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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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 the main story behind this TV article piece, when it comes to buying or leasing how do you keep more money in your pockets. With lower monthly payments, for many in the States, leasing a car is the only way they can afford a new car. But of course that is private leasing and business leasing can be a different story with the tax advantages associated with this type of buying a car. However this piece actually shows figures to compare buying and leasing, ok it is in dollars, but it does give an indicatio of the differnces that can be just as applicable here in the UK.

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Since Apil 1st 2009 the tax on corporate/company cars had changed as in what levels of tax can you claim back. The BVRLA has an excellent article which describes what it is all about. It seems that cars with a Co2 emmission of under 160g/km can claim the full amount of the vehicle against tax. There are measures to enure cars that are already leased can’t be reintroducted into the system as a new lease car, to get these new benefits.

You can rad the full script at Business car taxation at the BVRLA

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One of the biggest complaints for customers who use the internet to look for car lease prices is the amount of deals that just don’t exist anymore, or ask for high deposits to keep the montly payments down. Customer find they still need to ring each comapny individually to get a true price of their chosen vehicle that matches mileage and other considerations. Leasebam has lauched a website that will hopefully deal with these issues. The downside is there are no prices on the site, so you are forced to fill in a form, however that is the point of Leasebam, to ensure you only get true prices.

Some more benefits, is being able to read feedback from previous customers and knwo where your persoanl information has gone to. There are no automtaic pricing like price comaprioson sites, beacuse there is a worry that quote will be out of date, so a real person has to fill in a reply to your quote, meaning it can be trusted. Of course you should also expect a phone call too, because in most cases the car lease deal you are asking as quote for, may not be the best available. By changing a model, derivitive or even to a simialr make, you coula find youe selve saving money, that is what the car lease suppleir on Leasebam aim to do for you.

Here is the latest Leasebam video on their car lease website.

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