Adding options to a lease — how to win

By: John Wilmot
29th January 2018

An illustration of a car and car option graphics

I called a broker for a quote a few months ago — I was looking at an Audi S4 but I didn’t like the alloys. To change them was a £550 option. The broker said, you realise that on the two year deal, that cost just gets added to the lease? Sometimes options are discounted but adding the full cost into the lease is often the case. On 9 + 23 that’s an extra £150 on my deposit and nearly an extra £20 for alloys that were the same size, just looked better. No chance!

But manufacturers are smart here to allow you to still get a base level of value. Roll back 30 years and you would find a pretty thin spec range for a particular model.

Now we have things like:

BMW

SE

Sport

M Sport

M Sport Shadow Edition

M

Audi

SE

Sport

S Line

Black Edition

S

RS

So the ‘do I add alloys’ dilemma can quickly disappear as a hot deal on an M Sport or Black Edition with all the kit can often be cheaper than the lower spec models. Add the options individually and you’d pay through the nose. Go for a high spec model on a hot deal and all of a sudden you are winning at life, rolling in your fully loaded bargain.