6 top tips for choosing a lease car for your business

How to choose the right vehicle for your business

Tom, one of Carparison’s Local Business Development Managers, gives us his top tips for choosing your next business car lease

Whether you’re new to business leasing, or you’ve been leasing cars for your company for years, it’s not always easy narrowing down what vehicle is going to be right for you.

Though many people will have an idea of the car they want after searching the internet or test-driving at a dealership, this isn’t always the case. The leasing process can be a daunting one, especially if you’re used to buying outright, but our experts are always on hand to guide you.

We sat down with Tom to find out his top tips on choosing the right business car lease deal for you.

1. Should I buy or lease a company car?

There are three main methods of financing a car: buying outright, going for a HP or PCP contract with the option to own the car at the end of the deal, and leasing.

It’s worth carefully considering all three before making your decision.

While buying outright and owning the asset might, on the face of it, seem like the sensible choice, leasing your company car might be the more cost-effective option.

Leasing can improve your cash flow.

By paying smaller monthly payments rather than a large sum upfront, you don’t have your working capital tied up into an asset like a car, freeing up money to be used elsewhere.

You can bundle in additional costs like maintenance, which not only helps you budget effectively but can also provide some peace of mind when it comes to fixing issues like replacing windscreen wipers.

Depreciation is also factored into the cost of the lease, so you won’t have to worry about selling the vehicle on and potentially losing money on it.

2. Who is it for?

Who the car is destined to be driven by will help narrow down the right car lease deal.

If the car is for a director who mainly works from home, then an electric car is perfect to take advantage of the tax savings available and help your business become greener and safer – especially if you have sustainability goals to reach and want to project a certain image.

And if the car is for someone whose job might change in the future – whether that’s their business mileage increasing or journey types changing – it’s worth opting for something now that will continue to serve you into the future. There’s no point going for a city car lease if you’re likely to start doing multiple motorway journeys in the near future.

3. What are your needs?

You might have an idea of what sort of car you want in mind, but does it meet your needs?

As Tom notes, though your heart might be set on a fast coupe for your next car lease, this won’t be very practical if you’re also planning to use your company car for family life. There aren’t many fast-growing teenagers who will fit in the back of an Audi TT Coupe without an argument.

It’s not just about the driver’s needs either, but the needs of the business, which could include leasing a car to help reduce the business’ CO2 emissions which will narrow down your choices to either a fully electric vehicle or a hybrid.

Your initial conversation with Carparison will highlight these needs and ensure that you end up in both the car you want and the car you need.

The more information you can give us, the more we can help you narrow down your choices.    

It isn’t just your needs that you need to consider.

You’ll be driving this car for up to four years, depending on your contract, so you want to make sure that the car is also a car that you want to drive.

Consider which brands are important to you, and which extras you’ll want: is wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto important to you, or do you want something a bit flashier that looks impressive on the driveway?

It’s also worth considering the ongoing costs of the car, including fuel, maintenance and insurance, and factoring these into your budget.

As Tom says, there’s not really a bad car on the market these days, with the technology – especially in electric vehicles – having advanced so much over the last few years. Cars that you may never have considered previously might end up ticking all of your boxes.

But – if your heart is set on a particular brand – your wants will always come into consideration when you’re working with our team.

5. Your other priorities

Once you’ve narrowed down what you need and what you want, you should think about your other priorities.

Is safety a big factor for you? Is your budget flexible? Is fuel efficiency important?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help Tom and the Business team help you. There is no such thing as too much information when it comes to narrowing down which car is going to be right for you, because there are so many cars on the market.

And there’s a good amount of stock around at the moment, which – while a great thing because it gives you a lot of choice – can sometimes be detrimental because there is so much choice.

But the Carparison team, with over 300 years of combined industry experience between them, aren’t new to the leasing game and can help you sift through the available offers to find that needle in the haystack.

6. Should you lease an electric car for your business?

You might be thinking about going electric.

This is something that Carparison can help with, but Tom warns that – although we are strong drivers of the transition to electric – an electric car lease still isn’t right for everyone.

It comes back to your needs: if you need something that can travel hundreds of miles every single week carrying equipment around, an electric car might not be what you’re after unless you can plan to stop and recharge as often as you’ll need. 

A plug-in hybrid (PHEV) might fit your profile a little better this time round, and with the rate the technology is changing, by the time you come to lease a new car a few years down the line, there might even be something on the market that can do 1,000 plus miles on a single charge.

But if an EV will fit your needs, wants and other priorities, then it is an excellent idea. An electric business car lease can offer advantageous tax savings, with the Benefit in Kind tax being fixed at 2% until 2025, as well as having cheaper lifetime running costs and boosting your business’s green credentials.

And, with our range of partners, Carparison can help make the transition to electric as smooth as possible, aiding you with everything from supplying the vehicle to getting a chargepoint installed, and even as far as helping you install solar panels at your workplace if needed.

How can Carparison help?

Our Local Business Development Team will never sell you a car that doesn’t suit your needs.

As Tom notes, it’s a fully consultative approach to business leasing.

Our team will always work with you to find a car that suits you, not a car that suits us.

As vehicle procurement specialists, we can offer nearly every make and model of car currently on the market – so there’s bound to be something that fits in your business and your budget.