[Closed] Car leasing, am I missing something?

All cars explode just prior to being paid off and are liabilities.

Or no your reasonably right unless you find some really mad deal on something quite obscure and/or need a car of a certain age for work purposes.

Leasing / pcp prices have all gone up a lot recently compared to the 'very good' deals that have been around for the past few years. The new emissions test and reduction in production as a result along with the re-sale values dropping since diesel became a dirty word have affected the numbers.

Mileage will be your killer, if you are doing under 8k a year you tend to get okay deals as the resale value of the car is maintained, above that you start to see steep increases in the costs.

Always check what the excess mileage charge is as well before signing.

You could always have a loan and buy a car and after that period of paying the loan the car is yours to keep or chop in for something else. The allure of the lease is that of a new car on a regular basis, often maintained and for a set monthly payment.

No it is not you.

A small car on a low miles lease, for someone who doesn't have any mechanical inkling or care, who wants to *know* what things will cost for the next few years, then lease is good.

Personally, I do 25k miles a year and need a big car, ideally with some grunt for shifting canoes, bikes and kids. A lease for me is easily £4-500 a month, with a couple of £000 down. So a 3 year lease works out at £14-15k, plus tyres and servicing etc.

I can buy a decent car for just under £9k, run it for three years, with a couple of bills, and it is still worth £3k at the end. So the same 3 years cost me under £10k in comparable cost.

That's a four year lease (which I would avoid due to you needing to get the bugger MOTed etc after 3 years)

Here's an example 3-year lease (prepare for eyeball burning)

https://www.lingscars.com/personal-car-leasing/skoda/octavia/3136114-1.5-TSI-SE-Technology-16v-(150bhp)-(5-seats)-Hatchback-5dr-1495cc-Petrol-Manual-(6-Speed)

Total about 8K over three years. A brand new Octavia of that ilk would be 18K or so. A three-year-old one about 10K. A six-year-old one about 5-6K.

The point, I suppose, is not so much that you are paying 8K over three years for nothing, more that the alternative is also paying 4-5K over three years for nothing as well, plus you'd need to commit 10K of your cash in the first instance.

Obviously you can get an even older car, and pay less in depreciation costs, tilting things even further your way, but it depends on how new a car you actually want to drive.

EDIT: Oh, just seen your mileage. You will be able to get a 15K deal along the same lines, but you will certainly be looking at paying a bit more. My last excess mileage charge was at 6p a mile over the contracted amount, but they do vary.

https://www.nationwidevehiclecontracts.co.uk/car-leasing/ford/mondeo/estate?mileage=17500&term=36

£369/MTH
£2200down
=£15k+ over three years.
(Plus servicing from main stealer, tyres etc)

You often get a better deal if you get your brother in law to sign the deal.

There are few stonking deals around now. Only a few months ago you could have had an 1l Octavia estate for £99 per month!

£369/MTH
£2200down
=£15k+ over three years.
(Plus servicing from main stealer, tyres etc)

So £15500 roughly over 3 years. Yes the serving is included, even with a set of tyres that is probably worth £1k.

Or one of these for £14 k ish

https://www.motorpoint.co.uk/vehicle-search/ford/mondeo/options/-fueltype=0-showlocal=true-showimages=false-app=20

(Ok no estates shown, but I'm sure with a bit more shopping around they shouldn't be hard to find)

And I get to keep it. Are all the fancy BMW/Audi's then on very low mileage lease deals? Or do people really have mega bucks to blow on one? Just wondering how people manage it (obviously different if you have a large income)

You often get a better deal if you get your brother in law to sign the deal.

Depends if you try to cancel it or not.

Are all the fancy BMW/Audi’s then on very low mileage lease deals?

Nope my BMW 330e was 15k miles, fully serviced/maintained. £330pm

Bought it off the lease company since.

Personally to me leasing is about fixed cost shiny new cars. I wouldnt do one on more than a 2 yr deal

Good luck getting a brand new Skoda for 10K. I think thats the bit you're missing.

Why would you worry about moting a 3 year old car .....

I think that the bit you are missing is in the description and the meaning of it:

PCP. Contract hire. Money up front, 'low' monthly rates, big sum of money to pay at end of contract.

