Thank you to our car rental partners, Enterprise at Leigh Greater Manchester for allowing us to photograph their latest fleet addition – the Alfa Stelvio SUV.
For any individuals or businesses looking for short term car hire in the Leigh/Wigan/St Helens/Warrington area just speak with the Enterprise team. As one of the UK’s largest car rental companies, they have a huge array of vehicle available to rent.
So would you select the Alfa Stelvio as your next SUV leasing option? Or would the Mercedes GLC, BMW X3 or Audi Q5 be your preferred lease car?
So why rent a car rather than lease? It is important to distinguish between the two products as customers often consider that these are the same – they are not! Contract hire (which is “Leasing”) is a long-term product based on a 2, 3 or 4 year fixed term contract and which is based on your credit (or that of your business/its directors).
Think of leasing as a genuine alternative to buying a new or used car; this is not a product which you would use as a short term or interim measure. You wouldn’t lease a car while you awaited a new car to be delivered to you.
This is very much a usership-style agreement and is not suitable for those customers looking to purchase the vehicle. It is also important to note that leasing is a fixed term agreement and you are not entitled to return the vehicle at any time without cost. Also consider that your annual mileage is taken into account for the price you pay.
A rental agreement is far more flexible and easy to arrange With a car rental agreement you can often return the car, or van, on a day’s notice and so is ideal for those individuals or businesses who need a vehicle for a specific timeframe or project.
Some businesses change their vehicle requirements on a regular basis and could need small car for one month and then have a requirement for a big estate the following month.
Using contract hire just wouldn’t work here as there is no option to swap, change or upgrade the vehicle.
For our personal customers needing to change their car for a weekend or when they are moving to a new house, car rental would be the ideal solution. For our business customers, the common scenario is that they have a new starter on a probationary period and they need a short to medium term solution. The most practical route would be to pursue the rental product, as there are no early termination fees or penalties with the rental product.
If the employee did not meet the employer’s standards or they decide to leave, the company would not be stuck with a vehicle they do not require. For any new start employees, we suggest the rental and flexi-lease product. With car rental, you often have big or unlimited mileage.
So why isn’t everyone renting a car? The main obstacle is cost. Renting a car is far more expensive that leasing one; here you have the argument of flexibility vs price.
Sometimes you will pay 3-5 times more per month to rent the car as opposed to leasing it.
For shorter time periods, this isn’t an issue but as you start to go beyond 6 and 12 months, the costs can end up being somewhat substantial. However, for some customers show have poor credit or who have a new start business, they might be unable to proceed further with contract hire and therefore can only pursue rental. In these instances, we suggest that our customers use the rental/non-status approach to build up their credit profile and history. After one year of doing this, we may be able to help them through our cheaper products.
In terms of the car shown here, the Alfa Romeo STELVIO DIESEL ESTATE 2.2 D 210 Speciale 5dr Auto, this is based on the following configuration:
Montecarlo Blue Metallic Paint
Leather – Black
20″ Dark 5 petal design alloy wheels
As standard the car includes automatic rain sensing wipers, privacy glass, hill descent control, integrated brake system, front/rear floor mats, Apple car play/Android auto, forward collision warning, front and rear parking sensors, lane departure warning system, stop/start system, remote tailgate release, 7” instrument cluster, 8.8” colour display, 3D navigation, power folding door mirrors, DAB radio, steering wheel mounted controls, bi-xenon headlights, LED brake lights, cold weather pack, sports pack, 4-way lumbar support, 6-way power front seats, immobiliser and Thatcham vehicle theft alarm.
In terms of additional options consider adding active cruise control, power express open/close sunroof and the Harmon Kardon audio pack.
On the technical-side company car and business users can note the P11d at £44,630.01 and CO2 at 147g/km. The 2143CC 8 speed auto diesel engine delivers 49.5 combined MPG (EC), 210ps and 0-62 times of 6.6 seconds.