Guide

Should you lease a make you know, or try a new one?

Updated September 2026 6 min read Performance & Prestige

Try the new make. A three-month lease is the cheapest honest way to find out whether you like a car rather than the idea of it, and you hand it back if you do not. The risks are practical rather than emotional — size, driving position, switchgear and where it fits at home — and all are checkable first.

Is three months long enough to find out?

It is, and the three-month minimum is why the question comes up as often as it does.

A weekend tells you whether a car is exciting. It tells you nothing about whether you will still want to get into it on the fortieth wet morning. Three months takes you past the novelty and into the part where the car is just your car — which is the only period that reveals whether you actually like it.

It is also short enough that being wrong costs you a defined amount rather than an open-ended one. Every agreement is one month up front, then one a month, with 1,000 miles a month included, and once the minimum is served you can either run on or hand the car back.

That is a genuinely different proposition from buying an unfamiliar make, and it is the strongest argument for using a lease to explore.

What does an unfamiliar car ask of you?

Four things, and none of them is the thing people worry about.

Size. Width and length, against your gateposts, your garage and the bay you park in at work. This is the commonest unpleasant surprise and the easiest to check.
Driving position. Seat height, pedal offset, where the mirrors sit, how much you can see out of the back. You adapt, but you notice for the first fortnight.
Switchgear. Every make has its own logic for climate, drive modes and the stereo. Most of it is learnable inside a fortnight; one or two things will annoy you for the whole term.
Ride. The difference between a firmly sprung German car and a softly sprung British one is far more obvious over a term than over a test drive.

None of that is a reason to stay where you are. It is a list of things to check rather than assume.

Where does the familiar make win?

In the first fortnight, and in the corner case.

You already know where everything is, how the car will behave when you turn in, what the seat does to your back after two hours and how wide it is when a lorry is coming the other way. That fluency is worth something real, and it is worth most when the car is being used for work rather than for pleasure.

The familiar make also wins if the car is going to be shared. A partner who has driven a BMW for years will be comfortable in another one on day one, which is not always true of the same person put in something with a very different layout.

Where the familiar make does not win is on interest. If you already know exactly what living with it is like, you also know the term will not surprise you.

How do you de-risk the unfamiliar one?

Three checks, all of which happen before anything is agreed.

Ask us for the dimensions of the specific car and measure the places it has to fit. A gatepost is not negotiable and a multi-storey height barrier is not either — this takes ten minutes and prevents the worst version of this mistake.

Sit in one somewhere, even briefly. A dealer forecourt, a friend's car, a car park. You are not testing the drive, you are testing whether the seat and the visibility suit your body.

And tell us what you drive now when you enquire. It is the single most useful thing you can say, because it lets us tell you honestly where the car you are considering will feel different rather than just better.

Does a new badge change what you have to qualify for?

The badge does not. The car does, and the gap within a single make is often wider than the gap between makes.

Our own Audi SQ7 is leasable from 25 with five years of full licence held. Our own Audi R8 Spyder asks 30. Same badge, different cars, different underwriting. The same pattern runs through Lamborghini, BMW and Mercedes-AMG alike.

So "can I get an Aston Martin?" is not a question with an answer. "Can I get a Vantage?" is — it asks 28 and five years, where the Valhalla asks 30, ten years and a clean licence.

Every car's figures are on its own page, and driver requirements sets out the framework.

What are the easy steps across?

The comfortable moves are the ones that change the badge without changing the shape of the car.

From an ordinary premium SUV, our own BMW X5 xDrive40i M Sport or Audi SQ7 is the step that asks nothing new of you: same shape, same seats, a £2,000 or £3,000 deposit, £1.50 a mile, and a driver accepted from twenty-five. From there the Bentley Bentayga V8 S or the Mercedes-AMG G 63 is a genuine change of character in a familiar format — and the thing that moves with it is what each holds and charges, not the shape of the agreement.

The steps that need more thought are the ones that change shape as well: an SUV driver going to a 911, or a saloon driver going to anything mid-engined. Those are the cases where the checks above earn their keep.

And the cars that reward curiosity most are the ones people never consider — a Lexus LC 500, an Alpine A110 S, a Lotus Emira V6. Nobody arrives asking for them and the people who take them rarely regret it.

So how should you decide?

If the car is a tool — client meetings, long commutes, family logistics — lean towards what you know. The fluency is worth more than the novelty and you will not thank yourself for relearning a dashboard in month one.

If the car is the point, take the unfamiliar one. You can hand it back once the three months are served either way, and the alternative is spending a decade wondering.

Whichever way you lean, do it on a car we can be definite about if the timing matters. Our own fleet against a sourced car explains which of those you are looking at and what it changes.

Common questions

Can I test drive before committing?

Raise it at the enquiry stage and we will tell you what is realistic on that specific car. It is much more straightforward on a vehicle in our own fleet than on one a partner holds, and we would rather be definite than promise something from a page.

What if I do not get on with the car?

The agreement runs its term — three months is a minimum rather than a trial period. What you can do is tell us early, so that the next agreement goes somewhere better, and so that we understand what did not work rather than guessing.

Will an unfamiliar make cost more to lease?

The figure is set per car rather than per badge, so no make carries a premium as such. What does vary by car is the deposit, the excess and the excess-mileage rate, and those are published on every vehicle page so you can compare before you enquire.

Which makes do you cover?

The catalogue spans the German premium makers, the Italian exotics, the British makes, Porsche, Lexus, Lotus, Alpine and several others besides, across our own fleet and vetted partners. The full list is on the cars page, filterable by make.

Can I lease something I have never driven?

Yes, and most people do — that is much of the appeal. Measure the spaces it has to fit into, sit in one if you can, and tell us what you drive now so we can be honest about where it will feel different rather than simply better.