Lease. No money up front, realistic monthly rates, no money at end of lease. Usually for businesses.

I leased a Volvo XC60 directly from Volvo.

60,000 miles over 3 years. Good monthly rate, includes RFL. It means that I have pretty fixed costs over the 3 years, 1 service per year and probably 1 set of replacement tyres, insurance.
No MOT, no depreciation, no cash outlay from the business, (its better to spend my money on products and materials for sale to customers).
Reliable motoring for 3 years.
Then rinse and repeat in 3 years.

<blockquoteNo MOT, no depreciation, no cash outlay from the business, (its better to spend my money on products and materials for sale to customers).
Reliable motoring for 3 years.
Then rinse and repeat in 3 years.

You still pay depreciation. There is no getting away with it in car ownership. It is factored into your monthly payments.

Good luck getting a brand new Skoda for 10K. I think thats the bit you’re missing.

Don't think I would get a new Skoda for 10k, but this is about the most efficient way of car use.

, (its better to spend my money on products and materials for sale to customers).

And of course you save the VAT compared to personal lease.

Audi, BMW, Merc - all cheaper on lease deals than equivalent priced Ford etc. Lease deals are all based on residual value, factoring that plus adding a bit of profit.

My last car was a Mercedes E class, 220 AMG Premium plus with a bucketload of options, P11d value was £58k and it was 550 per month. (my car allowance is 600 per month)

How much is a £60k car a month to buy?? over 5 years (and on a 0 interest deal) its twice that, so far cheaper to get a very nice car and in 3 years, boom new car.

Thats when it makes sense.

sc-xc; Ha! Ling Valentine - that was a great thread.

Do you pay 40% tax on the allowance or is it based on the £58k value?

. (my car allowance is 600 per month)

Again, it works for you due to vat saving and it being part of remuneration.
It's different doing it privately.

Audi, BMW, Merc – all cheaper on lease deals than equivalent priced Ford etc. Lease deals are all based on residual value, factoring that plus adding a bit of profit.

So it can be cheaper to leave a 5 series /A6 than a mondeo? Yes they have higher residuals, but don’t they depreciate at the same % a year, ?

So it can be cheaper to leave a 5 series /A6 than a mondeo? Yes they have higher residuals, but don’t they depreciate at the same % a year, ?

But the cheapest 5 series costs more than the most expensive Mondeo, so you'd have to really stretch it to find a crossover point where a decently specced 5 series was cheaper (not as a % of RRP, but actually less money each month) than a Mondeo.

I bought a 5 year old Volvo Estate for £3900 in 2007. That lasted me 10 years until I scrapped it. I bought my wife a Volvo C30 for £10k 6 years ago and hopefully there is another 4 years in it. Both these cars have only ever presented one large bill both circa £600.

My current car is another Volvo (sorry!) a V70 fully loaded with all luxuries bought 1.5 years ago for £8k at 7 years old. Hopefully get another 5 years out of that.

The maths I do says leasing doesn't work.

The maths I do says leasing doesn’t work.

There are so many good quality used cars for sale in the uk that buying one, rather than leasing a new one makes more sense to me. Or even buying a new one and keeping it until it is worn out.

The only way this doesn’t work is if you want a new car regularly or you wear them out quickly.

...making a total £10,076. Then I give the car back.

Wouldn’t it be better to take out a loan of £10k...

That's not a very fair comparison, unless you have access to loans at 0%

Otherwise you're either paying more, or you'll have a lot less than £10k to play with.

The maths I do says leasing doesn’t work.

There are so many good quality used cars for sale in the uk that buying one, rather than leasing a new one makes more sense to me. Or even buying a new one and keeping it until it is worn out.

My maths says insurance is pointless, my maths says black is white and 1 = 2 - I can generally make the numbers prove what I need to, what you can't do is measure risk and your feeling towards it etc. they are different products for different people with different circumstances so you need to work out what you need from your transport, what you need form a car and what you are willing to risk.

But if you get the loan and buy an older car, how are you going to make people think you are rich ? 😉

Buy a Land Rover, duh!

