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Leasing vs Buying a New Van

Josh0771

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Location
Bedfordshire
Hi guys! Do any of you lease your van? I really want a new van, and there are some great deals out there on leased vans. If you were to fit a mounted system are you going to be penalised for drilling holes etc? If anyone who has any experience then I'd be very grateful to hear it!

 
Hi guys! Do any of you lease your van? I really want a new van, and there are some great deals out there on leased vans. If you were to fit a mounted system are you going to be penalised for drilling holes etc? If anyone who has any experience then I'd be very grateful to hear it!
@P4dstar and @Iron Giant have both leased vans before but have both since bought their next vans.

 
My experience is you pay £1,000's for a motor that is never going to be yours, better to buy a 1-2 year old van if you really need a newish van then it's yours at the end of the finance agreement, 

There is a very good reason lease deals seem so good, lower deposit and slightly lower monthly payments but at the end you will have maybe paid 5k less than the vans purchase price on credit then you hand it back and they sell it at a profit and your left with nowt and looking for another van. 

I would like a new van but I don't want and defo don't need a new van, my current van is a 64 plate combo so over 6 years old with over 68k on the clock I do less than 3k miles a year, so really no point in me wasting so much money on a newer van when I don't do the miles.

 
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My first van cost £3k. To cut a long story short it became unreliable, I had it fixed and sold it before anything else could go wrong. I took a brand new lease van with a service and breakdown package because I couldn't afford a newer van and I couldn't afford to be off the road.

At the time it was the right thing to do. There's a year left on the lease and I may or may not purchase it at the end. I'm more inclined to purchase it as I've just paid £650 to have the protectakote removed and speed liner put down. I'm not too fussed on a couple of holes, the ply will be put back over them anyway if I do decide to return it. If they stick me with a bill I'll pay it.

With van number 2 I spent just over 6k on the van and a further 4k on the system and a reel plus a few extra bits. All in all it was just under 11k to put a reliable van (touch wood) on the road. The second van is the same is IG has. It's an ex BT van and has been well maintained.

 
You are lucky, we are forced to change to neweest vans here in London with ULEZ expansion. Hard to plan without enough info on future changes to ULEZ requirements. If I buy new Euro6 diesel on 5 year finance now I may not be able to use it in few years if they change to euro7 or something.. Only safe option is electric, but £40k+ for bigger vans and limited range is not helping. Therefore 2 / 3 year hire or lease with return option may be good idea for now. Or cheapest euro6 comliant van, but that's a gamble too.

 
I got a van on finance in August a 2018 Vivaro from a vauxhaul dealership.

The van was £9999+vat i took it on 5yrs finance for £256 a month, but worked out id be paying a horrendous amount as i paid £1000cash & traded my old van in for £1000 id have paid nearly £17.5k.

So i got a government bounce back loan for £12k and paid the van off instantly nothing to pay for 12 months and £206pcm to pay for 5yrs so £360 interest on the loan.

Had a call last week from TSB apparently the government have now decided BBLs can be paid back over 10yrs and not 5 if people prefer, i thought here we go heres the interest and increased repayments. But nope my repayments can be £106pcm if i require.

And you can make bulk payments at anypoint through the loan to bring down the balance without penalty, i plan to pay the whole thing within 3 years, but if anything does go wrong the fall back of only having to pay £106 a month is great to have in the tank.

If you can open a Business account id seriously look into the BBLs

 
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You are lucky, we are forced to change to neweest vans here in London with ULEZ expansion. Hard to plan without enough info on future changes to ULEZ requirements. If I buy new Euro6 diesel on 5 year finance now I may not be able to use it in few years if they change to euro7 or something.. Only safe option is electric, but £40k+ for bigger vans and limited range is not helping. Therefore 2 / 3 year hire or lease with return option may be good idea for now. Or cheapest euro6 comliant van, but that's a gamble too.
Birmingham is putting the first limit in for July for the emissions. Have you found that london keep moving the goal posts each year?

 
Birmingham is putting the first limit in for July for the emissions. Have you found that london keep moving the goal posts each year?
I wasn't affected previously by CC so not following closely, but yes I think hybrids were able to drive into the centre of town for free but now electric only. From 2025 town centre will be electric zone only, Inner London will already have infrastructure to track for ULEZ so can change requirments if needed.

 
Looking at costs of a van as second hand ones seem way over priced at the moment.

My partner suggested leasing which I hadn't thought about but I know nothing about this sort of thing.

First off we wont be vat registered so vat needs to be factored in.

So looking at leasing I am confused. There seems to be a monthly fee dependant on how many months lease is then there is an initial payment. So say it's £200 a month and an initial payment of £2400 on a 2 year lease. So after 2 years have you paid £4800 or £7200 + vat?

Then there seems to be pcp so hire then pay a balloon payment at end but they base mileage on 20K so does that mean balloon is higher or lower?

All very confusing. Anyone know somewhere that explains it all simply or can someone explain it?

Any other options worth considering?

Cheers

Forgot to say doesn't have to be a new van.

 
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Never looked at it as fortunately I've always had the cash to buy outright. All I would say is if someone that has your intelligence and track record can't work it out then they're making it complicated for a reason and that usually means to make more money.

Have you looked at putting a deposit down and getting a bank loan or even finance from the garage, probably a couple of % points higher, as with the current interest rates this could well be cheaper.

 
Vehicle leasing how ever it’s dressed up is always a dearer option , if you need a new van it will always be cheaper to buy it personal loans have never been cheaper look at the bounce back loans from the government .ime not suggesting going into excessive debt but it’s the best option long term . 

 
Cheers gents.

I think it's just looking at options really. I agree that leasing, pcp, companies etc are all in it to make money. My cousin used to work for ford doing fleet sales and the sort of discount he said were available to the hire & lease companies was staggering! I guess that's why they can seem a decent price but as you all say 'the devil is in the details'.

I was just checking I hadn't missed a trick somewhere ? 

Cheers.

 
It all depends on individual circumstance really. I lease my car, but I have no intention of making any changes to it, such as fitting a window cleaning system. I asked the question last week on here regarding van leases as I didn't know whether modifications such as these would cause then lease company to add on mega fees etc at the end of the term. With regards to the initial payment, a lot of people get confused and think this is a deposit that gets returned. It does not. This is paid to the lease company at the start of the term and then your monthly payments will continue until the end of the contract where you hand the vehicle back.

PCP comes across as very similar if you do not plan on paying the balloon payment at the end. All very similar however you then have the option to own the van outright at the end or just give the van back and walk away.

I was uming and aring and have just decided to make do with my current van for now until used prices have shaken of the 'covid tax' that seems to have been applied at the moment, however I know that Vauxhall are doing 0% interest on new vans, I'm not sure whether other brands are doing similar deals which may be worth looking into? Just for me, its not viable to spend upwards of 20k on a van at the moment.

 
If u got no money but u got income then get the lease deal, if u got money there even £2,000 then go buy yourself a van for £2,000.. a lot cheaper than buying new ?

 
My current van and previous one have been on higher purchase (2nd hand) as I couldn't afford to buy them outright. I've been fortunate though that I got very good rates on my vans. My first van I settled and sold privately instead of trading in and I had no negative equity on it, I sold it for what I owed on it. HP is good as you can make modifications and it will be your van in the end. 

That being said, 2nd hand prices are insane at the moment. I figured out I could sell my van for more than what I owe on it at the moment. Plus, if I sold it to a window cleaner with the system in place, I could probably end up coming out with a solid profit! The problem is, then I won't have a van ?

 
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