Used BMW i3 - 100% Write Off Against Tax?

[oop north]

Insurance maintenance tyres etc all deductible. If you are vat-registered you can claim back the full vat on tyres and maintenance. Also, next year's increase in dividend tax will increase your savings

[trowelhead]

Cheers, seems like it makes sense then vs buying personally?

[oop north]

I really cannot answer that as corporation tax, vat, national insurance, dividend taxes, the number of miles you do, how often your tyres need replacing, how much will maintenance be, how long you keep it, benefit in kind tax all affect the answer... It's a long list! I keep doing the sums for myself but have never found a car that I definitely want enough to be able to get round to doing it and go through hassle with swapping insurance over to being in the company's name etc. Leccy cars don't have enough range for me (short of a tesla and that wouldn't do some of my journeys easily) and anything else has always been cheaper privately. Another problem is the i3 has only four seats (need five), the Leaf is hideous and only 80 miles and I just didn't fancy the Outlander Phev. Sorry if that's not the clear answer you want

[trowelhead]

oop north said:

I really cannot answer that as corporation tax, vat, national insurance, dividend taxes, the number of miles you do, how often your tyres need replacing, how much will maintenance be, how long you keep it, benefit in kind tax all affect the answer... It's a long list! I keep doing the sums for myself but have never found a car that I definitely want enough to be able to get round to doing it and go through hassle with swapping insurance over to being in the company's name etc. Leccy cars don't have enough range for me (short of a tesla and that wouldn't do some of my journeys easily) and anything else has always been cheaper privately. Another problem is the i3 has only four seats (need five), the Leaf is hideous and only 80 miles and I just didn't fancy the Outlander Phev. Sorry if that's not the clear answer you want

Thanks alot - yeah i wish it was simple!

I'm now leaning towards getting a new one on a business lease where it is all 100% deductible. Tesla model 3 will be for you then?

[oop north]

Really don't know - v happy with D4 3.5 months in) and wife about to downsize her xc90 to maybe an accord. We need one large car between us and we won't want to change her car again for 4 years or so. Would consider getting her one but then we'd have two expensive cars which is rather unnecessary. I would like to have an electric car (have a one third share in 11 kW wind turbine) but not sure what will actually tip us over into it. Not keen on tesla model x

[trowelhead]

oop north said:

(have a one third share in 11 kW wind turbine)

That's awesome! Would love to hear how you got into that! Is it all sold back to government feed in tariff?

I'm pretty much all but decided to go down the new / business contract hire route, should be ordering this week, have requested a few quotes - if anyone knows a good bmw dealer / broker i'm all ears

I want to put my money where my mouth is and support EV tech going forward.

[oop north]

Getting the turbine requires a lot of land (in laws farm, where we live), about £20k for our share (borrowed on mortgage for home improvements), listening to a 5 hour council planning meeting (how do the planning officers put up with the councillors!?), dealing with neighbours coming to our house shouting at my wife for ruining the view, dealing with eon for the feed in tariff, arranging replacement blade with supplier when the first one delaminated after 9 months, arranging replacement nacelle when it started cracking after 36 months (parts only warranty so several k labour costs), discovering after three years that the initial mcs certificate was incorrect in three places !!! And findin proof we had paid for it all so we could get a replacement certificate. Which was still wrong !! Argh!

Anyway - am now considering an i3 myself - a rex- decided the various plug in hybrids are a bit rubbish (other than to save tax) with their 20 ish miles only leccy range (we often do a couple of 18 mile round trips in one evening taking kids to/from events), tesla too pricey and we only want one big car (have discovery), leaf range not up to a return trip to office 40 miles away (no local charging facility) - about to take on an employee so will need to go more often... Not sure if might do lease or outright purchase or just change wife's xc90 for a normal car!

[trowelhead]

Bloody hell sounds like a nightmare! Worth it in the end?

Rex works perfect for what you are looking for. Have you taken bmw up on a 2 day test?

I'm ordering mine today.

Decided to lease so I can get spec I want, plus i want to fix the depreciation (it could be one of those cars where lease is cheaper than depreciation due to unknown resale values and demand) it's also on a fully maintained lease so nothing to worry about. 2 year term so most probably just in time for next gen evs to be released!

Plus running it through company and very minimal fuel costs mean it works out quite well!

[oop north]

I have done nothing about a test yet (been swamped with work in recent months so no time to do it yet) - need to, so I can check (1) comfy for wife (2) the headlights aren't totally poo (have seen they aren't much good and we are a mile from the nearest street lamp (3) it isn't impractically small for us. Fancy buying outright through the company as am not keen on being tied in to a fixed period - may even consider a used one as that looks to shave a good bit off cost at the start. I fancy a tesla really but I would want to go for a 90 for the range and the cost gets rather high!

Would like to get some solar panels and a tesla wall but not sure if can tie the windmill into that - plus unsure how good the quality of power is to the outbuilding - would want to have a decent speed charging system but we didn't think of any of this when we did the house 8 years ago... So might all be too expensive

Back in the real world...

[trowelhead]

oop north said:

I have done nothing about a test yet (been swamped with work in recent months so no time to do it yet) - need to, so I can check (1) comfy for wife (2) the headlights aren't totally poo (have seen they aren't much good and we are a mile from the nearest street lamp (3) it isn't impractically small for us. Fancy buying outright through the company as am not keen on being tied in to a fixed period - may even consider a used one as that looks to shave a good bit off cost at the start. I fancy a tesla really but I would want to go for a 90 for the range and the cost gets rather high!

Would like to get some solar panels and a tesla wall but not sure if can tie the windmill into that - plus unsure how good the quality of power is to the outbuilding - would want to have a decent speed charging system but we didn't think of any of this when we did the house 8 years ago... So might all be too expensive

Back in the real world...

Have a test drive, i bet you'll like it more than you expect. They are not as small as they look. Plenty of space inside. I went for the LED lights which is an improvement.
I'll see how i get on with the i3 - will consider a Tesla next time!

P.S i had my test drive from Ashley at Machester williams bmw - worth popping in though as didn't get much luck via phone or email

Edited by trowelhead on Tuesday 20th October 14:18

[oop north]

I will go to bowker Preston - Sue, their corporate person has been lending me cars for over three years so far... So I expect they will be ok about it