(rich and stupid)

Yes, you're trying to convince someone else that your decision is more appropriate than theirs.

The debate was also over the minute you compared a new car to a used car.

The benefits to lease are numerous if you want a new car and the lease payments beat the depreciation of purchasing the exact same car.

Other benefits are; no tax, warranty, no mot, breakdown cover, no selling hassle etc, no capital outlay as spreading the cost, insurance in my experience is cheaper than on second hand banger. And almost certainly less likely to have mechanical problems.

Most of this stuff is argued on hotUKdeals quite regularly.

I was going to post along the lines of leasing being for people who don't mind paying to have a shiny car on their drive or those with an irrational fear of the MOT...Martinhutch, I'm afraid you have just demonstrated my point re: MOT!

heaper than on second hand banger. And almost certainly less likely to have mechanical problems.

Is this really true? I'm guessing most car parts follow the bathtub reliability curve so high initial failure rate, long period of constant failure rate and increasing rate as parts wear out. So the sweet spot should be a nearly new car until it gets say 8 years / 100k miles or whatever it's design life is.

Good luck getting a brand new Skoda for 10K. I think thats the bit you’re missing.

This and also even if you did, by some miracle, get a brand new Skoda for 10k then you’ve got to service it, tax it, MOT it after 3 years and insure it. With lease deals these things, or most of them, are covered.

Then after your 4 years you’ve got to sell it and will probably only get 5k for it if you’re lucky, so you’ll need another 5k+ to find to purchase your replacement car assuming you’re not going to go from a 10k car to a 5k car.

Leasing may not be as cheap as Buying used, but it isn’t much more when you factor in all the costs and depreciation and the hassle and risk factor, in that you could buy a pup, and the fact you have a brand new car instead of a 5 yr old one.

However we went PCP which I think is like leasing in that the costa are similar over the same time frame, but you have options at the end of the term.

Mot really isn't that scary a prospect.

It's a minimum standard which really is minimum.

Your car can pass an mot and still be a raft.

But then I do think people generally get their pants pulled down by using shit garages . Like a good lbs a good relationship with the garage is a must

I've always been a bit of a fan of the 4-6 year old car in the same way and for the same reasons as Matt-oab.

But our current car (just over 6 years old, had it less than 3 of those) is burning cash on unscheduled maintenance (i.e. component failures) at a frightening rate, both mechanical and electrical. We are down around £2000 in last 18 months and that's before it having needed tyres, servicing, cambelt (age and mileage) and gearbox oil change. This was a main dealer serviced car that's not yet done 90,000 miles.

Mondeo I had before didn't cause this much cost in 8 years.

Sometimes this strategy wins and sometimes you get a complete spanking.

I've had a pup of a new contract hire car before but each time it went wrong the garage was given the keys and I came back when it was done.

It's not just about cost. It's a balance between risk, cost and hassle. Recent experience has me looking at PCP and lease with my own money for the first time ever. I don't imagine it will be cheaper but it might be more comparable to the cost of a bad 4 year old car than some people would give credit for.

Interesting viewpoints, want a new reliable car every 2-3 years a lease is for you.
Personally I get a car allowance but I save it, I don’t care about cars so will end up buying a second hand 6-24 month old car low mileage and run it for 3-4 years.

I’ve either been lucky or cars are getting better at passing mots, I’ve not had any huge mot bills for 8 years now

I'm not sure leasing or PCH are ever the best financially over a 3 year period. Interest rates are cheap at the moment so getting a loan, buying a new car + selling it after 3 years is probably always going to save you money over leasing as the big cost in all that is the depreciation of the car, which applies to however you finance it it's just on leasing deals they add their profit margin on to. Leasing is more just taking away some of the hassle (arranging large loans, selling the car after) and guaranteeing the financing (e.g. if the car depreciates faster than expected that's not your problem)

bought a 5 year old Volvo Estate for £3900 in 2007. That lasted me 10 years until I scrapped it.....

The maths I do says leasing doesn’t work.

And my maths says that for a fair whil you were driving a 15 year old car that had one wheel in the scrapyard.
Lots of people don’t want to do that.

