Not all vehicle maintenance is created equal

Many cars sold through the dealer network can now be ordered with optional packages to include servicing. It’s been the case for a long time with leasing but now, almost no matter how you buy a vehicle, there’s often an option to have it included.

We took an order for a Mini Cooper last week and as usual provided a quote for non-maintenance and with maintenance. Including maintenance added around £1250 (or £25 per month) over the 4 years of the deal which sounds low when compared to what the average user pays for servicing and tyres over the same period.

Our overall rate was also a few pounds per month lower than the local dealer which is generally the case but their quote for servicing was for the TLC pack at just £349 which seems really cheap and, not surprisingly, threatened to lose us the deal.

But, of course, it’s always important to check you are comparing like for like. The Mini TLC pack doesn’t include any tyre replacement and, at the best part of £100 per tyre, you can see why there’s a difference. If you drive really carefully and are fortunate with punctures then the Mini package, in isolation, might prove more cost effective but how many miles will your tyres do? It’s very hard to answer accurately as driving style, road quality (Sheffield drivers, you know what I mean!), driving profile (motorways vs city) and random fortune (how many nails or glass bottles will you encounter?) all conspire to make it utterly unpredictable.

A tyre-inclusive contract though does bring predictability in the same way that leasing generally does as someone else crunches the numbers and takes the hit if factors like depreciation or tyre usage are higher than average. The customer just pays a fixed (at the outset) amount per month that they are comfortable with.

So yes, the dealer offered servicing packages are good value and often cheaper to purchase than the leasing versions but check what’s included and price up what isn’t and try to put a value on the assurance of knowing exactly what you’ll spend.

If you’d like to know more about how leasing works and how it could work for you, please get in touch. If you think others would be interested in this post, please share it. If you could help me by taking 2 minutes to complete an anonymous survey designed to help us keep our service relevant please visit https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GF7J3ZV

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Matt Spivey

Vehicle Leasing Neva Consultants

Left the corporate world in 2013 after ten years at Vodafone and now specialising in car and van leasing with Neva Consultants.Serial networker and member of BNI Wakefield Wealthbuilders, 4Networking and The TradesHub Academy South Yorkshire.