Guide
Supercar, grand tourer or prestige SUV — which should you lease?
Updated 7 min read Performance & Prestige
Take a supercar if the car itself is the point and two seats are enough for the whole term. A grand tourer if you cover distance and carry luggage. A prestige SUV if other people, a dress or a British B-road are involved. A convertible if the weather and the noise matter most. Over three months or more, seats, boot and the excess-mileage rate decide it more often than the badge.
What are the differences that matter?
Not the ones the brochures lead on. Across an agreement of three months or more, four things decide whether the car was the right choice: how many people get in it, what goes in the boot, what a mile beyond the allowance costs, and how much deposit and excess you are carrying for the length of it.
| Supercar | Grand tourer | Prestige SUV | Convertible | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | Two | Four, often 2+2 | Five, sometimes seven | Two or four |
| Luggage | A soft bag | A weekend, properly | Anything | Less with the roof down |
| Included mileage | 1,000 miles a month, on every car and every agreement | |||
| Miles beyond it | The dearest per mile | Middling | The cheapest | Middling |
| Deposit and excess | The highest | Middling | The lowest | Middling |
| Minimum driver age | 28 and above, mostly 30 | Mixed | From 25 | Mixed |
| In our own fleet | None — all partner-sourced | None — all partner-sourced | Most of what we own | One, the Audi R8 Spyder |
That last row is worth reading twice, because it is the row nobody else in this sector publishes.
When is a supercar the right answer?
When the car itself is the point, and you want it on the drive every morning rather than for one occasion. Over three months or more that is a bigger decision than it looks: this is the car you will do the supermarket run in as well as the A-road on a Sunday.
The trade is real and it is not about money. Two seats, a boot that takes a soft bag, a sill you climb over rather than step through, the dearest excess-mileage rates in the catalogue and the highest deposits and excesses with them. Every supercar we list is arranged through a vetted partner rather than owned by us, so none of them carries a published monthly figure — they are quoted on request.
They are also the hardest cars to lease on age: every one asks 28 or above and most ask 30, with the longest licence-held requirements attached.
When is a grand tourer the better car?
When you actually cover distance. Proper roads at the weekend, long runs to a hotel, two people and luggage that is not a compromise — and a car that is still bearable on a wet Tuesday morning.
A grand tourer gives you four seats — often 2+2 rather than four adults — a usable boot, and the ability to cover 300 miles without arriving broken. On a British B-road in November it is a far better car than a mid-engined one, and it is usually the more sensible answer once the term is described rather than imagined.
Every grand tourer we list is partner-sourced, so there is no published monthly figure and the car is confirmed with the partner before anything is agreed. Give that more room than you would give one of ours.
When is a prestige SUV the right choice?
More often than people expect, and it is where most of our own fleet sits — the Range Rover Sport SV, the Bentley Bentayga V8 S, the BMW X5 M Competition, the Mercedes-AMG G 63 and both Lamborghini Urus among them.
It is the answer whenever other people are involved: a wedding with a dress, a family, a client, a golf bag, a dog, a gravel drive, a Scottish single-track lane in weather. Five seats, a boot, upright doors, and a seat you sit down into rather than lower yourself towards.
It is also the most forgiving on the numbers. Every agreement carries the same 1,000 miles a month, but the cheapest excess-mileage rates in our own fleet are here and on the saloon — our cars run £1.25 to £3.50 a mile beyond the allowance — and so are the lowest deposits and excesses, from £2,000 on the BMW X5 M Sport.
And a convertible?
When the weather, the photographs or the noise are the point. An open car changes a drive more than an extra hundred horsepower does, and it changes a photograph completely.
The honest counterweights are British, and three months is long enough to feel all of them: the roof will be up more often than it is down, boot space shrinks with it folded, and an open car parked in a city is a more exposed proposition than a coupé. Modern folding hard tops handle rain properly, so a shower is an inconvenience rather than a ruined day.
In our own fleet the open car is the Audi R8 Spyder — mid-engined, naturally aspirated, and the only one of its kind we own. The rest of the open cars in the catalogue are partner-sourced.
What if you genuinely cannot decide?
Describe the term rather than the car. Tell us who is getting in it, roughly how far it goes in a normal month, and what has to fit in the boot, and the shortlist writes itself.
That is a better conversation than a filter, because the constraints that decide it — a dress, a gravel drive, a 400-mile Saturday, a barrier height at the car park you use every day — are not fields on a form.
Every car's page carries its own seats, monthly figure, deposit, excess, mileage allowance and per-mile rate before there is anything to fill in, so you can also do it yourself. Browse the catalogue, or start with the cars we own.
Common questions
Which type is cheapest if you go over the mileage?
The prestige SUVs and the saloons. Every agreement includes the same 1,000 miles a month whatever the car, so what separates them is the charge beyond it: across the catalogue that runs 95p to £10 a mile, with the supercars at the top of it and the four and five-seat cars at the bottom.
Which is easiest to lease if I am under 30?
A prestige SUV, a performance saloon or a sports car. 44 cars are available at 25, and every one of them is a saloon, an SUV, a sports car, a grand tourer or a convertible rather than a mid-engined supercar.
Do you own any supercars?
Not in the segment sense — every car we class as a supercar is arranged through a vetted partner, which is why none of them shows a monthly figure. The mid-engined car in our own fleet is the Audi R8 Spyder, which we list as a convertible because the roof is the point of it.
Can I have more than one car at a time?
Yes. Each car runs on its own agreement with its own minimum term, monthly figure, deposit and mileage allowance, and they do not have to start on the same day. Tell us both when you enquire so the deliveries are planned as one job rather than two.
Which type is cheapest?
Every monthly figure is quoted on request rather than published, on a three-month minimum term. A car we own is ours to confirm and we carry the risk on it; a partner-arranged car is confirmed by whoever holds it. In both cases the monthly figure is only part of it: check the deposit, the excess and the per-mile rate, all of which are published on every vehicle page, before comparing two cars on the headline number.
Supercar, grand tourer or prestige SUV — which should you lease?
Every figure in this guide is published per car, before there is any form to fill in.
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Written by Performance & Prestige against the rates, driver criteria and delivery areas published on this site. Rates are “from” prices inclusive of VAT and are confirmed with you before anything is agreed — see driver requirements, insurance and excess and delivery.