Hannah – You do have an option to buy the car at the end of the lease but I agree with others that it’s not a good idea to do so. I have asked for a purchase price at the end of each lease (out of interest) and the asking price has always been way too high. Keep in mind that, even in the current market, a 5% discount off the prices asked by dealers would be easy and you would get a warranty of probably a year from a main dealer.
Like you, we always add a few grands worth of extras and, even then, the purchase price has still been excessive. As has been said, the asking price is deliberately high to discourage people from leaving the scheme. As choice is so poor at present, many are extending their leases but I’m not a huge fan of that. People forget that the biggest outlay is not the AP, it’s the sacrificed benefits. A 3 year lease costs around £10k in sacrificed benefits, which dwarfs the AP and cost of extras. If you extend to 5 years that increases to over £16k, plus AP plus extras. Quite an outlay for running a 5 year old car. It is, however, an option if there is no suitable or desirable car left on the scheme and going private isn’t an option.