Getting a DS3 - Advice needed please

[mjointy]

Hi,

Is anyone able to advise on the below deals, I'm not sure whether to buy or lease.

Lease - DS3 1.6 e-HDi Airdream 90 DStyle Plus (Diesel)
Deposit £839.94 + Admin charge £180 + 35 payments of £155.94 = Total cost £6,477.84

PCP - DS3 1.6 VTi 120 DStyle Plus (Petrol)
The list price is £15,770 - Dealer discount £1,672 - Elect free contribution £1,500 = Cost of car £12,398
Deposit £999 + 36 payments of 192.70 = Total cost £7,936.20
Final payment £6,384

Difference in cost £7,936.20 - £6,477.84 = £1,458.36
Would I be right in saying the car would need to be worth £6,384 + £1,458.36 = £7,842.36 to make it worthwhile doing the PCP option? Is anyone able to advise on the residual value of the car after 3 years. I read it should retain roughly 43% of it's value. Therefore £15,770 * 43% = £6,781.10 which would make the lease more attractive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

[CliveP]

Hi Mark,

There's no precise right answer otherwise we'd all be doing that....a lot of people don't have cash to lay out so that limits the options available to them. If you do, you could do as I did (dealers don't like this) which is take a DS3 on Elect 3 to get the Citroen contribution, then immediately pay it off - on my DSport Plus (petrol - THP) the contribution was £1500, after allowing one month before I did so (so the contract wasn't formally backed out of) and a little bit of interest the net gain to me was over £1200...and I bought it via the internet - so a list of c.£18000, I got for £16700 off the internet (still through a main Citreon dealer) then paid it off and net price was £15423 (to be precise!)....

PCP and similar keep the monthly amount 'low' delaying the majority of until the final baloon payment - in other words more 'lump' for them to charge you interest on... of course if the depreciation on the DS3 turns out to be higher than expected, you can simply hand it back - and not pay the final payment (they don't really want you to pay the final payment, they want you to have another new one). However manufacturuers won't have their numbers too far out and will probably go 'wow you're car is worth more than your final payment so why not use that towards a deposit on another?' (i.e. a good sales line for them at renewal time)).

In essence PCP etc will mean you'll cover the depreciation off - so it's swings and roundabouts - one thing I've learnt over the years is to not trust depreciation figures too much - what might be xx% depreciation today, could suddenly get worse or even better - as the popularity of a particular make or model changes.

There's the good old dealer rubbish 'oh if the deal's right for you' - meaning 'so what if I'm a grand more than the others, I smile a lot and gave you a coffee' - see what they'd say to you in the dragon's den on accepting that deal!

If I were you I'd use this great internet to your advantage, don't give a hoot where in the country the car comes from (you can go and get it and enjoy the drive home!)....

If I decide to get another (I'm completely impulsive with my cars, must admit the DS3 is great for the cash, I was looking at spending twice the amount but the DS3 blew my away), I'll do my comparisons and then let BigFeet (Dave) on here see if he can beat the figures - he is a great friendly Citroen dealer.

Regards,
Clive.

[OnkanOnkan]

They generally work it so that your final payment is less than the projected value of the car. I've found pcp a good way to do it. Plus don't be surprised when they phone you after 16 -18 months and give you an out to get another one! (make sure it's in your interests though to leave the current deal) I had my vti for under a year and a half and they bought me out and I've started again with a THP.

[Phil H]

What mileage is the PCP on, as if it's 6k a year only of use if you use it for your weekly shopping trip.
If the figure is based on 12k mileage, then it looks quite good. I bought mine off the internet through a man dealer and am paying a bit less, but I put a bit more in. My local dealer salesman was adamant my internet price was too low for him and tried to deter me. When I popped in for some new mats for it when delivered, he nearly crashed a demo into it in temper.

[OnkanOnkan]

My pcp is for 12k. The price only changes by a couple of quid per month for the extra mileage. I don't think it's that important unless you're going to do mental mileage and if you plan to hand the car back after the 3 years. The numbers you quoted before sounded pretty decent to me.
I'm sure you'll love your new ds3! I certainly do! :-)

[mjointy]

Thanks for the replies people.

I've decided to go with the lease deal as the PCP was only for 6000 miles and for 10000 miles they wanted another £8 a month. The monthly payment of £156 is also more affordable to me than the £193 + £8 = £201.

I also managed to get free metallic paint (worth £475) with the lease deal so I'll keep the £1458.36 + £8 x 36 = £1746.36 in my pocket and use that as a deposit on my next car instead of hoping for there to be some equity in the car once the PCP has ended.

I'm just trying to make it sit right in my mind as I normally buy cars rather than lease but my thought process is if I had to finance it with a £13,000 loan I would probably pay around £2000 in interest and after three years it would have lost more than £4,500 in depreciation therefore I don't think I'm losing out any more by taking out the lease for £6,500.

I suppose you only know whether it's a good deal when you find out how much the car is worth when the contract ends as it's difficult to guess what the future value will be.

I've opted for the shark grey paint colour and infinite blue roof so I'll post some pictures of it once I get it, also hoping to get the 3D rear lights, they look awesome.

One final question - As I've managed to spec the new colour of infinite blue, will that mean I get the 3D rear lights as the changes were introduced together?

Thanks

Mark

[cyclone]

One final question - As I've managed to spec the new colour of infinite blue, will that mean I get the 3D rear lights as the changes were introduced together?

Thanks

Mark

Simple answer yes

[mjointy]

Simple answer yes

Thanks cyclone.

[beck_4ever]

Mine's due to run out in March, will owe £6k.

Not sure whether to try to get a personal loan to cover it or wait to see what citreon can offer.
What is the interest that they currently offer? Wonder if they will allow me to re-finance over 3 years.

I have no plan to change the car.

[Bigfeet]

Quick question, on your lease (*ahem Contract Hire ) deal your dealer did give you VAT inclusive figures yes?

I've been amazed at how many times I've had customers in who hadn't realised that!

[beck_4ever]

Quick question, on your lease (*ahem Contract Hire ) deal your dealer did give you VAT inclusive figures yes?

I've been amazed at how many times I've had customers in who hadn't realised that!

yes, but i am bound to forget after 3 years lol. I'm not going to bother going through the paperwork, I think it's about 11%.
I can have another 2 years on PCP, 5 years in total (this is the max duration). I assume at 11%. I'm expecting paperwork soon.

[Bigfeet]

Can I ask who provided the quote for the lease?

The reason I ask is if that is the VAT inclusive figure then...Damn!

[gar074]

isn't it illegal to quote without including VAT for retail (i.e. non-business) customers?

[Bigfeet]

Not sure about that but the Encore System prints its quotes showing the VAT but many dealers quote without as on CCM VAT is tax deductable.

[gar074]

Should have said for non-business customers. The legendary Ling of Lingscars is very hot on this - she often tweets complaining about competitors breaking the law by quoting contract deals for personal customers which don't include VAT.