Car Leasing News

Comparecontracthire.com is used by many small businesses when searching for their next company car as it provides live pricing, online, compared DIRECT from the top UK vehicle finance companies. These are the companies who take the risk on the asset and actually own the cars or vans.

We are often asked what are the top models on the site and here is the latest data on models year to date;

1) BMW 3 Series Diesel Saloon 2) Audi A3 Diesel Sportback 3) Volkswagen Golf Diesel Hatchback 4) Nissan Navara Diesel 5) Audi A4 Diesel Saloon 6) Volkswagen Scirocco Coupe 7) Volkswagen Scirocco Diesel Coupe 8)- BMW 1 Series Diesel Hatchback 9) Audi A3 Diesel Hatchback 10) BMW 5 Series Diesel Saloon 11) Volkswagen Golf Hatchback 12) Mercedes C Class Diesel Saloon 13) BMW 3 Series Diesel Touring 14) Jaguar XF Diesel Saloon 15) Mazda Mazda6 Diesel Hatchback 16) Audi A4 Diesel Avant 17) Audi A5 Diesel Coupe 18) BMW 1 Series Diesel Coupe 19) Audi Q5 Diesel Estate 20) Honda Civic Diesel Hatchback

One new model that is starting to gain a lot of interest is the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta and we expect this model to break into the top 20 model list shortly.

In a market where car leasing business opportunities are competitive, we recommend you look at the total cost of car leasing rentals, rather than the cheap headline rentals that some companies seem to be promoting at the moment. All the prices on Comparecontracthire.com are quoted with a three month initial rental, to ensure prices are quoted on a ”like for like” comparison.

If you see a rental at £199+VAT per month, check what the initial rental is, as you may find it is significant cost i.e. £1000 for example or even 6 months initial rental.

This equates to £1194 (6 months rental) plus 35  rentals x £199+VAT per month, which totals £8,195 +VAT you will end up paying over the life of the contract.

The equivalent rental on a standard 3+35 plan (38 equal rentals) would be £215.66+VAT per month (£8,195 divided by 38).

So the main tactics employed by some other companies seems to be asking you for a higher initial rental, advertising a longer duration than 3 years, charging a document fee, or offering a contract hire rental at  a low annual mileage, like 6,000 miles per annum.  All of these tactics reduce the ongoing monthly rental you will be charged and are just used to get you to contact the companies concerned.

In order to make sure you compare car leasing prices on a like for like basis we recommend you use the following checklist.

Are you comparing on the exact same model?  – Look at the manufacturer recommended list price (basic price plus VAT) to make sure it is a current model year. Non-current models (old stock or old shape vehicles) may be offered to you, with different specifications to the vehicle you think you are actually ordering.

What are the payment terms being offered?  How many rentals do you have to put down and how many subsequent payments will you have to make?  – Bigger initial payments, followed by longer payment periods, will make the headline rental look much lower than it actually is.

Is there a document fee upfront and if so how much is it?  – Divide this fee by the total number of rental payments to see how much this adds to the monthly rental.

How long is the lease contract for? Rentals will vary depending on the term and generally the longer the length of contract, the less expensive the rental becomes.

What is the annual mileage allowance being offered to you? – The smaller the mileage annual allowance provided the less your rental will be.  If you choose a lower contractual mileage, than your actual mileage, you will get an excess mileage bill when you send the vehicle back.

What type of contract hire leasing is being quoted i.e. is it with our without full maintenance for example? – Make sure you know what is included in the contract and what is not.

Finally are you looking at the rental with or without VAT added? – VAT will be added to any contract hire rental and your ability to reclaim this depends on your own company status i.e. VAT registered or not? If you are a private individual and opting for personal contract hire for example, you should be looking at the rental including the VAT.

All rentals on Comparecontracthire.com, whatever the term or mileage you choose , are compared on a “like for like” basis.

Comparecontracthire.com provides three ways to get a car leasing or van contract hire quote via the Exact Model contract hire quote engine, the new Super Shopper (searching for vehicles body type, CO2 and mpg) or via the Special Offers section.

The Exact Model quote engine has been enhanced to make car leasing quoting even easier as a new Modify Your Quote Section has been introduced. On the previous version of the Exact Model quote engine, once you had reached the quote results stage, you could alter your contractual terms (i.e. 24 months, with maintenance and 20,000 miles per annum) but if you wanted a new vehicle quote you had to start all over again.

The new Modify Your Quote Section allows you to either change the exact model description or the terms in one easy to use process, with your last model quoted already defaulted. Car leasing quoting now gets even easier with over 12,000 new car and van leasing prices instantly available DIRECT from our panel of Vehicle Leasing Partners

The team at Comparecontracthire.com, the UK’s DIRECT car leasing comparison site,wishes all customers a great Christmas.

BMW Corporate Finance has joined the panel of finance partners at Comparecontracthire.com, providing their competitive BMW car leasing prices to Limited Companies and LLPs up to a fleet of 50 vehicles.

BMW is an extremely popular model on the site and BMW contract hire prices are available now with additional complimentary options being provided as part of the BMW Business Partnership Programme.

Comparecontracthire.com, the car leasing and van contract hire price comparison site for SMEs, has launched its new Super Shopper which makes searching for your next vehicle even easier.

You can now search for vehicle leasing prices by body type, monthly rental, CO2 g/km emissions, combined MPG, fuel and transmission, in one easy to use quote engine. This gives you access to contract hire rentals on over 12,000 new vehicles in seconds (cars and vans up to 3.5T). Prices can also be compared easily, on a like for like basis, from the panel of top FN50 contract hire suppliers who support the site with up to ten finance suppliers available.

A new Showroom has also been added where you can “park” your vehicles as you search and compare each one later to narrow down your final choices.

