown options advertised on TV for our own private driving, but you will need to consider if the policy you have covers you for business use.  The AA calls its company car breakdown cover as Fleetwide and is for when your company has over 50 vehicles and this cover will vary from cars to large lorries.
If you are a Green Flag customer, you may find you have had to declare how many miles a year you travel and whether it is local or distant.  You may want to make sure your car is covered (or you depending n which breakdown cover policy) . The fact that you lease a car makes no difference, to if you own one, providing that the breakdown cover organisation either has your details or the cars, depending on policy bought.

The good news about leasing a new car, is that all manufacturers provide some sort of car breakdown cover for the first year at least, so it only becomes an issue in the second year. You should also check your car lease agreement,  as technically the car you are driving is not yours, so what responsibility has the leasing firm over your vehicle.
We all know that cars are more reliable these days, but when you think back to the bad weather recently, you will find that most car breakdown cover call outs, were not for mechanical failure, but for more simple things that could happen to all cars, new or old.

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