Here’s another scenario for you to consider, in fact it’s my personal situation right now.
I have a 4 1/2 yr old Ford Focus ST, which I’ve owned from new and which has been awesome. It was MOT’ed in February, with advisories on brakes all round and tyres all round. To be fair it owes me no favours with either, for a performance car it’s been very economical with parts. It also needs a service. This would amount to somewhere in the region of £1000 to sort out, and that’s with budget tyres. Combine that with the approximate £100 a month it’s still losing in depreciation, the car insurance at £55 a month, the car tax at £55 a month, and the AA cover at £24, and I have an expenditure of £234 per month, and that’s without any finance owing. Put those figures up against the lease through Motability of a brand new, high spec car, with no ownership worries or further bills to pay and it doesn’t take long to decide which way works out better. It doesn’t help the Ford cause that I can no longer get in it either! ?