Just like lots of people don’t want a 20 year old kitchen with drawer fronts hanging off and doors that don’t shut straight.

They do the same job in a way, and you can still make your dinner in a 20 year old kitchen. But a newer one is a far nicer place to be if you are willing or able to pay for it.

I’m not sure leasing or PCH are ever the best financially over a 3 year period. Interest rates are cheap at the moment so getting a loan, buying a new car + selling it after 3 years is probably always going to save you money over leasing as the big cost in all that is the depreciation of the car,

Not always for every car. But certainly every car I've leased in the last 10 years by quite a margin.

We had two skoda yetis on lease (high end models) they cost £4423 each to lease over two years.

I'm currently with a Karoq which is costing me 2640 a year to lease over 2.5 years.

No chance either of them will come close to depreciation.

FuzzyWuzzy has it. It's all about trade-offs - if your priority is hassle-free, fixed (more or less) cost motoring, then leasing is a good option. If you are prepared to put up with the chance of picking up the tab for a major fault, and don't mind the hassle of financing and selling on/trading in then an older second-hand car will probably save you a decent whack of money. You also have the flexibility to change the car when necessary if your circumstances change.

We have one lease, one SH car.

Is this really true? I’m guessing most car parts follow the bathtub reliability curve so high initial failure rate

Well you've got no wear and tear for a start. In the periods I'm talking about for 2 - 3 years.

And out of the 12 cars we've leased between us we've had zero garage visits (other than two cheap services.)

Some leases seem to include servicing, but a better description would be

“we include an oil change, any consumables such as brake pads or tyres you will have to pay for.”

Or can someone point me in the direction of a lease where consumables are included?

I’m just trying to work out the cheapest way of using a car!

You need to search for 'maintenance included' which might be sold as a package alongside the actual lease deal.

Probably turns out more expensive unless you are particularly hard on tyres/brakes

Doesn't matter how hard you are on it, if your local roads look like they were modelled on a green lane then problems are inevitable.

If a car you are leasing is a complete pup can you just hand it back? The example I'm thinking of was a Q7 that despite being taken to Germany for diagnosis still had an electrical drain that would flatten the battery in 8 hours. Guy literally had to cary a spare battery wherever he went.

her name has been said twice now, let's not make it a third!

Op your maths is sound and I went through the same last year. I gave a lease car having underestimated the mileage and ended having to stump up £1500 odd in mileage charges, this negated the low monthly payment I had been making for 2 years. Take a loan and pay it off as quickly as you can afford and pray the car lasts for a few years after the loan is gone. Once my loan is paid I'm going to start chucking the same money into a savings account so when it comes times to replace the vehicle I'll need a smaller or no loan..

If a car you are leasing is a complete pup can you just hand it back? The example I’m thinking of was a Q7 that despite being taken to Germany for diagnosis still had an electrical drain that would flatten the battery in 8 hours. Guy literally had to cary a spare battery wherever he went.

Depends on the age of the car, but there would be various avenues for rejecting it if this was a fault that began fairly early in the lease period. The finance company is ultimately responsible for the quality of the car.

And just for Jekkyl, LING!

It's pretty obvious that leasing isn't for everyone. Look around, there's still website/app called Autotrader and there are car sales places in existence everywhere. Weigh up your options and do what's best for you. No way would I pay to have a shiny new thing sitting on my drive waiting for me to sniff that new car smell on Saturdays and Sundays. Driving for the fun of it simply doesn't exist (down here) anymore, so I'd never do enough mileage. My current car was £10K, but it cost me 5K because I had another car to trade in for it.

Personally, I do 25k miles a year and need a big car, ideally with some grunt for shifting canoes, bikes and kids. A lease for me is easily £4-500 a month, with a couple of £000 down. So a 3 year lease works out at £14-15k, plus tyres and servicing etc.

I can buy a decent car for just under £9k, run it for three years, with a couple of bills, and it is still worth £3k at the end. So the same 3 years cost me under £10k in comparable cost.

Not true. I wanted a big car - I have a car allowance with work & there are certain stipulations as to what & not I can have. I lease a Skoda Superb & it's £280 a month with a 30k a year mileage allowance. Lease co extends the warranty to cover the lease. Don't pay tax, don't do breakdown insurance & had the option of a discounted service plan (plus consumables) of 4 services for £200 in total.

