BMW UK have their BMW finance page split in to relative units for the private buyer and the company business buyer and then tries to direct their customers to the right financial solution. Their solutions’ include BMW Hire Purchase, BMW Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) and BMW Contract Hire.
The menu system is good although once you have left a page, it is difficult to remember where you have been and as some of the finance options appear to be similar I.E. Hire Purchase and Contract Purchase , so a bit more information on these pages to help customers distinguish the difference would be helpful.
There is nothing on these pages that helps customers to the conclusion that a BMW is affordable. I..E no monthly hire example contract prices, or information about residual values. There are invitations to fill in a form for financial quotes, but how many people would fill in this form, I don’t know.
The most intelligent way to finance your BMW, is the message we see at the top of the page, but there is no information that suggests what BMW offers is better than say a broker. It could be, there is just nothing to suggest what BMW offers can not be offered by a third party.
Would you believe it, some more good news for the motor industry, figures show that car production rose 90% in March compared to March last year. This is the 5th piece of good news, as production has risen gradually over the last 5 months.
Many would have expected production and sales to drop after the scrappage scheme stopped recently, manufacturers clearly see the better times coming, although no one is popping any champagne corks and inn fact many still say times are still tough even though this 70% rise year on year is the best ever recorded.
Commercial vehicles also did well with a 45% rise so progress is being made. You can read the full story from This is Money Car Production Soars
How this affects car lease business and how this increase in manufacturing is directly related to company car sales and car lease contract is yet to be discovered, but residual values will be the key factor to car lease buyers, will a flood of new cars reduce the value of used cars, making leasing more expensive, or has the recent rise in production not enough to fill the void of reduced production in 2009 and the quantity of cars over 10 years taken off the road through the scrappage scheme.
Here is an association that deals with 2.1 million cars, 320,000 vans, 170,000 trucks and looks after consumers, businesses, rental and leasing companies. The BVRLA has been around since the late sixties and in summary is a trade body covering those who lease out or rent out vehicles.
Its mandatory code regulates core issues and works with its members and the government on such things as age discrimination and business tax reform just as a selection ,listed on their BVRLA website. Thet also publish many books and downloads to help those in business in these sector.
The BVRLA is also a source for data survey on things such as vehicle residual values and trends to help those in the vehicle leasing business. Forums and up to date news items makes this an important resource tool and support organisation for those in the car leasing and rental business.
Looking through many of the main dealer websites we have come to the conclusion that some manufacturers are not clear about what lease or contract options they can offer both business users and private. We though we would take time out and review the financial pages gradually on each car make to see if it is clear what they offer their customers, or whether more information is needed.
We will not be reviewing the actual finance or making any opinions of what is available, just how they present what they have on offer on their websites. For example do they actually mention any car lease? Do they mention contract hire? Or is it all just to general talking only about motoring financial solutions, assuming that their customers would know this included car lease etc.
This will happen generally and occasionally as we get time, but we do feel it needs to be done here at Leasebam.
Leasebam has introduced a new menu system where we show manufactures logos rather than text links to help you find your way around easier. One of the many things we have planned for Leasebam.
It is always a risk when a new model is released but re-releasing and old model that has the heritage of the Mini was always going to be risky, especially as this British bred motor was now owned by the Germans. However a decade or so later, we now have one of best success stories in modern motoring history as the Mini was surpasses even the most optimistic sales volumes. Even in the lat year or so with the resssion hitting all new car sales the Mini was affected the least and the used values even increased as supply was less than supply, as consumers became more astute over residual values.
after the normal mini was released and established its popularity there was then no doubt that the Mini Convertible would be a huge success. This car seems to fit in as a family car, a sports car and even for business as many business executives (granted mainly women) have chosen the Mini Convertible as their business lease car. There are a few examples form the Mini Cooper Convertible to the One and Copper S. Good residual values, together with competitive buying prices have made this vehicle very popular, with mad interior styling that does genuinely represent the styling of the original Mini, even though nothing from he original car is on the new version.
Great service packs bought from new has also taken away the high BMW servicing costs worry that many buyers in this price band would have kept them away with something a bit more safer, of course these are also available on leased Minis also. Here is a review of the Mini Cooper Convertible going back to 2009, from motors.co.uk, you can decide if this will be your next leased car or not.
As a car manufacturer and if you are trying to take the sporty stroke family convertible market on you could do worse than release a motor car that looks like the Peugeot 308cc as it appears stunning on the official TV advert. The timing is good, the styling is stunning and apparently according to the reviews the drive is pretty good also.
Even though the 308 range is really aimed at the family market, but the 308cc clearly is aimed at taking on the Audi TT, BMW convertible market and will be of course suitably cheaper to buy. It may be that many will go French when they see this Peugeot 308cc Allure adverts broadcast over the UK. Whether the looks will convince the die hard German lead business lease buyers is still not guaranteed, but we are sure there will be plenty of Peugeot 308cc car lease quotes going through our Leasebam system.
Watch the TV and make up your own mind, and in time will will find some reviews to get an independant view of the ride and drive.
This is the face lift review for the Volvo C30 from Fifth Gear, with new wheel and a bit of nip and tuck as they say with 2 tine seats and a simple interior. A new chassis is deemed as a sports coupe suppossed promoting fun on paper at least, according to Vicki, who presents this review.
The Volvo C30 has 5 versions from the sporty to the new Eco model, which is road tax free with CO2 emissions under 100 g/km. Good amount of cornering grip, but lacks urgency, making the car more grown up as it appears. But compared to the VW Scirroco, Vicki states it is just not exciting enough. Well it is time to make your own mind up on the Volvo C30, is it for you to lease? Watch the video and make up your own mind.
When the scrappage scheme started last year, there was a lot of negative press with many not believing that those with cars of 10 years old would be in the new car Market.
A year later the results speak for themselves, although
not a complete success, I doubt many would disagree that car sales were stimulated by it. It was the cheaper Asian made cars that benefitted most and the luxury market least, although this should not have been a surprise considering the 10 year exchange condition in return for the £2000 discount.
The car lease Market in theory should not have been affected, but used values held well and so monthly premiums were kept low, stimulating business lease although the lack of finance options sometimes spoilt the show. In short, a success but maybe not the huge success predicted.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were filling up in anticipation of garages running out of fuel, as lorry drivers up and down the country picketed fuel refineries in protest to high petrol prices. Well less than a decade on, with no,lorry drivers in sight, the price at the pumps has gone to an all time high. the average price for a litre of petrol today stands at £1.21 a litre.
There was a 1p duty charge added to every litre last week, but the rise seems to gone much higher than this, with various reason for garage owners to why this is. Low CO2 and low fuel consumption figures may not have been the priority reasons against choosing the right car for you a few years ago, but now combined with tax and fuel costs, you can see hybrids and certain diesel models, being snapped up before heavy petrol models. The rise is such that it may affect certain resalable values of cars, like it did 2 years ago with the 4 by 4 market, the residual value of a car affects the monthly rental charge on lease offers and ironically keep high mpg vehicles monthly prices down.
The current climate for many is survival, so it hardly seems the bother to picket again, after all many businesses cannot is no longer as wide as it used to be. Lets see how the car lease market unfolds and see if this is the end of high fuel prices, or just the beginning.
