Our guide to finding the best lease deal

Our guide to finding the best lease deal for your new car, van or commercial vehicle

Price is unsurprisingly (and quite justifiably) a primary concern for many of us when looking for a new car. Most importantly is the reassurance that we have the best possible lease deal for the vehicle we have chosen. Because why should we pay more than we have to?

The one exception to this rule comes with the assurance of customer support levels. When great customer service is guaranteed we are sometimes willing to pay slightly more for the same product. Luckily, as our customer reviews and gold standard service award attests to, market leading pricing and customer service are both areas we have covered. But don’t just take our word for it.

Carparison have a dedicated pricing team who work with funders and dealerships nationwide to source out the best possible lease deals so you don’t have to, many of which are exclusive only to us. Nevertheless, we understand the desire to compare lease prices from various suppliers in order to be absolutely sure that you get the best price.

With millions of potential deals up for grabs, how do you sift through the noise to find your perfect lease vehicle at the best possible price?

Our guide to finding the best lease deal consists of the following four steps:

Be flexible

A vehicle lease is designed to be customisable to the needs of the person undertaking it. As well as choosing your exact car and specification, you can choose between different term lengths, initial payments, annual mileages, and add-ons like maintenance or insurance.

There are logical structures to the way lease pricing will work; an example being that longer lease terms will produce a smaller monthly payment as depreciation slows over time yet the total cost is split between more months. Equally, the higher the annual mileage, the more the lease is expected to cost as mileage is directly linked to vehicle depreciation.

However, because of the way our team can negotiate unique special offers, this logic may not always apply. You therefore might find that a lease deal for three years is less per month than one over four. Or that a lease deal on 10,000 miles is actually cheaper than a lease deal on 8,000 miles. This is because it is possible that a funder with the strongest rate only offers a 10,000 minimum mileage or three year term.

If you have the option to be flexible on any areas of your lease, we would encourage you to ask your Leasing Consultant if there are any preferential terms. This may create a saving or allow you to get more for your money where you otherwise wouldn’t have considered it. It will also save you masses of time compared to searching each and every possible variant for yourself.

Be quick

It is easy to become distrustful of an advisor in a sales environment telling you that there are only a small number of your chosen cars remaining. However, unlike conventional dealerships that can be limited by physical location, the online vehicle lease market moves incredibly quickly. if you are told by your Carparison Leasing Consultant that stock is moving fast, or there are only a certain number of vehicles remaining in your chosen specification, this will be the case.

Contrary to the typical stereotype, it is our commitment to effectively communicate current stock levels with you at all times. This is to support our mantra of transparency and to ensure you are not led to disappointment due to our omission of information. We will absolutely not be doing so to add fictional urgency. When small numbers of stock are available or if your particular choice is an especially limited or popular one, we will let you know.

Registration timeframe restrictions can also impact lease deal validity. It is common for us to secure specific discounts on vehicles based on registrations within a certain timeframe. For example, a discount may apply on lease deals registered and delivered before the end of the month. If this timeframe passes, the discount will not be valid and therefore the price of the lease deal will increase once again. If any relevant restrictions of this nature apply to your chosen lease deal they will be made clear to you by your Leasing Consultant in order to inform your considerations.

We are only able to order a vehicle having secured finance approval. This process can take up to and over 24 hours to complete and the leg work is dependent on the funder rather than ourselves. For fairness, we place vehicle orders on a first come, first served basis following finance approval and there is no negotiation to the contrary.

Therefore, if you have found your perfect lease deal, our advice would be to make sure you don’t delay in sending in your finance application and risk missing out on securing your lease vehicle of choice.

Be vigilant

It is an unfortunate and frustrating tendency of some leasing brokers to advertise rates on cars that do not physically exist. This is in order to encourage enquiries that they then divert onto different models and is particularly prevalent on lease deal comparison sites that reward only a race to the lowest possible figure, not highlighting value or realistic stock levels. The logic is that the advertised cars can theoretically be ordered on a factory build basis, and therefore they list the lowest possible cost price for a vehicle, rather than reflecting what is actually available for immediate order. For this they then show at the top of the list, getting more hits as a result.

While this isn’t an issue for anyone intending to place a factory order, it is an issue for the majority wanting a stock vehicle that can be delivered within ten to fourteen days.

Carparison, in contrast, are committed to only advertising deals that exist. We will not purposefully attract your attention with a fictitious rate, only to up-sell you into something else more favourable to ourselves. Any rare divergence from this will be unintentional and the result of unforeseen and unavoidable delays in stock book updates. We also advertise our best possible rate first time; no awkward negotiation required.

Our third step to finding the best lease deal is therefore to ensure that any rates under consideration are real and are consequentially available in the timeframe you require.

Be curious 

As we’ve mentioned previously, relying on your Leasing Consultant can be a vital and easy way to gain insight into the market and any current or upcoming offers. Every enquiry we receive will be looked after by a dedicated Leasing Consultant whose sole aim is to find you the best possible vehicle and lease deal based on your personal requirements. So, lean on them to do exactly that!

Not only will your Leasing Consultant have visibility on any preferential rates, they will also know of any alternative vehicles that are returning particularly good rates. Once again, if you are flexible on elements of your lease, your Leasing Consultant could help save you money by finding a lease vehicle and deal you hadn’t even considered.

It can often go against our natural instinct, but with vehicle leasing the best way to find the best lease deal, quickly, is to share and trust in the teams we have who are working away for this very purpose. Not only our team of experienced and knowledgeable Leasing Consultants with whom you will be in direct contact with, but our talented and relentless team of pricing analysts.

Tom Clarke, Head of Pricing and Procurement confirms, “My sole job as Pricing Manager and that of my Team is to build relationships with our supplying Dealers and Funder partners so that we can seek out the best stock of the best cars at the best possible price. The Team are always looking for a way to get an exclusive deal unique to us in the market so that our Leasing Consultants can be confident that they are providing you the very best offer available. Our time is spent nurturing the relationships we have so that we are offered stock cars as soon as they are available, told about the best offers in the market and then can seek the very best funding rates to offer to our Customers so that they can be assured they are getting the best price for the car they want with 5 star service to boot.”

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Other tips to ensure you spend as little as possible on your lease vehicle:

• Be accurate when choosing your annual mileage limit – You will be charged per mile that you exceed your total mileage limit at the end of the lease. You will be charged between 4 - 35 pence per mile (the amount will be clear on your lease documentation) and this fee will always exceed the cost of incorporating the cost of your mileage into the lease itself. Therefore, being accurate when you choose your mileage and allowing for plenty of extra miles will save you money overall. Equally, not overestimating this figure will ensure you are not overpaying for miles you aren’t using.
• Consider manufacturer warranty – check the standard manufacturer warranty that is included on your lease vehicle of choice. If your lease vehicle is covered for the entire lease term by this warranty, any unexpected warranty repairs will already be covered at no extra cost to yourself. Contrastingly, you will be responsible for any repairs on lease vehicles where the term extends beyond the warranty period.
• Consider putting more money into your initial payment. It isn’t the case with all funders, but investing a higher initial payment can sometimes reduce the overall cost of the lease. This is because the funder may reduce their fees as you are borrowing less money from them overall.