Unique Auto

Posts Tagged ‘car contract hire’

So you want to start looking for a new car but you just can’t seem to make your finances stretch far enough? Or perhaps you’ve already found the car of your dreams, but know there’s no way you could even consider buying it. You’re not alone – the auto industry has been hit hardest of all by the credit crunch and car sales have reached an all time low. It seems that no one can afford to think about investing in a new car right now.

But don’t let that get you down – there is still another option. There is another way you could still get the car of your choice, without even having to pay upfront for it. Car contract hire or leasing agreements are a great way to choose the exact car you want and you only have to pay one manageable monthly fee.  

I know what you’re probably thinking, there’s got to be a catch, right? Well, actually, no there really isn’t. Sure you have to sign a contract but you get a choice of any car on the market, even those that would normally be out of your price range. In fact, the more desirable the car is, the better deals you can usually get. It’s not like buying a new car where the value decreases with time, most contract hire agreements are based on your projected usage so they take wear and tear into account and when the contract ends you can trade it in for a newer model.

Choosing contract hire will usually also help with the running cost of having a car – often the road tax and servicing costs are thrown in to the monthly instalments so you won’t find yourself suddenly landed with huge repair bills. And being able to trade the car in every couple of years means it’s less likely to break down as you’ll always have the latest model.

Basically, it’s a great way of getting a new car without any of the worries of buying outright – and it really does make sense, especially now when times are hard. And who knows, you might even be able to get that dream car after all!

Over the last couple of weeks the UK has been hit with some of the most extreme weather we’ve seen in ages. The first week of February brought the heaviest snowfall we’ve seen for 18 years, causing hundreds of schools to close and leaving over 6 million people unable to get to work. Most public transport was disrupted or cancelled and many roads were deemed unsafe due to the icy conditions.

The continuing bad weather is a real worry for drivers everywhere, with all sorts of problems caused by the extreme conditions as well as the increased risk of accidents on the icy roads. There have been a number of incidents of sudden heavy snowfall causing trapped drivers to have to be dug out, while in other parts of the country the melting snow has combined with heavy rains and severe flood warnings have been issued on the roads.

All this is bad news for car owners, not only because of the heightened risk of driving on the roads, but also because a damaged car can be a costly business. With the recession, most people just couldn’t afford to splash out on a new car if something happened to theirs. And that’s the real problem with owning a car. It’s brilliant until something goes wrong, but then it can just become horribly expensive. You might think it won’t apply to you, that you’re a careful, safe driver who won’t get into that sort of situation. But as the last few weeks have proved, you can’t always help what happens on the roads, and you certainly can’t predict it.

The problem is that once you buy a car it becomes entirely your responsibility. Then the older the car gets the more likely it is to go wrong, especially in extreme weather conditions like those we have been experiencing, and the more money you’ll have to shell out when it does. And even when you get it fixed, it still won’t be worth half what you paid for it in the first place as a car only ever decreases in value over time.

The people who manage to avoid these worries are those who opt for a car contract hire deal instead of buying a car outright. It doesn’t mean the car’s not yours, it just means that you pay for it in regular monthly instalments and you often get extra benefits thrown in as well like road tax and servicing costs. So if something was to happen, you wouldn’t have to deal with the whole bill yourself. And the best thing is that when the contract hire expires after a couple of years you can trade the car in for a new one, meaning you’ve always got the latest updated model. And as you’ll always have a new car, it won’t have had time to wear out and is less likely to break down in the first place!

The Audi logo with the circles always reminds me of that magic trick magicians do, you know the one where they link a few separate solid metal rings together into a chain. As a child I could never work out how they did it, and now I’m finding I’m wondering the same thing about Audi and their equally impressive methods of staying afloat in the recession.

At a time when most of the car industry is on its knees, I’m sure I keep seeing more Audi TT’s on the roads than ever. I’m sure it’s not my imagination – suddenly it seems everyone is driving these swanky upmarket cars, despite the obvious financial issues.

I suppose it could just be that the type of person who buys Audi cars probably had more money in the first place, and are less likely to have been hit hard by the credit crunch. Maybe it’s just that those who still have cash to spare for fancy cars want to flaunt it, but I doubt that can really be it. Well, not the only thing anyway!

A far more likely explanation is the fact that, while most people just can’t afford to think about buying new cars, their old ones are still wearing out and need replacing. And if you need a new car but can’t afford to buy brand new, the logical solution is to look at car contract hire instead.

And the best thing about contract hire and leasing is that the cost of the car is split into manageable instalments. You’re not restricted to only considering cheaper cars, or those that you would have been able to afford to pay for outright. In fact, the better car you choose the nicer deal you can usually get. So if you always wanted an Audi but couldn’t quite justify buying one, then Audi contract hire could let you get your dream car despite the credit crunch.

Judging from the increasing number of nice cars around at the moment, it would seem people are beginning to work out this cunning way to trick the recession! (Oh and in case you were wondering – that other trick, the one with the rings, is done either with concealed gaps or simply slight of hand as the magician conceals the fact they were connected all along. And yes, my small childhood self was gutted when I finally found that out!)

Just how far has the car industry come in recent years? From being a luxury way back in the 1930’s to the cheap affordable way you can buy them now using car contract hire it is amazing just how far they have come.

The knowledge of the games industry is the best way I can talk about the change in technology. With this I am going way back to the days of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I could cover the first ever racing game but seeing as I was only really around from the realease of the SNES it is best that I only cover the time after this. The first real driving game that I played was F1 pole position which was released in 1993 and at the time was an awsome game.

