Car leasing is the best way to save yourself from a depreciation nightmare

Buying a new car is an exciting time for most people. A nice shiny new motor on your driveway, that fragrance when you jump inside and all the new technology to learn. The novelty can soon wear off when you realise how much it will depreciate within just three years, though. 

However, there is a solution: car leasing. Its popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, but it still suffers from a stigma. Many people just can’t get past the fact that they don’t ever actually own the car they’re paying for – and that’s the response I get every time I recommend leasing to friends and family. They often see it as throwing away money on something they will never own. But in reality it’s the opposite.

So just how much will leasing save you? Let me give you some facts and figures. The Nissan Qashqai – one of the best-selling cars in the UK over the past decade – is a perfect example of how great leasing can be. An entry-level 1.3 MHEV DiG-T Acenta Premium costs £30,615 brand new, although you can make decent savings via our Buy a Car service. However, its value will drop by more than 50 per cent in three years. That means a buyer will lose a massive £15,740.

But you can currently lease the same model for £201.80 per month through our Buy a Car service, after a £2,421 initial payment. Total cost over three years? £9,686. That’s a huge saving of £6,054. Why on earth would you buy a new car when leasing can save you over £2,000 per year? And this is just a representative example – I haven’t picked one of the UK’s fastest-depreciating cars to make a point. But if you’re after a GWM Ora 03, you’d save yourself a fortune: over £12,000, in fact.

There are also many other advantages to leasing. You don’t have to worry about paying road tax, you can pay a few extra pounds per month to have the car fully maintained (new tyres, servicing etc) and you then simply hand it back at the end of the term and start the process all over again. What’s more, because you pay monthly, there will be more money sitting in your bank account collecting interest. 

What are the downsides? There’s one big one: mileage. The Nissan example is based on 5,000 miles per year, and if you want to do more, you’ll have to pay more. You can either increase the annual allowance – for a little extra each month – or pay for every mile you go over the limit. This can put off many high-mileage drivers, but again, the reality isn’t as bad as some people think. 

Changing the above Qashqai deal to 20,000 miles per year bumps the payment up to £257.34 per month, with an initial payment of £3,088. That’s still only a total cost of £12,352 for the deal, and a saving of £3,388 over buying it new. It’s win-win.

I have been leasing cars for almost 10 years now, and I’m on my fourth contract, having saved a huge amount of money. I will simply never buy a new car again.

Buy a car with Auto Express. Our nationwide dealer network has some fantastic cars on offer right now with new, used and leasing deals to choose from...