Owning a car or leasing a car, what’s best?

There are some interesting statistics around regarding car ownership. Once upon a time it was a real status symbol. The Americans showed us the way in the 50s and we’ve never looked back. Drive down any suburban avenue and you’ll see cars spilling over the pavements and parked nose to tail on driveways.

Our love affair with car ownership has changed. Leasing is more popular than ever and the Millennials have a completely different attitude if you study the stats.

•  In the last two decades the number of trips made by young drivers, between 17-29 has plummeted – down by a whopping 42%!
• The number of passenger trips in this age group has also dropped by a quarter.
• What’s also fascinating is that car ownership is dropping by around 1% every year. In 2017 car ownership was down to 36% from 42% twenty years ago.
• Add the fact that only 29% of 17-20 years olds possessed a full licence in 2014 – down from 48% you can see the trend emerging.

So why are Millennials turning their backs on car ownership?

Actually this is not a difficult question to answer: they are under particular financial pressures, quite different from previous generations. Think about it; Millennials no longer work in stable careers where you pick up your clock at the end of 40 years’ service. They often work freelance or on short contracts. They struggle with post university debt and if they live in cities will find it difficult to find a parking space. Or dodge congestion charges. Then there’s the cost of car ownership and the improvement in public transport in cities such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. We don’t need cars they say.

Technology has also shifted Millennials’ perspective towards car ownership

Uber, Hailo, Zipcar, Hailo and other car pooling schemes mean a car is available through a smartphone, so why own? They have other things upon which to spend their money after all.

It’s not just Millennials that have given up on car ownership.

We have been watching car leasing trends for a number of years. Certainly business owners have continued their love affair with leased cars but interestingly 70% of our business is made up of personal users. They are customers that want a premium product for low cost. They are also customers fed-up of dealerships and want a car as soon as possible with absolutely no hassle. We have a wide range to choose from but high-end cars such as Mercedes AMG product, BMW M product are their cars of choice. Who can blame them? They come to a car lease company for information about saving money and in this respect we have absolutely nailed it!

If you think about it, cars are a way of life and no longer ‘special’.

They are not something you buy, put in the garage and take for a drive every Sunday after spending the morning polishing it. People don’t want to keep their cars until they are antiques. Most want to change a vehicle every few years and so have no real interest in owning it, just leasing.

The joy of driving a brand new car does not diminish. Imagine driving a Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Jaguar away from the forecourt knowing that expensive garage repair bills are a thing of the past. As soon as a car is a couple of years old you can lease a new one. It’s a match made in heaven for many people and they are beginning to understand the benefits of car leasing. Once Millennials realise the financial burden of car ownership can be alleviated, by simply leasing a car, we’ll probably see an increased uptake. It’s more than likely to be an automated car unless Millennials intend to hail a local automated car when they need one. The future looks absolutely fascinating.

As Elon Musk stated a while back:

“Any cars that don't have full autonomy will have negative value. It will be like owning a horse. You will only be owning it for sentimental reasons!”

What do you think? Why not have a look at a few lease car deals over which you can become a little sentimental.