While most of the vehicles we supply are brand-new, or no older than 6 months old if they are pre-registered, you must still service and maintain them in accordance with the intervals of the manufacturer.
For most modern vehicles this is set as every 12 months or every 10-15,000 miles, whichever lands sooner.
To assist customers, the car will often say the service is due; some even give you a countdown in days and/or miles.
With contract hire you have two clear choices to make before you order the vehicle and sign finance documents:
1) Driver-maintained – you agree to cover the cost of servicing, maintenance and tyres for the duration of the agreement. This is not something which you can change during the course of the agreement, so do consider this carefully.
When you are managing this process, you can either go to the franchised dealer or a VAT registered garage using genuine parts.
With regards to tyres, you need to ensure “premium” brands are used, you cannot replace them with part-worn or budget tyres. The risk is that if you do not conduct this process properly, you will be changed when the vehicle is returned at contract cessation. (Read more about driver maintained contracts…)
2) Funder-maintained – when you elect for this arrangement, the terms and conditions will be subject to the rules of the finance company used. As a broker, we work alongside a range of finance companies and they each adopt slightly different approaches to this. However, as a rule of thumb when you have funder-maintenance this will include all of the servicing, maintenance and tyres. On the latter part, some finance companies operate a “no quibble” policy on tyres which means that they cover you for punctures as well as fair wear. In some cases, breakdown recovery will be included too.
The end result is that you create a situation where you need only fuel and insure the car (or van), apart from interim coolant and/or ad blue requirements.
Should I go for a driver of funder-maintained agreement when leasing a car? What is cheaper? In most cases, the credit broker or finance company will present you with both options so that you can make an informed and intelligent decision.
The instinct from customers is often to go driver-maintained because it feels cheaper.
This is not the case, as you will have to service and maintain the vehicle at some point regardless, plus you never know when you might get a puncture. You therefore need to perform accurate calculations on what it is going to cost you over the contract term to service the car and arrange tyres; you then consider whether you would prefer to have this included and accounted for or simply budget yourself.
By having maintenance we find that planned-cost budgeting, no unexpected maintenance costs and having the “one call” telephone number provides most customers with a pleasant and certain experience.
For more info on leasing check out our Help and Advice page or be sure to read some more interesting lease car info below.