Car Leasing For Small Businesses – A Brief Guide

If you are a small business owner who has never leased a car before, you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that the process is quite similar to what you would have undertaken had you been buying a car for personal use. However, you also need to be aware that the leasing arrangement comes with its own unique terms and conditions, as well as some restrictions. Business leases can often work out to be a little more expensive than personal leases as the leasing company will factor in the exploitation by multiple employees.

Selecting the Vehicle

Even before you go to a dealership to make your initial inquiries; first, you need to make up your mind regarding the sort of usage of the vehicle and who will be using it. If the vehicle is going to be used by the sales team then you should definitely opt for a robust vehicle, and if the vehicle is required to carry a lot of samples or tools, then it should have lots of space. If you require a vehicle that will be primarily used for transporting your staff from one place to another, such as construction sites or warehouses, then you should be looking at either a small bus or a number of economical cars. If you are looking at cars that will make a statement and zap your prospective clients, then you need to look at models that spell luxury and class.

Conducting a search on the Internet is a very good way of evaluating the features and performance of the various models. Go ahead and visit the car dealerships near you and meet up with the person handling business sales. This is preferable than speaking with the usual car salesman, as the person handling business sales will often be able to guide you better in selecting the optimum vehicle for your small business. While explaining your requirements, be sure to mention that high priority will be accorded to vehicles that have low operating costs, as you do not want the vehicle to reduce your company profits.

Evaluate the Lease Options

After you have successfully identified the vehicle that seems to fit your requirements the best, you can ask the dealership representative to structure the lease finance agreement for you. Typically, leasing cars for business works out more expensive than for personal use primarily due to the fact that these vehicles undergo more wear and tear; and thus have a lesser residual value at the end of the lease contract. It means that the monthly payments will be somewhat higher than that applicable to personal leases. Find out the difference in the monthly payment if you are willing to increase the amount of the down payment. Also, ask if you can buy the vehicle at the end of the lease if you so opt to.

Investigate the Fees and Penalties

Whether leasing a car for business purposes is at all a sensible decision will depend a lot upon the sort of fees that are being charged for executing the lease agreement. It is very important that you make a correct estimate of the number of miles that the vehicle will cover during the lease period as you do not want to be caught out with lease terms that force you to stay within a very low mileage ceiling and then pay extra for each mile over and above. You also need to understand what sort of fees you are liable for in case of excessive wear and tear as well as for damages sustained.

Author bio: Robert Williams is the sales manager at a leading auto dealership. He recommends on-line lease termination platforms such as http://www.leasequit.com/ to customers who want to exit their vehicle leases prematurely.