Our lass has been put on the lease scheme by her employer (Notts NHS), and has been offered a Focus 1.6 diesel, up to 8000 personal miles a year for £230 a month.

It's supposed to be subsidised with it being an HNS scheme, but it seems a bit dear to me.

Can anyone recommend a leasing company that will do a good deal on the same car?

Try Tilsun's

What does this 'lease' include? maintenance, RFL, tyres, replacement vehicle etc etc.

What does 8000 'personal' miles mean? How do they differentiate between business and personal mileage? Does personal include commuting? It does to the tax man.

What model is it? Focus 1.6 what?

What lease period and what payment profile? is it 3 months up front for example?

Give me the figures and I'll tell you if its good or bad.

Incidentally, if you bought a bog standard Focus 1.6 Style on finance it would be a sight more than that.

Say you did a good deal on the price and got 10% off, it would still cost you £12'800 plus interest.
Assuming 12000 miles a year, after three years it would be worth £3700, thats £275 a month just in depreciation.

Thats without servicing, road tax, tyres etc etc.

So the morals of the story are don't buy a Ford and finance is for idiots.

Just corrected that for you.

But otherwise concurring?

Most definitely. When I got back to the UK I went to buy a car but couldn't get finance due to my lack of credit history. So I looked at leasing and it seemed to contradict all common sense but in any case it was a better deal than borrowing the money. Finally they refused me for that too though didn't they *.
So I bought a rather posh 2nd hand car for 5 grand cash and I couldn't be more pleased.

* Now the companies are practically begging me to borrow off them - well stuff 'em!! They've got their billions from the govt so I'm waiting for them to give me my money back, not lend me it!!

You will need to take into account that there will be a tax benefit associated with the car that will probably make it not worthwhile.

Regardless have a look here, it is a little bit "busy" but has some excellent deals

http://www.lingscars.com/index.php?status=pcp

Depends. I assume you are referring to BIK in comparison to a company car.

It's a fair point, is she able to claim business use on a pence per mile basis? Not that that is going to make a difference in terms of where she leases it from.

Either way, a company car is still a very good deal for just about anyone in comparison to buying. It all depends on your ability to reclaim mileage allowance and your business mileage.

She's left the quote at work so I can't see the details!

If she remembers to bring it home I'll post the spec.

The problem is that our own cars are both over 10 years old and won't last forever, and a subsidised lease seemed a good way of replacing hers.

It seems extortionate to me like.

Mr Ripper, how do you figure that finance is for mugs?

Lets say that you are buying your car over 12 months just to keep the maths simple, the formulae would work over any period but this makes it easier to understand.

You pay cash and sit back smugly. It's you car isn't and it isncosting you anything in finance charges. Unfortunately that is complete bollocks.

Your 12k would otherwise be sitting in the bank earning your interest. Not much at the moment but the point is valid.

Under normal circumstances you could expect a 4 or 5% return on your dosh sitting in a savings account. On £12'800 thats an annual interest return of £640. Had you taken the 0% interest option that £640 would still be yours at the end of the year. Instead, the dealer has taken the money and he has earned interest.

You are going to pay depreciation which ever way you play it but if you were wiser you would take advantage of the free interest period and gain from leaving your money in the bank.

Is it shite extortinate, its a decent deal. It's cheaper than owning it thats for sure.

I think I know how this NHS lease deal works, if it was the same as my wifes NHS lease car deal and my memory holds up:

The NHS leased the car at £XXX per month from the finance company and my wifes contributions were £yyy per month for private mileage.

There is tax to pay on the benefit , i.e the taxable value of the car (the bit the NHS paid) minus a % of the contribution my wife paid, can't remember exactly what the taxable benefit was but it was significant, like reducing my wifes tax code by a half maybe.

So the real cost is the contribution plus whatever extra in tax you pay. In the end it wasn't worth it, although it did seem a good idea at the time.

I would be amazed if you couldn't get a better 2 year personal lease deal elsewhere for the price of your wifes contributions and obviously with no tax liability.

Hope this helps and you can check out the real cost rather than just the headline cost.

Maybe I'm just an old fashioned kinda guy who thinks that if you want something you should save up and buy it, and if you can't afford to save up and buy it then you can't afford to have it.

If I get made redundant at work I know that the only outgoings I have are my mortgage and my monthly bils like gas, leccy, council tax etc. No loan companies hovering wanting their pound of flesh for a profligate lifestyle that I couldn't really afford.

The buy now pay if I can later culture encouraged by the one eyed Scottish bastad has got this country into it's current mess.

Ah but thats a completely different argument and one most people would agree with in general. Inccidentally; most peoples biggest asset and their biggest liability is the roof over their head. I take it you paid in cash rather than getting into a huge debt?

As for the car, I'm just pointing out that the system can be used to your advantage and that getting it on teh chucky isn't always a bad idea but you have to do the maths first.

I've never bought a house without at least a 15% deposit and have only borrowed about 50% of what the mortgage companies wanted me to take on. That's called common sense.

I do concur that it can be financially beneficial to take advantage of 0% finance but only if you keep the money you'd have paid in cash to one side and there wasn't a better deal to be had by paying cash instead of taking the finance. A lot of people still like to see cash in their hand before they decide what to put on their tax returns.

So we have some concurrence.

By the way, on the lease deal it might be better to look at 'flexible leasing' which means you basically have no hire period and can send it back when you feel like it.