Yes it was right place at right time, but if you arn't desperate for something, there are deals out there.

This car is cheaper to run as an absolute Pence Per Mile than the last 3 privately owned cars I have had (taking into account stuff breaking).

There certainly isn't a right or wrong answer to how you fund/drive your cars however. For me, cars are a tool & it absolutely needs to be as hassle free as possible. Even if this was a more expensive route than my past, I would be doing it.

LING - is it genuine ? Looks distinctly like a dodgy website!

£535 pm for a 5 series estate, with 15k miles, beyond my budget!

LING – is it genuine ?

Oh, it's genuine. And Ling has a STW forum account. Oh man she's hilarious (<- sarcasm)

And if you look on the front page of her website, it has a live feed of her reading STW.

<Waves at Ling>

Quick whats the anti-curse?

It might be worth looking at cars that have a longer warranty than the standard 3 years. After much deliberation I bought a new (to me) truck last night. It's coming up for 3 years old but 2 years of the 5 year 100k warranty remaining. It's depreciated by about £13k on the list price from new. Buying something that's taken the depreciation hit, but still has some warranty might be the best of both worlds. That's if, like me, you don't care about having a shiny new car etc.

I had a new m135i (1 series) on a lease. List price £34k (although on drivethedeal it was substantially less than that at times ~£28k). It cost me approx £8k over 2 years. During that time, I had to pay for the lease, and insurance. No tax, no MOT, no servicing costs (no service due in that time frame), no tyres. It had one problem fixed under warranty and some recall issue. No unexpected costs. Factoring in depreciation, even if I had the cash to buy outright (I did not), I couldn't have run it for that time for less than my £8k.

I now drive a 12 year old 3 series. It cost me £5k about 3 years ago and may be worth about £2k now (I.e. £1k/year in depreciation). It also costs £315 /yr in tax, I've had a set of tyres and I've just spent £700 on MOT/service and replacing some worn suspension components, so it costs at least £2k / year. Unless you're willing to do proper bangernomics and buy 10+ year old cars with 100,000+miles for cheaps, you'll always be losing £x000/yr.

So yes, my 3 series is a bit more economical overall but the difference is not as much as you might think, and the downside is that I'm driving a 12 year old 110,000 mile car with a couple of minor niggles that could potentially go pop or throw up a huge bill at any time. If I actually relied on my car for work I'd have changed it by now.

If you need or want a new car, then leasing is a very cost-effective way of having one, and I'm sure I'll do it again some time.

Where do you find a Skoda Superb with 30k mileage for £280 month?

That seems more like it!.

I now drive a 12 year old 3 series. It cost me £5k about 3 years ago and may be worth about £2k now (I.e. £1k/year in depreciation). It also costs £315 /yr in tax, I’ve had a set of tyres and I’ve just spent £700 on MOT/service and replacing some worn suspension components, so it costs at least £2k / year.

IMHO buying a 9yo car for 5k is exactly where you don't want to be. The perfect storm of highest upfront cost combined with highest maintenance risk.

Leasing only makes sense if you appreciate the benefit of a brand new car. If you are unable to appreciate that, or unwilling to pay the premium associated with it, you are just not going to get it. Buying second hand is always going to be cheaper. Leasing is not for tightwads.

So it can be cheaper to leave a 5 series /A6 than a mondeo? Yes they have higher residuals, but don’t they depreciate at the same % a year, ?

What do you think the difference between residuals and depreciation is?

Where do you find a Skoda Superb with 30k mileage for £280 month?

Probably worth a look

https://www.simpsonsskoda.co.uk/pch-offers/

no servicing costs (no service due in that time frame

Wait, so in 2 years the oil wasn't changed?

Leasing is not for tightwads.

Lol, so if you don't lease you're a tightwad? I hear there's a new dropper post you may be interested in...

Wait, so in 2 years the oil wasn’t changed?

When I leased a Yeti a while back on a 2 year deal that didn't require a service. It was on the 'long life' VW servicing schedule. My deal was 10k mileage per year and I did 19k overall. The service was not due until 22k.....

