1. Deciding between buying a second hand car or leasing a new car. Any views?

2. I think I am in Zurich for 24-30 months at least. If I lease out the car for 6 months, is there a way to terminate the lease by paying the penalty?

3. What's the normal thing to do after the lease expires - buy it or return it?

-GS

We are also looking into getting a car lease. Basically the garage told us that if the monthly payment is higher we would get a better condition if we need to cancel before the expiry of the lease.
We plan to take a 3 year lease (not sure how long after that we would stay in CH) and return it, i.e. not pay the residual value at the end of the lease. You might want to check out the offers your garage might have cause sometimes a 6 month old car can be a pretty good deal when compared with a new one.
I heard that new cars lose 30% of their value as soon as the wheels hit the roads.

your best situation would be to pass the lease onto someone else.

you typically lease with a cost/km allowance calculated. If you go over the km, you will have issues getting rid of the car at the end of the lease as the final value is calculated on the km.

the earlier you exit, the more it costs. To get out of the lease, certainly on a car leased from new, you pay the book value.

I'm looking to lease as well. There are some unsold 09's that are brand new and there are deals to be had. VW/Audi has 1.9/2.9% lease deals. Going to look at a A4 Avant 3.0TDI. Thinking of a 2 year lease with 15/20k km's...some good deals out there and with car companies hurting it is a good time to buy

If you get the right leasing package there are no drawbacks really, especially if you are clocking up high mileage.
The advantages are fairly obvious in my case, if I was buying cars and doing that kind of mileage, they'd be worthless and would cost a fortune to run.
The disadvantage is you never own the car, but at the same time you're not affected by the market depreciation, and as you say, your package comes with Insurance and maintenance, seems pretty good.
Also check whether the insurance company will provide you with proof of no claims should you decide to stop leasing, your current no claims discount will start to lose value after 2 years of you not insuring a vehicle.Also see how much of the cost of the lease package can be off-set against your Tax.

Hope I've been of some help!

here is a question: if I'm to lease a car that is slightly pre-driven and is like 1 year old and warranty expires 24months from 1st registration is the car under warranty during duration of lease even if the factory warranty expires?

Hi Jaro, what kind of deal did you get (Im looking for a nice audi lease deal)

1.9% on A4. Expires mid Feb. 2.9% on other models avaliable as well. Check AMAG's site for the details

Please could you expand on this? Are you saying you have to pay the total value of the car if you want to end the lease?

We're going to look at some cars this weekend with leasing in mind but I want to be clear on the penalties we might run into if we have to end the lease early. I've only ever bought cars before, leasing is new to me.

Also, does it make sense to pay as big a first installment/deposit as you can afford? As I assume you don't pay interest on that amount, only on the rest of the finance?

alright, from the purchase to the end.....

• The larger deposit you place, the lower the exposure you have to interest
• The more desireable the car, the more likely a higher bubble payment (residual value) will exist
• You can lease to a zero final payment
• The worst-case scenario is that you have to cover the payments frorm today until lease-end (certainly interest-wise)
• You cannot sell the car until the lease is cleared (the vehicle papers will usually carry this restriction)
• To get the vehicle out of a lease, you pay the book value of the car
• You can always negotiate with another person to take over your lease

those are the main points I can think of. I've leased to residual with small deposit, leased to zero with no deposit and exited via book value.

Interest rates can be very low. I like my cash...!!

Hi
Leasing can be very interesting if you know how to play the game. Take into account that your car insurance will cost more (full casco required).
Very important is to define:
- the terminal value of the car when the lease ends.
- the mileage you'll need....every km above the fixed limit will cost you from 60-70 rappen per Km.

Here are the best advices i found regarding leasing (it's in french, german, italian):
http://www.tcs.ch/main/fr/home/auto_...anzierung.html

I've never leased and never believed in it. I gave it a try and leased a car. Interest rate is low and the car was heavily discounted (last 2009 model in inventory)
The purchase price at the end of the lease will be way below market value of such vehicle today and it is a desirable model. So I can walk away or buy then sell and lease a new one...in my case it made sense...from what I know most of the cars here are leased but some are purchased for cash...the dealer told me that only about 2% of his customers finance the purchase.

Congratulations, you sound like you have convinced yourself you'll make money on "standard" a used car.

It's not going to happen

noo...I've put 1/3 cash down and leased it knowing that more than likely I will buy it at the end and keep as 2nd car...i've bought and sold 20-30 cars and I know that car is not an investment...but thanks for thinking I'm an idiot though...

Keep in mind that insurance is more expensive if you lease a car; not drastically, perhaps no more then 100 CHF a year, but it all adds up. 1.9% looks good for interest, although if you save; you'll be able to pay 0% buying it outright.

in my case I sold a car for which Teilkasko was more expensive than Vollkasko for the leased ride...so insurance savings (CHF600 less per year) and the 18k discount on a nicely optioned car combined with the 1.9% and 3 years free service (including brakes) convinced me to give leasing a try.

I too am thinking of trying leasing for the first time later in the year. Does anybody have any idea of a good place to hunt out bargains (low interest rates/special offers on terms etc) on the net?

I can't seem to find a portal for comparison of current offers. Is it more a case of visiting the showroom and haggling when it comes to leasing?

What sort of percentage do they want generallz as a deposit in order to give you a strong bargaining position?

THANKS!!!

(if anybod knows of specific offers maybe they could post them here??)