End of lease

[ChrisMiller]

About 18 months ago, I posted that I'd talked to Lex about buying my company car at the end of its 3 year lease-rental, but they told me this was not possible. As the lease is up in a few more weeks, I tried again and this time they are prepared to sell, but not to me. It seems they can't sell a company car to a director or their spouse (I'm the sole director of my one-man company) - I think it may be because this would turn it into a lease-purchase and mess up their tax/VAT accounting. So my brother is going to buy my PHEV and sell it back to me the next day .

Looks like I'll be hanging around this forum a while longer ...

 

[jdsx]

Are you going to let him drive it? Do you really trust him?? (Just in case he decides he likes it.... :lol: )

 

[ChrisMiller]

If he wants it that badly, he can have it Actually, he's a Prius driver and hasn't really got room for a larger car.

 

[Craigy]

Hi, out of interest (I don’t want details) but was it a good deal? My last car I tried to buy from lex at end of lease and it was a ridiculous price; others have got reasonable deals though.

 

[ChrisMiller]

I've only had Lex's initial offer, with a hint that they would be willing to negotiate 'a bit'. Almost exactly £20k for a 3yo with 23,000 miles which is towards the top end of what Autotrader and Parkers have on offer. It's obvious that they won't get anything like that by passing it on to a car auction (BCA), but we'll see how much hard ball they're prepared to play.

From my perspective, I could:

- Let it go to auction and buy it back, almost certainly cheaper (and if I were lucky, quite a lot cheaper), but that means being without it for a few weeks (I imagine - it's over Christmas and New Year, unfortunately, so probably longer than normal), with issues for keeping the insurance going - and needing to travel to the auction centre which isn't that close by.

- Buy a new car - tempting, but obviously a lot more money.

- Buy a second-hand car, but then I don't know the history.

So I expect I'll choose the easy option and buy it from Lex.

 

[gobiman]

Try getting a quote from webuyanycar.
We had a similar situation last year albeit my company (my wife and I) owned the car so negotiating with ourselves.
Wanted the lowest justifiable price from any source and webuyanycar provided it .
I suspect their models rely on people being desperate for cash at Christmas so prices drop.

 

[ps44]

I'm encouraged by that valuation as I'm looking to trade mine with similar age and mileage for a 19MY in the next few months.

 

[ChrisMiller]

Webuyanycar quoted just over £17k, but that's a buyer's price not a seller's (and their business model is to make a lowball offer, though they'll automatically up it by a few hundred after a week, if you wait). But for your purposes, gobiman, that's just what you needed

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Our 3-year-old 4hs was £17k when we bought it from a Mitsubishi dealer. The mileage was a bit higher, but so was the spec. I would hope that the Lex price would come down by at least 10%

 

[ChrisMiller]

£17k is a very competitive price, having had a look at the major car trading sites. It's noticeable that the pre-facelift models are a fair bit cheaper, is that because the warranty changed at the same time?

 

[user 816]

Is it on full maintenance and tyres?

If so and you end up buying it, be careful not to get several punctures just before, so Lex don't have to replace all those part worn tyres with brand new ones

 

[ChrisMiller]

Naughty, Bob! But I have to buy my own tyres

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Don't think so. Facelift models arrived during 15-plate AFAIK. Ours is pre-facelift but registered post-1/1/15, so has the longer warranty. Maybe prices have hardened since Easter, as I managed to negotiate a good but not outstanding price at the time.

Mind you, the same thing happened with our Zoe. We bought it off Renault for £5k and prices for similar one rose to well over £6k within a few months. That was due to a shortage while an updated model came out: maybe the same factors are at play here with MY19 model

 

[ChrisMiller]

Of course, what I'd forgotten was that the government car grant ceased for PHEVs in October, which has pushed up new and used prices by around 10%. (Good news for leasing companies.)

 

[ChrisMiller]

I'm sure you're all desperate to know what happened

I'm now the registered owner of my original leased car - my brother bought it from Lex (for a bit less than £20k - I paid for it) and then I 'bought' it from him (for £0) once the V5C had arrived from DVLA (may take 'up to 6 weeks', but actually took a week, even with the Christmas post). So I'm happy enough with the outcome. All the transfers can be done easily online, which is reasonably impressive for a government system.