I did pay for the maintenance option on mine though. It was an extra £13 a month, however I had two punctures during the term both in the sidewalls which needed new tyres. All covered for within the maintenance package. I just rolled up into an ATS garage and they changed it straight away. No problems. For me it was worth it.

What do you think the difference between residuals and depreciation is?

Residual is what the car is worth at the end of the term. Depreciation is the difference between the price paid and what it’s worth down the line. Two different concepts.

We had a look at this a little while ago and were nearly tempted to go for a PCP type deal. Then we sat back and had a think about it and in the cold hard light of day couldn't find any way in which it made sense. But I guess that becomes the mindset of how you think or renting vs buying. For me, yes, you get a lower monthly price but at the end of the 2 or 3 years you have nothing to show for it. NO asset. No car. You are now on the treadmill and the only realistic option at the end of the PCP period is to use whatever equity you have in the car as your deposit for the next PCP deal. Which, for me, means you are now stuck with a monthly outgoing for as long as you want / need a car. At that point we changed minds and went back to taking out a loan and buying a second hand car. In 2 years time my monthly payments will finish and I will still have a car that I can choose to do with what I want. Probably keep it for another year or so before thinking about replacing it. If you are obsessed about having a brand new car and updating it regularly then, sure, PCP represents a reasonably cost effective way to do it but is it really worth it? Yes, for us it would be nice to "nicer" or newer car but for we value the disposable income more than some status symbol car to drive. As it is, the Mondeo (which we went for in the end) is a perfectly capable and comfortable car that we are happy with.

When I leased a Yeti a while back on a 2 year deal that didn’t require a service. It was on the ‘long life’ VW servicing schedule.

ie. the "less cost to the owner" option.

If it was your car would you wait 2 years between oil changes?

Where do you find a Skoda Superb with 30k mileage for £280 month?

Probably worth a look

https://www.simpsonsskoda.co.uk/pch-offers//blockquote >

Mine was with NVC, I think it was a cancelled order as it had a couple of non standard extras (which were actually super useful to me - hidden towbar, etc). I assume they didn't want it sat on their books so it went super cheap, totally right place, right time, but then there was Octavia's recently for sub £100 a month, so always worth a look 🙂

If it was your car would you wait 2 years between oil changes?

Yep, why wouldn't I if that was the intervals?

 

Maybe I'm just too cynical. Rather convenient intervals that avoid any obligation from the manufacturers to do any maintenance and by the time it becomes an issue it's well out of warranty. I'm extremely sceptical that they have somehow manufactured an engine that can last twice as long between oil changes.

Personally, I'd change the oil once a year regardless of how many miles it's done, there are far too many critical moving parts in there. Preventive maintenance costs far less than reactive.

I've said this already on another thread but my Octavia is an SE Tech which is primarily a fleet car. Because of this, the service interval is two years. If it was an SE with the same engine, the interval would be one year. So either they are ripping off personal customers with unnecessary servicing, or they just don't care if fleet cars engines are knackered when it comes to selling them on.

trail_rat

Member

Mot really isn’t that scary a prospect.

It’s a minimum standard which really is minimum.

Your car can pass an mot and still be a raft.

But then I do think people generally get their pants pulled down by using shit garages . Like a good lbs a good relationship with the garage is a must

That depends on the car, Kangoos had something like 40% failure rate on their first MOT.

Personally, I’d change the oil once a year regardless of how many miles it’s done, there are far too many critical moving parts in there. Preventive maintenance costs far less than reactive.

...and throwing away perfectly good oil that’s less than half way through it’s intended life costs far more than..... not doing that 👍

So either they are ripping off personal customers with unnecessary servicing, or they just don’t care if fleet cars engines are knackered when it comes to selling them on.

More the second, driven by the fact that if they specify more frequent changes, the service cost will mean the fleet buyers won't touch them. Vauxhall used to do the same with timing belt changes.

Octavia’s recently for sub £100 a month, so always worth a look

Plus £2450 down, plus fees, and that's for 8k miles a year.
Let's be generous - monthly might be double (?) for the 20-30k miles a year. For two years. Plus deposit.
So we're back up at monthly amortised of £300?

