Buy your Lease Car
If your car has quite a bit of damage, you can buy your way out of trouble
by buying the car. If you have picked up quite a few scuffs and scratches,
unless you have totally changed your ways, then chances are that you would
get more of the same on a new car anyway. So why not buy the car, keep and
keep it another few years.
We see many people who have cars that they use for work, they often don't have
a driveway and have to park them in a busy street, they may have equipment
that they are loading and unloading which causes more wear... and it often
makes sense for them to buy the car, especially if it is well serviced and
low mileage, and you have looked after it in the main (Or a Japanese car that
goes on forever!!!).
Just bare in mind that although this is a way of avoiding the recharges, you
will still have to buy it at the price that the lease company wants to sell
it. They expect the car to be valued as a car in 'good' or 'clean' condition
in a standard trade valuation guide, refurbishment recharges are there to cover
any damage that brings them below this value. So even if your car is in poor
condition, expect to pay the good condition price.
The difference between a 3 year old car car in good condition and poor condition
can be between £1500 and £4000 depending on the make and model.
You can check out this out for yourself on the Glass's
Price Guide with your own car.
The flip side of this is that if you have kept your car in imaculate condition, i.e. much better than 'good condition', then you could have the oppotunity to buy a real bargain at the end of your lease. So keep this in mind if you are getting a new lease car - treat your car for protection and treat it as an investment.