In the short space of four years see's the release of F1 pole position 64 on the Nintendo 64. It is amazing to see the difference between the two games. The cars went from being 2-D to being 3-D which is huge leap in technology. The graphics don't change enourmously until the latest generation of consoles, the Xbox 360 and PS3's graphics when it comes to driving games look almost realistic.V.

Of course this hasn’t just happened in the gaming world, many things have been tried and failed or been made into a huge success over the last few years. I think that the best invention to come to the car industry in many years has to be the invention of the Hybrid car. They save on a lot of energy which is going to be useful when all the oil runs out in the not too distant future and in all honesty some of them look pretty awesome. Some of the newer models of the Hybrid cars have system that powers the battery whenever you brake the car.

Some of the other technology in the car is fantastic such as the touchscreen's and the never to be forgotten tomtom system.

These Hybrid cars are no doubt the cars of the future but now, when buying a car you want it looking good as well s being affordable. Spend a lot less money on a leased car? The Audi contract hire looks pretty good as well as being as little as £214 a month.

Car gadgets are on the rise as more people are finding it easier and cheaper to buy them rather than a new car. The most popular can be fitted and unfitted easily which is especially important when you’ve got a car contract hire. The gadgets below are the ones I like the most.

The message at the back of the car.
A great way to tell people what you really think about them, even better write out how's my driving, I dont really care. Change it to whatever you want making everyday a bit more exciting if you have to drive around for a living.

Econav
This handy product actually tells you which is the best fuel-efficent route to take which is brilliant in the recession for saving that extra bit of money.

The safe in your car.
A perfect way to hold most of the other gadgets in. Many of these safe's can be attached to the car without any mess however, what happens if your whole car gets stolen?

A breath tester to read the alcohol levels.
It's great to see if you have gone over the limit or to just have a bit of a laugh when your out not in your car to see how many units you have had. Not sure that having it in the car is the best message to put out, but there you go.

Dad gets one up on everyone
My dad is always moaning about giving me lifts anywhere as I really don’t earn enough money to pay for the lessons! The money I do have will be gone with this gadget as it records how much you need to pay for every lift you get, hence the name. Brilliant for dad’s not so brilliant for everyone else.

Fan that works in the car.
A useful thing to have in the car if you dont have air conditioning. A great, cheap idea to keep you cool in those summer months of driving.99 you cant go wrong at all.

The speed camera moniter.
These are perfect for the motorist, (most of them) who loves to speed in their cars. Brilliant for knowing when to brake and slow down. However it cant tell you where the police are so watch out!

The Tom-Tom
Got to be the best gadget out there. Great for when you want Homer Simpson to be saying Doh! whenever you have missed a turn as well as avoiding arguments.

These gadgets are removable which is great for when switching cars. Car contract hire is a brilliant idea and you can carry the gadgets from perhaps a Punto all the way to as top of the range Audi with a Audi contract hire.

When playing the new Grand Turismo, I really do have to say how awsome the cars look compared to their reall counterparts. When playing these types of games i could really go for one of the top of the range cars that I am racing with. However, when you really think about it, are they affordable?

With car contract hire they can most certainly become available with as little as £214 a month. Before, when playing driving games I have never really found myself to be interested in cars at all but after playing some of the newer ones like Grand Turismo it is difficult not to see what people see in some of these fantastic cars. The graphics in games like this really are top notch. In ten years the industry for gaming has come so far enabling more funding for games such as Grand Turismo 5. I remember when I was playing Formula one on the N64 and I thought that was amazing and that was probably around about nine years ago now.

It is truly amazing to see how far the power of the graphics have come after loading up the new Grand Turismo. It is arguable that playabilty is better than graphics and to a certain extent this is true but you also can't argue with the awsome graphics that the new games have. It wasn't until recently whilst playing one of the graphically stunning looking games that I decided I could really do with one of these awsome looking cars.

Are these brilliant graphics put into the game for playabilty or just so you can really see how good these cars are? In short yes, numerous games get a lot of their funding from advertising in game! it is truly amazing how you can pick from so many different car names as well as choose the unique colour for you. In other words you can look at what car you fancy buying and the dream colour without even having to leave the safety of your living room. Fantastic!

As well as this, with hires like Audi contract hire for ridiculously small amounts of money a month, the cars you see in games can truly become your own.

The French government have just announced a €6.5bn loan to support the country’s sinking car industry. It is the latest in an increasingly long line of similar actions taken around the world to protect jobs and the economy through the recession. A worldwide slump in sales has left even the most established car manufacturers struggling, and millions of workers are in danger of losing their jobs.

In the UK there have already been a number of job losses despite the industry receiving large amounts of money in an attempt to keep business afloat. A number of factories have had to close temporarily and the Japanese carmaker Nissan has just become the latest to announce that it will be making job cuts of almost 10% of its global workforce, including 1200 positions in its UK factories.

In these times of recession, it’s hard to see how the car industry can recover. With things the way they are, most people are feeling the strain and need to keep a close eye on their finances. It’s safe to say that buying a car is the last thing on most people’s minds, and until the economy starts improving the motoring industry can’t do much more than bide its time.

But getting direct sales is not always the only option for car dealers. If the problem is that people don’t have enough money to buy cars upfront, the answer could be to offer more car contract hire deals where customers lease their car on a monthly basis until the cost has been paid off. The availability of these deals means that buyers have more choice when it comes to cars – they have the option to choose a more expensive car that may normally be out of their price range, which means more money for the car manufacturers in the long run.

Contract hire is a great deal for the consumer too, not only does it mean you get a wider choice of more desirable cars but the payment is in manageable instalments and there are often loads of other benefits thrown in. The contracts often include extras like servicing costs and road tax in the monthly price, so there’s less to worry about. It really is a win win situation!