You might be. Some brokers, especially those on the Internet and some dealers, see this as an opportunity to increase their margin. However, dependent upon the car it could well be fair. If for example you added leather to a small car such as a Vauxhall Corsa or Renault Clio the leather addition will probably not add value to the car when sold in auction at the end of the lease, so whilst the cost of the car increases, the resale value included in the contract hire calculation stays exactly the same.

But why the increase in cost over the lease period? Well, of course you have interest charges to add as the extra cost of the leather is being paid at the time the car is purchased by the leasing company so the lessee has to pay the interest that the extra cost incurs. Lets say the leather costs an extra £1,000 and you lease the car over 3 years I would expect the cost to be £1,000 plus the interest charge of say £40 per annum = £1,120.

On the other hand if you added leather to a large executive car I would expect the option to add value to the car when sold in auction at the end of the lease so I would expect to see the extra lease costs to be less than the cost of the option.