Comparecontracthire.com uses CAP data which is seen as the best in the business and the data shown is updated weekly to always show the latest makes and models of vehicles. Mike Hind, Communications Manager at CAP said,”We are delighted to be partnering with Comparecontracthire.com in the knowledge that our industry leading data has enabled them to offer an essential quoting tool for any small to medium sized business”.

When searching on the Internet for car leasing or van leasing prices, you may see loads of other sites offering attractive headline rentals. However the biggest factor affecting the monthly rental will be how much the initial rental is.

One of the benefits of using Comparecontracthire.com is that you will always be comparing prices on a like for like basis, with a three rental initial rental as well. Many other sites advertise a six month initial rental as it makes the ongoing prices look cheaper than they actually are.

Comparing car leasing prices on a like for like basis is always difficult so here are tips to make sure you are comparing on a like for like basis;

Things to check when comparing quotes from other sources

1. Are you comparing on the exact same model?  – Look at the manufacturer recommended list price (basic price plus VAT) to make sure it is a current model year. Non current models (old stock) may be offered to you, with different specifications to the vehicle you think you are ordering.
2. What are the payment terms being offered?  How many rentals do you have to put down and how many subsequent payments will you have to make?  – Bigger initial payments, followed by longer payment periods, will make the headline rental look much lower than it actually is.
3. Is there a document fee upfront and if so how much is it?  – Divide this fee by the total number of rental payments to see how much this adds to the monthly rental.
4. How long is the contract for? Rentals will vary depending on the term and generally the longer the length of contract, the less expensive the rental becomes.
5. What is the annual mileage allowance being offered? – The smaller the allowance provided the less your rental will be.  If you choose a lower contractual mileage, than your actual mileage, you will get an excess mileage bill when you send the vehicle back.
6. What type of contract hire is being quoted i.e. is it with our without full maintenance for example? – Make sure you know what is included in the contract and what is not.
7. Finally are you looking at the rental with or without VAT? – VAT will be added to any contract hire rental and your ability to reclaim this depends on your own company status i.e. VAT registered or not? If you are a private individual and opting for personal contract hire you should be looking at the rental including the VAT.

Combining this with the expected increase in traffic levels, as many families head off for the last break before Christmas,Trafficmaster expects traffic to build from around 10.00am onwards on Friday the 23rd October, with the busiest traffic at around 3.00pm.

Before you set off on your journey on Friday you can always try the link to the Trafficmaster live traffic information map from the Comparecontracthire.com website. This link shows all the hotspots throughout the UK (courtesy of Trafficmaster) and you can quickly zoom in and out to any part of the UK to see where the problems are.

Trafficmaster’s top ten congestion hotspots for Black Friday are:

Road	Section of road
M25	Western Sector
M6	Through the West Midlands and up to the North West
A303	Through Wiltshire and Dorset
A3	To Hindhead
A11 & A14	To Elveden and East Anglia
M5	To the South West
M3 & A31	Towards Hampshire and the Dorset coast
M4	Between London and Bristol and between the Severn Bridge and Cardiff
M56 & A55	Into North Wales
M6 & M55	To the Lake District and Blackpool

Honest John, the leading independent motorist website, has launched a new service whereby you can download car road tests and videos via a free App to your Apple iPhone.

Most drivers usually rely on a friend or colleague if they visit a car showroom so this useful service will enable you to have all their latest data at your fingertips.

The new application, as well as delivering independent news, road tests and videos from the Honest John website, also allows access to the website’s backroom, where an interactive forum discusses many other motoring issues. Honest John is a popular car site and receives over 750K unique visitors per month so this new App is bound to be popular.

Honest John, who is a partner of Comparecontracthire.com, is also promising that the new App will be available on other smart phones like Nokia and Blackberry in due course.

Audi is planning to unveil three new models at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The three models are the Audi S5 Sportback, The Audi A4 3.0 TDI quattro and the Audi A3 1.2 TFSI.

Audi S5 Sportback 

This new model is the top of the Audi A5 range and this elegant five-door coupe is powered by a three-litre V6 with a mechanical compressor. The car sprints from 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds (provisional), has a top speed of 155mph and offers combined fuel economy of 29.1mpg (again provisional).

The car has a seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch transmission and quattro permanent all-wheel drive as standard equipment. The car has sports suspension, 18-inch aluminium wheels with 245/40 tyres, black brake calipers bearing S5 emblems at the front and will be available in the Spring of 2010.

Audi A4 3.0-litre TDI clean diesel quattro 

The new clean diesel engine was first seen in the Audi Q7 SUV and is now available in the A4 range. The engine features a new common rail injection system with innovative pressure sensors in the combustion chamber, plus a high performance exhaust recirculating system. These three measures ensure a highly efficient and low emission combustion process.

The A4 3.0 TDI clean diesel quattro already complies with the emission limits of the EU’s Euro 6 standard, which is expected to become law in 2014. This TDI engine reaches 0-62mph in only 6.2 seconds (Avant 6.3 seconds) and has a top speed of 155mph. The six-speed tiptronic and quattro permament all-wheel drive system should guarantee a high degree of comfort and safety, with its superior traction on the road.

Audi A3 and A3 Sportback 1.2 TFSI

This new 1.2 TFSI has been designed from scratch and the turbocharged direct petrol engine generates 105PS and reaches 0-62mph in 11.1 seconds in the three door hatch and 11.3 seconds in the Sportback. Both versions have a top speed of 118mph, can return 51.3mpg on the combined fuel cycle and emit just 127g/km of CO2. The first versions of this car will be paired with front-wheel drive and a six speed manual transmission. Audi is the most popular manufacturer on Comparecontracthire.com and car leasing prices on all their other range of models can be compared now.