Residual is what the car is worth at the end of the term. Depreciation is the difference between the price paid and what it’s worth down the line. Two different concepts.

Yeah, they really aren’t.

That depends on the car, Kangoos had something like 40% failure rate on their first MOT.

Berlingo’s even worse, I believe

…and throwing away perfectly good oil that’s less than half way through it’s intended life costs far more than…..

Oil is oil. What's the difference between richardkennerley's SE Tech and a normal SE? Same block, same oil, different service schedule? Every schedule on every car I've ever owned has been X miles or every year, whichever comes first. Oil standards haven't changed that much, if at all so it's not the oil that's different. The blocks are the same so what's left?

FWIW I'm an engineer by trade and there's no way I'd run a car for 2 years on the same oil and expect it to end well. Maybe not immediately but eventually I'd fully expect to see significant wear.

Maybe I’m just too cynical. Rather convenient intervals that avoid any obligation from the manufacturers to do any maintenance and by the time it becomes an issue it’s well out of warranty. I’m extremely sceptical that they have somehow manufactured an engine that can last twice as long between oil changes.

You're quite right, albeit for slightly wrong reasons. Manufacturers need to appeal to company car buyers and lease schemes since that's where they sell the majority of their cars. If they can minimise the early (first 3 years) service intervals they minimise the cost to those customers at the potential expense of the longer term life of the product.

If it was my own car I'd do an oil change each year but it's not and there's no incentive to do any sort of preventative maintenance outside of the letter of the lease agreement.

Doing the maths on the 2nd hand option..

10k will buy you (looking at autotrader) a 5 year old octavia estate with 50,000 miles on it. After you run it for 4 years, you have a 9 year old car with 110,000 miles, worth (again quick glance) around £3k. So you're 3k 'up' - but a lot of that is eaten away - a high milage, second hand car probably costs £40 a month more to run than a new one (in fuel, repairs, tax, etc), plus financing 10k over 4 years (average of £5k @ 2.5% interest, assuming you had the cash in savings) is another £500 - so you're down to £500 'up'

Is it worth £2 a week to have a new car over an old one? Up to you..

This comes around every few months on here & effectively boils down to personal choice. Some people value a nice new car on the drive every few years, others don't.

Examples like that Octavia estate above are pretty meaningless as there are so many ways of swinging it in favour of the point you are trying to make....

For example....my previous car was bought for £7500 cash at 3yrs old & 24k miles on the clock. I kept it for almost 10 years & put 250k miles on it and sold it for £400. So, the car cost me the equivalent of £60/month.
During that time, I put away around £150/month to cover insurance (incl. breakdown), tax, MOT & servicing. There was only one occasion I had to dip into other savings and that was £500 for a new a/c compressor at around 180k miles.
So in total the car cost me £210/month including all costs apart from fuel and the occasional air freshener.
When I first got the car my annual mileage was around 25k miles. It then went up to 34k miles & by the time I got rid it was back down to 25k miles. Last time I looked for lease deals that covered 25k miles with all maintenance included they were around £400/month at least. So, leasing over that 10 yr period would have cost me ~£180/month more - or £21,600.

But.....I fully accept that I was driving around in an old, out of date car and it almost became a badge of honour to see how many miles I could get on it, before deciding enough was enough. It still ran fine when I got rid of it, but the arrival of our daughter meant I had to swap it for something larger.
The only 'gadget' that I felt like that car would have been handy to have was bluetooth connectivity, particularly for music streaming, but that could have been solved with a new head unit, I suppose.

Decent Karoq deal:

https://www.kgvs.co.uk/personal-lease-cars/skoda/karoq-suv-4x4/karoq-suv-16-tdi-115-se-5dr-manual-start-stop-433450407

And another

https://www.whatcar.com/car-leasing/deals/personal/skoda/karoq-diesel-estate/16-tdi-se-5dr-dsg/3404302/47635949/

OK, first Karoq is £5300 or £220 a month - pretty good, but still only 10k miles.

As said - leasing is a cheap way to get regular new cars. It's NOT a cheap way to get around.