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As if to support my comments made over the last few weeks market analyst Datamoniter has recorded a growth in vehicle leasing in the fleet sector as more companies release cash tied up in their vehicles and reduce exposure to market conditions by selling off the cars they own and replace them with leased vehicles. New vehicle sales generally slumped further in August from the July drop of 7.3% to an unprecedented 15.6%. Consumers, unaware of the cash flow benefits of leasing new cars, have really Read more »

OK now I’ve filled you with doom and gloom let me give you the good news. Whilst this new superleasing company (Lloyds/TSB Lex) will dominate the market, because of the scale of their operation they will have to concentrate more on the large fleets rather than the SME and consumer sectors, thereby increasing competition amongst the smaller players. As a result contract hire companies such as Leaseplan, Lombard, Masterlease etc will concentrate on model specific deals. Whilst the superlease company will arrange Read more »

Whilst the city shakes to the after effects of the Lloyds TSB/HBOS takeover no one has yet mentioned the effect on the car leasing industry as the new company will not only result in control of the mortgage industry but it will also give domination over the car leasing industry. In May 2006 HBOS took total control of Lex Vehicle Leasing (LVL) by buying out the 50% shareholding owned by Aviva. This gave HBOS Read more »

Over the years I have often found myself locking horns with accountants over the benefits of leasing. Most accountants fall into one of two categories, they either ‘get it’ totally or are totally clueless. Of course all of my accountant readers ‘get it’ totally. It was highlighted last week once again when I couldn’t get a potential client’s accountant to appreciate that by taking a lease his client would save around Read more »

As the credit crunch bites harder funders and brokers/intermediaries fight each other for the lowest rates on the Internet to encourage you to use them, sometimes as a result of lying and conning. So now is the time to be very very careful as to which company you use to provide your car if you want to avoid problems in the future. Probably the most important fact to be aware of is that the person you place your business with on the Internet is not working for the funder or the dealer – he is actually working for Read more »

I recently warned anyone who has a car they own to get out of it as soon as possible and get into a lease car that carries no residual risk and reduces cash flow. The drop in used car values achieved at auction has again been highlighted by British Car Auctions who reported an average monthly drop in May of 3 year old cars of 2.6%. This continued into June with the average drop reaching 4.2%, the largest single month’s movement for several years. Again, get out of car ownership and into a form of finance which takes away all of the residual risk. By Graham Hill