For Example

If you lease a vehicle which is worth £30,000 (such as a new Audi A4) for 3 years you will probably end up paying roughly £12500 as that is how much the vehicle will depreciate over your leasing period. Therefore you will be paying about £350 a month for the 36 months of your leasing period. If you like to have money to hand at all times this may well be more preferable than trying to pay of the hole £30,000 pounds which will require a £6,000 pound down payment straight away should you need a loan to pay off the rest of the cost and desire the best in terms of interest rates (as opposed to a down payment of approximately £1750 when leasing). The short term benefits of leasing then may well be enough to convince you that this is the right option for you, but let us consider the long term benefits of actually buying the £30,000 vehicle.

Whilst to start it will seem like you are shelling out a huge amount in down payments and monthly loans remember that you are not just giving your money away, you are building equity and an investment of sorts, as when you have finally purchased the vehicle in its entirety, you will have the option of selling your car for its resale value. And will in turn see a lot of your money return, roughly £18,500 in the case of the £30,000 vehicle we have been using, so therefore you could argue that you have only actually spent £11,500 putting you in a better position than the leaser. Although again it is down to personal preference as the leaser may see the £1000 pounds extra as worth it for the benefits and perks of having leased a vehicle (money in the pocket, new car and no huge upfront payments etc). Also this is only an example and the numbers could look very different depending upon the deal that you make.