Are leasing cars worth buying?

[ilovefood]

Dear all.

I plant buy a used car. Today I found a ad on Nettiauto that YR-auto is selling a Opel Astra 1.6 car at 8700 euro. So I went to try this car. The dealer told me that all the cars they are selling are leasing cars which are owned by big banks, such as Nordea. It is my first time to know the concept of leasing cars.
Are such cars worth buying? I mean because the cars are lent to the owner, the owner may not care much about he maintenance of the car.
Can anybody give me some advice on this?
And is Opel Astra a good car? And it seems much cheaper than Volkswagon golf although they are both German cars.

Thanks.

[cressers]

maintenance will have been done, it has to be as part of the contract.

IMHO I would say in finland drivers are pretty safe, and unless the previous owner was 18, should be OK.

[donald]

Umm, now a bit confusing. Is the car in question to be sold or about to be leased to you? Or is it a car, that used to be a leased car and now it is sold so it would be yours?

However, both buying and leasing a car have their pros and cons. It all depends on how much you would use the car, why you need a car, how long do you intend to keep it etc.

Opel seams to be German but it's part of GM, so it's basically a German brand of a US American car. Volkswagen is German (although manufactured in who-knows-where, such as nowadays almost all cars.) If it is worth to pay more to get a Volkswagen instead of an Opel again depends on what you ar up to.

ooppeli I

oopplei II

(couldn't find a propoer video for the 2nd one... any help from anyone?)

[Mook]

That price seems quite low for a lease car, which are normally leased until they're 3 years old and then sold on. As Cressers states, they all have their services done so they're in OK condition.

Possibly the biggest leasing company is ALD: http://www.ald.fi you can check the cars that they're sellling on the site...

[ilovefood]

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions

I want to buy that car and the dealer said that car was leased to the first owner. But now it is owned by the bank. So the dealer s selling the car on behalf of the bank. I just got my Finland driving license. So I know little about cars. And it is my first time to know such leasing cars.

[cressers]

Car manufacturers also lease direct to consumers.

I think that they should be OK, but it really depends on the owner. Some treat them like their own cars, cleaning and taking care. Others treat them like rental cars for 3 years.

Have a good look, start it up, listen to engine, test drive it.

Not sure if its the same as the new one on the market, if it is, go test drive a new one. Will give you idea of slop/wear etc

[Upphew]

I'd say anything below 1.8 litres is ok, 'cause it probably were not leased to person who would punish it too much... think about person who gets hardon about 2.0 litres Alfa Romeo and how he drives one...

[raamv]

Check interest rates for the car unless you are paying for it in full.
Check the maintainances done in the schedules done in the car before buying ( ask for the car book)
What is the mileage on the car? Main minuses of leasing cars are mileages are generally high.
Check for accidents and any body work done in the car to see if you ll find problems later.
Otherwise, its like any other used car that you buy.

[Mook]

Main minuses of leasing cars are mileages are generally high.

Except that this can be a good thing...

Short trips are bad for engines and oil as the engine hardly has a chance to reach the correct temperature.

A car with a very high mileage in a couple of years is likely to have done most of it on the highway which is least damaging for the engine - it also means that the (unfeasably long) service intervals are reached more quickly meaning the oil is changed fairly frequently.

[raamv]

Short trips are bad for engines and oil as the engine hardly has a chance to reach the correct temperature.

Agree with this...

A car with a very high mileage in a couple of years is likely to have done most of it on the highway which is least damaging for the engine

Agree with this too..

- it also means that the (unfeasably long) service intervals are reached more quickly meaning the oil is changed fairly frequently.

here is where the problem is, cos leasing cars have normal service intervals as any other service cars..and not everyone service their cars more often as they need to when the mileage is high.... ( Most people I talk to and even some of the service mechanics I talked to recommend doing the service based on time than mileage..).
I wanted my car engines to be changes every 3 months..and they said we really recommend only once a year....
and the prices also indicate that..
In leasing, its done the same way... Anything out of the leasing recommendations, you pay..

[aguinness]

I bought an ex lease Mondeo about a year and a half ago, It was 3 years old and had 98000 km on it, had been serviced according to schedule and now has 115000 km on it so by the time I sell it it will have average mileage for its age. Have had absolutly no problems with it and in fact it came from ALD and used to be leased to Nordea.

[ilovefood]

The first reg. of this car is 11-2002 but the mileage is very low and on 43000 km. So is it very strange? The dealer gave me 7900 euro price for this car. Is it quite low for this kind low mileage?

[MTB]

ALD is Societe Generale, if I remember corectly. Nordea is leasing the cars, and I suppose they are re-insured at ALD (that's how this business works, Nordea doesn't want to keep or sell the cars if owners do not want them anymore). If it the car is sold before lease expires, then the former leaser didn't want it. Might have been financial problems, might have been other reason. Some companies are changing their fleet at a certain mileage, let's say 100k km.