I am looking to hire/lease a car on business contract hire for 3 year.Anyone recommend a good/cheap company and a good car,comfortable with plenty of space,budget will be around £300 permonth, ex vat.

Ignore the shit website design and try www.lingscars.com if you can't find something there you won't find it anywhere, bloody good service too.

Buying outright is cheaper. You don't pay any kind of finance charges.

Hope that helps.

Yes I'd try Ling, she's a loopy chinese lady but does get some excellent deals especially for models being superseded soon. I'm not that proud as to be massively bothered.

I got a deal that was heavily subsidised by the manufacturer, that was way cheaper than buying, in as much as the monthly payment was about 60% of the typical monthly depreciation. That deal was exceptional and I still have a year nearly to run, she is well worth a try.

Fark me, Those prices are steep!

Pardon my ignorance, but why not just buy a car?

Probably something to do with business accounting and how much you can claim against taxable income for leased equipment as against fully owned stuff......y'know, like he could only claim an agreed level of depreciation if he owned it but can claim full leasing cost if he leases it.

Thats a very simplistic statement Ripper. The reality is that is nowhere near that simple. Whether you buy, rent, lease you will pay a finance charge and you will also pay depreciation one way or the other.

Car A: Buy cash
What about the loss of interest on that lump of money had it have remained in the bank? It will still cost you x £000 each month in depreciation. If your car was worth £15000 three months ago but now is booked at £14000 what ever way you count it its cost you £333.33 per month.

Car B: Contract Hire / Leasing
Various beneficial tax implications, off balance sheet financing, fixed costs, maintenance included.

The big issues are down to whether you are using it for business or self employed use. Also what mileage you are projecting and how long do you want to keep it.. Give me an answer to these and I'll tell you the best way to aquire the car.

Buy a car for £15'000 and sell it two years later for say £8000 and it has cost you £7000 in pound notes plus all the incidentals. Lease it over two years at £300 a month and you are financially better off.

It's all very well saying you own the car but what you actually own is a lump of metal that is worth less and less each month.

Buy a car and you've no worries with regards monthly payments. Lease or go finance on one and if you get laid off work you're still tied in to monthly payments for a fixed period that you might not be able to afford to pay with no wages coming in. I don't like anything on debt for that reason, the only thing that I have on debt is my mortgage, anything else I believe that you should save up to buy and only spend what you can afford to. Life's so much simpler that way. Any attempt to try and justify finance sounds like salesman talk to me.

How will you afford your mortgage if you get laid off from work then?

I agree, Mr Ripper, only today I bought a packet of tabs, four beers and a cup of coffee and none of it was anything but cash in hand.

From Mrs R's wages. If we were both not working for a year it'd be a problem eventually, but savings would cover it til then cos we're sensible enough to put money away in case anything like that happens. When we bought the house we borrowed what we knew we could pay out of one wage rather than what the mortgage companies wanted to lend us, which was at the time when they were offering 4 and 5 times your joint salary which we just thought was stupid and would eventually lead to a financial meltdown if people were actually taking on that level of debt.

Only four beers AND a coffee?

I guess it was lunchtime?

What smokes do you buy over there Double Happiness

Breakfast. One doesn't drink coffee at lunchtime. Bad form old horse.....

Ripper, in general terms I agree with you but on that basis just about every company in the UK would cease trading.

A business has to look at the best value in all aspects of capex not simply 'I prefer to own it' operating on your terms any decent size company would seriously hurt its balance sheet.

No, they are fookin' rank. I buy Shipai Xuejia, black lion cigarellas, although someone brought me three Hamlets over from Thailand and I'm rationing them at one a night. One to go....

No they wouldn't.

Every single bank in the UK would cease trading. Eh Cowboy??

I know I have tried them and they are awful as are a lot of brands over there I just stook to Marlbrough Lights. I just bought them fags as thought them being called double happiness was funny.

Forgot to make it clear my lease is a personal one, no business jiggery pokery to gain advantage.

My lease costs are less than the likely depreciation had I bought the car(by some margin) over the lease period.

I am self employed,not doing a great deal of miles,only about 12,000, looking for a 3 year contract hire

They're actually called 'Double A Penis' as they are easier to put in your mouth.

But only just....

Just buy a car for about £2k and job done.

So how do you know this guy doesn't have similar savings incase of similar possible eventualities?

Anyone in the know have any ideas were to look. Ive had a look on the ling website, and to be honest i couldnt see anything, in fact as someone pointed out i reckon that is the worst website design ever!

At 12'000 miles per year and for personal use you cannot beat buying a car I'm afraid, even if its on (low rate) finance.

Without going into too much details, i have to get this car through business contract hire, so if anyone could point me in the right direction to get a decent deal it would be appreciated.