Thank you to our business leasing customer, from Wolverhampton (West Midlands), for sending through pictures of their latest luxury vehicle – the Range Rover Sport.
As a partnership, which a common business constitution for solicitors, accountants and surveyors (amongst other service professionals), there were some queries about the underwriting process. To be clear, contract hire is a credit based process and before we are able to order a vehicle for you, the business (sole trader/partnership or limited company) must first successfully compete a credit underwrite. In particular, if you are looking to lease a luxury car like a Range Rover, you will need to ensure you have all your accounting information in place.
When a customer asks us about a vehicle, we do make it clear that they have to consider that if this is an expensive vehicle, particularly if it exceeds £50,000, there is some question of affordability which will ultimately be presented before an underwriter.
To assist a partnership looking to lease a vehicle, we commonly ask for the information below (unless it is an LLP – they will have accounts published on companies house):
| INFORMATION REQUIRED | AMOUNT (£) |
| Annual turnover for the last trading year | |
| Annual cost of sales | |
| Annual expenses |
In addition, we will sometimes ask for EACH individual partner (up to a maximum of four) to send to us:
- A driving licence;
- A Passport; and/or
- Utility Bill not more than 3 months old.
With a partnership, we will expect all of the partners to supply various details to us, even if the car is for one specific partner. The fundamental reason for this is that with a partnership, you have joint and several liability which essentially means that if one partner takes a vehicle and the business fails to pay for it, all of the partners risk being liable to the finance company for this. In an era of Treating Customers Fairly, we ensure that the personal details are obtained for each individual partner (generally up to a maximum of four) and will also ask for a partnership letter to be signed. A partnership letter will provide permission for one partner (usually the one taking the vehicle) to sign for and on behalf of the partnership. It will also be very clear that responsibility for the vehicle is shared by all partners. This is something which can often be forgotten.
Land Rover has been in the press quite a lot this year and not exactly for the right reasons. Ralf Speth, the boss of “JLR” has not been heartened by the Brexit discussions which the UK have been undertaking. Added to that, is his belief that much of the Government’s approach to diesels is costing the company money and jobs – a number of plants have seen hours being reduced/redundancies as result of this.
Because of the nature of the product, the vehicles have higher P11d values and are fundamentally a diesel based product.
In light of our emission based taxation policy, this has not encouraged companies to take on the Range Rover product. While the Government have come out to say that electric is the future, our systems and infrastructures are not yet suitable (and they may never be). Yes we have the Jaguar I-Pace, which is a fully electric vehicle, but with the recent announcement that grants have been reduced/removed, this is not particularly beneficial for these types of vehicles. This has culminated in the some of the plants, like Solihull, being shut down for 2 weeks.
Other Land Rover operations are moving outside of the UK.
Thankfully, groups like the BVRLA are starting to integrate with the Government to highlight some of these issues. In essence, we have a perfect storm which is leading some manufacturers to removed investment from the UK as customers really don’t know what car to actually buy/lease – petrol, diesel, PHEV or fully-electric.
Even for a broker like ourselves, we are equally confused by the situation and cannot properly answer some of the queries being presented to us. For example, is diesel dead? Absolutely not; for cars like the Range Rover this still represents the most practical choice and customers should not be put off by the conjecture. Yes, company car drivers need to consider the impact of their Benefit in Kind BUT there is nothing, from a technical/engineering point of view, which says you shouldn’t choose this form of combustion engine.
In terms of the car shown here, the RANGE ROVER SPORT DIESEL ESTATE 3.0 SDV6 HSE 5dr Auto, this is based on the following configuration:
- Premium metallic – Carpathian grey
- Dark Grey Oak Veneer Finisher
- Perforated windsor leather – Ivory
- Colourway – Ebony/Ivory
- Morzine ebony headlining
- Heated steering wheel
- 21″ 5 split spoke silver finish alloy wheels – style 5007
- Head up Display
- Privacy glass (to rear of B post)
- Fixed panoramic sunroof with electric sunblind – (Body Coloured)
- Pixel LED headlights with headlight washers
- Extra additional screen washer bottle
- Electrically deployable towbar with electrics
As standard the car includes ambient interior lighting, electronic air suspension, cruise control, lane departure warning, Meridian 380W audio system, 40way lumbar support with memory function, rear view camera, heated front and rear seats, climate control, front parking aid with visual display, alloy spare wheel, 20” alloys, leather upholstery (Windsor), matrix LD lights, 16-way driver and passenger adjustable seats, steering wheel gearshift addles, front and rear carpet mats, heated washer jets, auto locking differential, CBS, electronic traction control, hill descent control, roll stability control, trailer stability assist, Bluetooth, electric gesture tailgate, push button starter, navigation with 10” touch screen, virtual instrument panel, auto dimming rear view mirror, electric heated and adjustable folding mirror, DAB radio, InControl protect, automatic headlights, follow me home headlights, leather steering wheel, keyless entry, immobiliser and perimetric/volumetric anti-theft alarm. In terms of additional extras, perhaps consider adding to the HSE – privacy glass, sliding panoramic glass roof, contrast roof and the upgraded alloys.
On the technical-side, company car and business users can note the P11d of £66,535.00 and CO2 at 198g/km. The 2993CC 8 speed auto engine delivers 37.7 combined MPG, 306ps and 0-62 times of 6.8 seconds. Service intervals are set at every 12 months or 16,000 miles.
So would you select the Range Rover Sport as your next car leasing option? Or would the Mercedes GLE, Audi Q7 or BMW X5 be your choice?
Find the webs best Range Rover Sport leasing deals for personal or business use @CarLease UK – you can also read more 4×4 reviews below.
