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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Even with the pressures of Christmas it seems in the USA, buying a  ne w car is still top of the list when during December. According to USATODAY, America is bracing itself for a busy period od car sales. Although it is accepted that sales this year will be lower than previous and so to keep sales rolling in here are offers like no money down leasing options to keep those initial costs as low as possible for the buyer.

The weather back in the UK may have damped some car leasing sales, with the exception of 4×4’s, where there has been an increased interest, obviously with the recent snow fall.

However it seems the auto leasing market in the USA can be controlled by good stock market pay outs and the fact the high purchases have been help back and possibly some optimism with a new year about to start.

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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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It is difficult to calculate the real benefits or disadvantage of each business owner, because each one is likely to have different tax codes, earnings and choice of vehicle from different business lease suppliers. But here are some pointers, so you can calculate your own benefits, it should also be noted that the comparsion is between buying a new car and leasing one. A used car has different VAT  or even no VAT charges.

Disadvantages

You will be charged tax on your personal earnings as you now have a company car and is deemed a “perk”. This value varies depending on the CO2 emmissions of the vehicle but an average figure is 20% of the vehicle value.

The lease broker will want a cut of the lease value or car value.

You will pay interest on the amount borrowed.

Advantages

This is a business expense so

You can claim your VAT back (again the amount depends on C02 emmsision of the car)

You can claim the balance against you annual tax return.

The money you were going to use to purchase the car can stay in the business and depending on the profitability can either increase in value or reduce debt chrages.

(This could be the most valuable benefit of busines lease)

Finally if you were to buy the car, you would need to earn aproc 20% more than the vehicle you were going to buy, taking into account incme tax and national insurance.

Taking all this into account, for many business lease will be cheaper than taking monmey out of the business to buy a new car and even cheapr than a loan  to buy teh car.

Of course the above example may not represent your situtaion and will differ on many points, including the depreciation of the car chosen. So always get professional advice.

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Probably one of the better videos explianing the 3 different ways of buying a car. First ot buy with cash outright, secong you attain a car loan and the third to lease a car. Although from the States, this does expalin what the differences are especially between cars loans and car lease.  rather than the normal sit in the office and explian video or a powerpoint presentation, this videp uses slides and simple naration to get tthe car lease argurment out.

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Ok these are not our words but SwapaLease is marketed as the largest car lease marketplace in the world. It is essentially a way fo geeting out of your car lease contract and potentially a great place for someone looking for car lease to attain a great deal for a shorter period than normal. What we have here though is not the largest video about car  lease in the world. No sooner have they told us this, then it is over. Check it out for yourself, oH by the way it is only in the States.

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This is an America news report from Money Talks that examines the ways of getting out of a car lease contract. For many especially business owners, car lease has its advantages, but we must always remember that this envolves financial commitments. In the USA there are ways of getting out of your financial commitments, for selling the car (with permsission), getting sometone else to take over the lease, to not being able to anything. The final conclusion being, think carefully about car lease before you commit. In the UK, it is probably harder to get out of a contract, so as all financial decisions, make sure you know all the facts and if you do not get professional advice. Here is the money talks video.

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