Short term vehicle leasing, every offer in one place

Not sure how long you need a short term lease for?

Most people arrive knowing roughly — a few months, most of a year — but not exactly. Our short term vehicle leases run from one month to eighteen. Here’s how they actually differ.

Every vehicle lease agreement here includes servicing, road tax, breakdown cover, warranty, and free delivery and collection. Insurance and fuel are yours to sort — here’s why.

The deposit doesn’t change with the term. It’s set by the vehicle, from £750 on cars and £2,000 on vans. It’s refundable, and you’ll know your figure before you order.

The short version

• Don’t know when it ends? Take the rolling month. You can move onto a longer term later, usually at a better rate.
• Know the date it ends? Take the fixed term that matches it. You’ll pay less per month than rolling, and you won’t be paying for a vehicle after you’ve stopped needing it.
• Somewhere in between? Round down, not up. Extending is easy. Getting out early isn’t.

How to lease a vehicle

How car leasing works walks through the whole process, start to finish — what you pay and when, how mileage works, and what happens on the day it goes back.

Done: this heading carries the exact-match keyword “how to lease a vehicle”, which this page owns per the keyword table. It replaces the four-step “How to lease a vehicle with us” block from the original draft — the process itself lives only on How It Works, so this stays a heading and a link, not a rewrite of the steps. See the note at the end of this document.

Looking for vehicle lease deals near you?

There’s no forecourt to drive to. Wherever you are on the British mainland outside the Highlands, we bring the vehicle to your home or your workplace — free — and collect it free at the end.

So the deals near you are the same deals as everyone else’s, at the same price. That’s rather the point.

Highlands, islands or Northern Ireland: give us a call and we’ll check what’s possible.

Build note: “vehicle lease deals near me” is the exact-match search term — set it as this section’s image alt text and as the anchor text on internal links pointing here from location-relevant pages, rather than forcing “near me” into copy written to be read aloud as “near you”.

Electric, hybrid or petrol — and always a newer vehicle

Filter to EV/Hybrid for electric vehicle lease deals across every term. Twelve months is long enough to find out whether an EV genuinely fits your driving before committing to four years of one — which is a rather better test than a weekend loan.

Browse our new vehicle lease deals knowing most come straight from the manufacturer with delivery miles only — nothing we lease is more than twelve months old.

Vans on the same terms as the cars

Panel vans, crew vans and pickups sit in the same list, on the same one-to-eighteen-month terms. After the best commercial vehicle lease deals? Filter to Van and sort by price.

Short term lease vehicles suit a business with a contract that has an end date, a vehicle off the road, or a run of work you’re not ready to buy a van for.

One difference worth knowing up front: the deposit on a van is £2,000, against the £750 cars start at. It’s on the page before you commit to anything.

The numbers are on the page, not behind a quote form

Mileage allowance. Cost per extra mile. The documentation fee. The deposit. What’s in the monthly price and what isn’t. It’s all written down on every term page, before you speak to anyone.

We’re not claiming that makes us the cheapest. It makes us the easiest to check — which matters more when you’re comparing four companies on a Tuesday night and three of them want your phone number first.

One thing we’ll say here rather than leave you to find in the terms: servicing is paid for by us and booked by us, at an approved service centre — but you have to tell us when it’s due. The car counts down to it on the dashboard; we can’t see your mileage from here. Ignore that countdown by more than 500 miles and the manufacturer’s warranty lapses, and there’s a £500 plus VAT fee attached to a missed service. It’s one call, and we’d rather you knew now than read it later.

“Brilliant service from start to finish, highly recommended.” Carl — View on Google

We’re not a start-up

Drive Subscribe is an ACL Automotive brand. ACL Automotive Contracts has been arranging vehicle contracts for over twenty years, and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an owner and broker of hire — the vehicles are ours — and a member of the BVRLA.

Short term leasing has watched a few names arrive and disappear, taking customers’ vehicles with them. ACL has been here throughout.

Common questions

What is leasing a vehicle?

You pay a fixed monthly amount to use a vehicle that stays ours. Servicing, road tax, breakdown cover and warranty are built into the price. At the end you hand it back — there’s nothing to sell and no value to lose. Like a phone contract, for a car or a van.

Can you trade in a leased vehicle?

No — a leased vehicle isn’t yours to trade. It belongs to us throughout, which is exactly why you’re not carrying its depreciation. What you can do is swap it. At the end of your term, move to a different vehicle and we’ll handle the changeover on the same day.

Which short term car lease length do most people take?

Most people take a six or twelve month car lease, and most of them are businesses. Nine is nearly always a project with an end date. One month is what people take when they can’t yet say.

Why does a shorter term cost more per month?

A shorter car lease costs more per month because the vehicle spends more of its life being prepared, delivered and collected, and less of it being driven. The longer you keep it, the further that cost spreads. Same reason a week’s car hire costs less per day than a single day does.

Should I round my car lease term up or down?

Round your car lease term down. Torn between six and nine? Take six. Extending is a phone call before your term ends. Ending early isn’t — on a fixed term you’re liable for the rentals you’ve got left, so a six month lease ended in month four still costs you the last two.

Who arranges servicing on a short term vehicle lease?

We do — servicing and maintenance are inside the monthly price on every term here, and we book the work at an approved service centre. What we ask in return is a phone call when your car or van says a service is due, because we can’t see your mileage from here. On the shortest terms you may never reach one; from nine months upward, most vehicles will.

How much is the deposit on a short term car lease, and does it change with the term?

It doesn’t change with the term — it’s set by the vehicle, with a minimum of £750 on cars. Vans are a flat £2,000. The deposit itself isn’t VATable.

It’s refundable, you’ll know your figure before you order, and it comes back after collection less anything due for excess mileage or damage.