Data sources and licences

Live station prices come from the government Fuel Finder service, where UK fuel retailers report their pump prices. Retailers report changes as they happen, so a price can lag the pump by up to about 30 minutes.

The long-run history uses the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) weekly road fuel prices, which give UK average pump prices for petrol (ULSP) and diesel (ULSD) every week since June 2003.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Power, fuel economy and CO2 emissions come from the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), part of the UK government. These are official WLTP lab-test figures, published to help compare cars rather than to predict exactly what you will get on the road. Torque and 0 to 62 mph times, where the VCA does not publish them, come from the manufacturer's own official figures.

Plug-in hybrid economy is the official WLTP weighted figure, which assumes the battery is charged regularly. With a flat battery a plug-in hybrid runs mostly on petrol, so real economy is much lower on long journeys.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Company car tax (benefit in kind) rates and bands come from HMRC. Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax) rates come from the gov.uk vehicle tax rate tables. Each tool shows which tax year its rates apply to. Rates change each tax year, so always check gov.uk for your own situation.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Guidance on what counts as acceptable wear when a lease car is returned follows the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) fair wear and tear standard, the industry benchmark used by UK leasing companies.

Car photographs are manufacturer press images, used for editorial identification of the model. Each photo carries its own credit on the image, for example "Image: Volkswagen AG". Illustrations elsewhere on the site are our own and are decorative.

Every car page carries a Car Lease Deals score out of 10, worked out from the figures above at the moment the page loads, using the same method for every car. How each category is measured, the weights and the formulas are set out in full on our how we score cars page.

For how we put these sources together into guides and tools, see our methodology note. You can also browse the car data league tables built from the VCA figures.