Lightning McQueen wrote:Does anyone have a novated lease car?
Are the benefits substantial?
I don't have one now but have in the past.
Substantial - financially not really but you do get to buy a new car you might not have ever thought of driving around in. You can get a new car at fleet prices if you go through a dealer who specialises in Novated Leases.
My basic understanding of it is that if the lease is worth say 2k a month, that comes out of your pre-tax salary, not post tax if you were 'buying' a car via a loan. It also means the 2k generally pays for everything. Petrol, tyres, rego, servicing etc. Obviously the more expensive car, the more the monthly payment is. For instance, I leased a Monaro when they came out in the early 2000's and was paying about 2600 per month. A common Commodore at the time would've been half that per month.
At the end of the lease, you also have a bubble payment. So the finance will be arranged so that at the end of 5 years, you still have to pay 40% (known as the bubble). You can then buy the car for that bubble price (100k car would be worth 40k after 5 years of leasing it) or you can trade the car and get another one and start the process all over again.
I found that you got a little trapped. Every 5 years you were in a new car, which was great, but I felt like I was extending myself a little bit too far for an asset that was depreciating, so I got out.
There are some rules around what you can and can't lease - from memory you can lease something less than 3 years old, so you don't need to go too silly if you don't want. My sister for instance leased a Lancer as she was up for a better car than she had but reigned in the spending/outlay.
Have a look at this site for some examples on what you can save.
https://www.fleetnetwork.com.au/novated ... n8QAvD_BwE