Posted: Tue May 5, 2020 2:33pm
The first thing to think about is what you would do in the UK - do you usually lease or buy second-hand? Or are your requirements different now - no commuting, etc.? I assume you are, or will be a permanent resident, as opposed to looking for a car to use when at a holiday home?
The banks (as you've said) and most of the major car manufacturers offer leasing (the banks call it 'renting'), for similar costs as the UK.
The pros & cons are similar to the UK - you have the benefits of a new car, protected by warranty, fully maintained - and most plans also include fully comprehensive insurance; however, you pay an appropriate monthly rate, as you're covering all those costs, plus the depreciation from new of the vehicle. So, if you're leasing a new car, which would sell for £25k for example, then a considerable part of your lease needs to cover the depreciation down to 50% of it's value after 3 years. You also need to carefully forecast your mileage (or, I guess 'kilometreage' in Spain?) as most leases are based on 15k km per annum, with hefty charges for exceeding that over the term - and the advertised lease rates increase proportionately for higher annual mileage.
The main difference to the UK is that the second-hand / used / pre-owned market is not as mature as the UK, mostly because the provision of company cars to employees is much lower, so there are less fleet cars subsequently available for sale as 'used'. However, you should find a decent number of ex-hire cars for sale, but these tend to be high mileage, smaller cars with lots of scuffs & scrapes (although they are often mechanically well-maintained).
If undecided (I don't know if you're about to move to Spain, or have recently moved?), then car rental from most traditional car hire companies can be very cheap while you explore options - as low as 2 euros per day - but varies massively depending on the season. Normally, you can only rent for a maximum of 30 days at a time, but you can arrange that consecutively (albeit you have to bring the car back to be checked / exchanged every 30 days).
Finally, worldwide car sales are massively down due to COVID19, so there will be lots of bargains around, once we're allowed out again, as dealers & manufacturers will be desperately trying to move aging stock and get some income...
Hope this helps!