Personal Lease or Elect 3, advantages, disadvantages, advice needed?

[pcmaczone]

So we are off to test a DS3 1.6 e-HDI Sport Plus tonight but before we get to the dealers I am wondering what, if any, are the advantages of buying the car through Citroen's Elect 3 as opposed to a Personal Lease Contract? Thing is, on Elect 3 the lowest we can get the monthly payments to will be £292 with a £2533 deposit and 12,000 mile allowance whereas I can get the same car from Lings with a 15000 mile allowance, only £829 down and £276.60 per month and can get that even lower with a larger down payment.

I know Citroen are offering free servicing for three years plus road side breakdown but the servicing costs are going to be minimal and I am already in the AA so not sure that sweetens their deal very much.

Any thoughts or advice?

[ZACK]

Go For Lings !

You'll Save ALOT Of Money Mate !

[Bigfeet]

You can get the Personal Contract Hire deal at your dealer too you know (by the way it's not a lease). I just run some numbers and I could match that no problem.

It all depends on what you plan to do with the car at the end of the day.

[pcmaczone]

Thanks Zack. I was just thinking, we do 12k a year now in our Petrol 1.6 C4 VTR+ and that only does 30mpg if we are lucky! I am pretty sure given something like the DS3 with it's style and better fuel consumption figures we would very likely exceed that 12k allowance from Citroen and be looking at eye watering penalties! Will get a more detailed quote from Ling and see where we go from there.

[pcmaczone]

Ahh, just thought of something that may throw a spanner in the works. Aren't there some restrictions on certain countries you can visit when you take out a personal hire contract? We have family in Ukraine and have been over a couple of times by car. Not saying we are definitely going to do that in the DS3 but there is always a possibility. Don't want any surprises further down the line.

So how come the dealers never mention personal contract hire? Actually it doesn't surprise me because people like Ling, Blue Chilli etc are simply brokers and the cars are actually supplied by the dealers anyway...i think ?

[Bigfeet]

The main reason is that dealers quote contract hire excluding VAT which tends to confuse retail customers!

If the Contract Hire is through Citroen then to go to Ukraine you will need to get from the DVLA a VE103B form, theres a charge of about £18 for that.

[pcmaczone]

So with Elect 3 I guess the advantage is that there are no restrictions?

[Bigfeet]

As far as I'm concerned no, not heard of that for PCP or HP.

As the owner of the car on CH is Citroen then they place the restrictions.

[pcmaczone]

Ok got it Not sure I would want to be going to Ukraine in the DS3. The pot holes and general state of the roads are bad enough to shake your fillings loose! We did it in a Volvo S40 once and I was convinced the suspension would break but, it took everything that was thrown at it. Still, been all over Europe in the C4 and that never let us down so perhaps the DS3 would be just as good.

Just had a good quote from another company for a DS3 1.6 e-HDi 110 Airdream Dsport on a 6 + 23 at £203 pm with a 15k allowance. I reckon with a slightly higher down payment I could get that under £200 pm. Only down side is limited colours and I really wanted the Dsport Plus.