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The importance of using a broker rather than a bucket shop for lease cars has been highlighted again this week following the consolidation of the leasing industry. Where your lease provider may have been merged or taken over by another provider you may find yourself subjected to end of lease charges that you may not have received by the original provider who may have been fairly relaxed about defleet recharges. Read more »

Finally, it’s happened, a company has brought out an insurance policy to cover the ever growing end of contract refurbishment charges for cars and vans that will be returned to the leasing company at the end of the lease. The cost of the policy will range between £290 and £350 for a standard family sized car and it will cover vehicle damage over and above fair wear and tear up to £1,500. This may seem like Read more »

 Contract hire is still by far the most popular method used to finance vehicles according to members of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association. Contract hire of cars has remained pretty static over the last 5 years, consistently hovering around 1.3 million mark. LCV’s (vans) have dropped slightly over the years from 180,000 to 176,000. Contract purchase and personal contract purchase have both dipped over the last year. So it seems that businesses and consumers continue to understand the benefits of contract hire, long may it continue. By Graham Hill

 If you are a regular reader of my articles you will know that I don’t regard those expert advisors that write in the media about car finance very highly. In fact I regard most as being daft as a house brick. But whilst an article that appeared in the Independent didn’t really change my views there were a couple of points over which I had to agree, as painful as it was! The reporter suggested that the scrappage scheme cash may run out by mid October which is a feeling shared and hoped for by Read more »

Fraud is on the increase as Internet and other car finance brokers find themselves up against it. Add this to the fact that people are now starting to realise that loans are not simply down to APR and leasing isn’t simply down to monthly rental. Take out finance and you have to sign a document locking you into many terms and conditions that you agree to by Read more »

Which car holds its price best? I would have said Mini as it has held the title for some time but a few surprises have taken over, possibly as a result of high demand for smaller cars and fewer cars available in the used car market as a result of the scrappage scheme. The best performer, according to Glass’s Guide, over 3 years has been the Peugeot 107 which has retained 60.9% of its value. This has been followed by the Toyota Aygo (60.2%) and the Suzuki Swift (59.5%). My flabber has never been so gasted! By Graham Hill

Thinking of selling your car and taking out a lease on a new car? Well, according to Manheim, the car auction house, now is a good time for you to sell you car as used car prices have been shooting up recently. An 8 month old ex rental car with less than 8,000 miles on is now fetching £2,200 more than it was a year ago. Manheim auctions increased their average sale price by 4% in July over June whilst British Car Auctions saw a 3% increase. Year on year prices are up by Read more »

One of the things that makes a car look really ‘scruffy’ is a badly scratched or scuffed alloy wheel and yet it is so easy to damage but just as easy to repair. There are a number of companies that will offer a local service. They will call round and either fix the wheel(s) at the roadside or take the car away and bring it back later with the wheel(s) looking like new. This is quite useful to know because if you return a lease car Read more »

I mentioned in recent items the move in the industry from 3 rentals in advance to 6 rentals when contract hiring vehicles, suggesting that this could be as a result of  lenders requiring more security by taking larger upfront payments. It has now come to light that this is more likely to be the case and 6 advanced rentals likely to become Read more »

Having revealed that end of lease charges have hit an all time high, according to auction house and de-fleeting company, Manheim, with charges up by 9% in the last 18 months, they have also explained that part of the reason for this unfriendly approach is lack of interest in the customers shown by the leasing companies. They feel that this may be because the customer retention rate is only running at 33%. But then if the leasing companies stopped charging such ridiculous amounts at the end of each lease maybe their customer retention rates would increase. Don’t you just despair sometimes? By Graham Hill