Thank you to our existing personal leasing customer, from Bromsgrove (Worcestershire), for sending through pictures of their new car – the Seat Leon 3 door.
As an existing customer (previously on a business basis), we went through our formal “renewals” process to ensure there were no concerns or worries. When a customer is leasing a car for the first time, there is often some nervousness about how the process works and what obligations are on the customer. Fundamentally, you need to be aware of a number of key leasing criteria, which ensure you do not make any basic errors, in particular:
· Contract start date/end date;
· Annual mileage;
· Service intervals/tyre condition; and
· Condition of vehicle – fair wear and tear guide.
To ensure our customers do not have any concerns, we make contact with them “12 months” into the contract to ensure that the mileage, servicing and tyres are in an acceptable condition.
This is a great opportunity to review annual mileage, in particular if you are going well beyond the contract mileage, you need to adjust this to avoid any big excess mileage bills at the contract end. Additionally, we will get in touch with the customer 6 months before the end of the contract, to ensure the contract end date is clear and also to ensure the customer makes good any damage or problems with the vehicle. The BVRLA produce the fair wear and tear guide to assist with the condition – the end of the contract is not designed to catch-out customers, it is there to make sure cars are not treated improperly or abused.
In relation to the customer here, they had previously operated a “company car”, which meant that the car was lease via their company and the customer paid company car tax for using the vehicle. The issue for the customer, is that they did not enjoy the increasing level of tax which would be paid on the vehicle. For example, a car with 95g/km of CO2 would have an 18% BiK rate in 2017-18 whereas in 2020-21, the rate would be 24%. For customers looking forwards, the only real benefit to a company car will be for those drivers who operate a “zero emission range” which will result in lower BiK percentages.
If you do go for a car allowance, rather than a company car, you are going to receive a fixed allowance form your employer every month. While you do not pay tax on the car itself (i.e. P11d and CO2), the actual allowance you get is subject to income tax.
You will need to reduce the allowance you get by the rate of income tax you receive i.e. 20, 40 or 45%.
What about Whole of Life Leasing Costs?
When you are looking for a new car, you need to consider the “whole life costs” and not just a rental for the individual car itself. This means that you need to consider the monthly rental for the finance, the cost for including servicing, maintenance and tyres (funder-maintenance), the insurance for the vehicle and also the fuel (depending on how you pay for this with the company). Another fact to add to this, is that car leasing is a credit–based product. For those customers with bad-credit, if you have the option of a company car you may need to stick with this as you would be unable to lease a car personally.
In terms of the car shown, the Seat LEON SPORT COUPE 1.4 TSI 125 FR Technology 3dr Manual, this is based on the following:
· Desire Red Special Paint
· Cloth – Techny black
· 17″ Dynamic alloy wheels 30/2
As standard, the car includes footwell illumination, 17” alloys, cruise control, ambient lighting, navigation pack, rear reading lights, dark tinted windows, collision mitigation braking system, front assist with city emergency braking, hill hold control, front/rear floor mats, rear parking sensors, Bluetooth, 8” touch screen, body coloured mirrors, electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors, 2 x USB sockets, steering wheel mounted controls, body coloured externals, LED headlights and fog lights, climate control, illuminated glovebox, leather steering wheel, XDS differential lock, immobiliser and alarm with back-up horn. In terms of additional factory options consider – digital cockpit, seat sound pack, and the winter pack for a perfect car.
On the technical-side, company car and business users can note the P11d at £21,210.00 and CO2 at 120g/km for standard car. The 1395CC 6 speed manual engine delivers 54.3 combined MPG, 125ps and 0-62 times of 9.1 seconds.
So would the Seat Leon be your select car leasing option? Or would the BMW 1 series, Vauxhall Astra, Ford Focus or VW Golf or VW Scirocco or even a Renault Megan get your vote?
Find the webs best leasing deals on the awesome Seat Leon available now from @CarLease UK – or check out some other Seat lease cars we recently reviewed below.
