Being wise with the allowance
Discussion
Say for example you are thinking of going for a job. That job has a Company Car included but there is no option to take cash - you have the company car or your forgo the benefit. The rules say you can't be over 200g/km, must have 4 seats and must come from a narrow list (Audi, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, Mercedes, Mini, VW) but after that basically anything goes. You do 18k Private PA and basically no business miles - this is a perk car not a job use car. On the basis that your current car is a large estate you would replace with either A6/5-Series/XF/E-Class estate or perhaps a Mondeo since it's a cavern. You get an allowance each month that is spent on the lease, if you lease under your limit, the remainder goes to pay your tax bill. Your current car does 32mpg and excluding fuel and depreciation costs about £3500/yr to run - any money you currently save on fuel/running becomes the "Toy fund".
You could run a really good car by paying a trade up amount on the lease... but should you do this or run a second car? The chances are the second car would not get driven that often due to time and when you do travel long distances you need to take the family anyway.
Do you:
a. Pick a 45mpg Mondeo TDCI giving you a toy fund of £4100
b. Pick a 48mpg 520d giving you a toy fund of £3000
c. Pick a 36mpg 528i giving you a toy fund of £700
d. Pick a 42mpg 530d giving you a toy fund of £550
e. Pick a 34mpg E350CGI leaving you without a toy fund
I like the idea of having a second car, but storage wouldn't be that easy and I doubt I'd get loads of opportunities to drive it with so many other things going on in the world... is it a bad idea to spend more money on your company car lease so that you have something "special" all the time? I really value quiet progress and effortless performance and rarely get the chance to drive really hard.
You could run a really good car by paying a trade up amount on the lease... but should you do this or run a second car? The chances are the second car would not get driven that often due to time and when you do travel long distances you need to take the family anyway.
Do you:
a. Pick a 45mpg Mondeo TDCI giving you a toy fund of £4100
b. Pick a 48mpg 520d giving you a toy fund of £3000
c. Pick a 36mpg 528i giving you a toy fund of £700
d. Pick a 42mpg 530d giving you a toy fund of £550
e. Pick a 34mpg E350CGI leaving you without a toy fund
I like the idea of having a second car, but storage wouldn't be that easy and I doubt I'd get loads of opportunities to drive it with so many other things going on in the world... is it a bad idea to spend more money on your company car lease so that you have something "special" all the time? I really value quiet progress and effortless performance and rarely get the chance to drive really hard.
D and then get this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RENAULT-CLIO-RSI-RED-199...
I had thought about the 528 as petrol is so much cheaper than diesel but you'd be £300 down a year by my maths which is a pretty sizeable amount.
The clio would be a laugh, my folks had one when I was younger makes a great sound and you can fully exploit it's (small) power fully without killing it or yourself.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RENAULT-CLIO-RSI-RED-199...
I had thought about the 528 as petrol is so much cheaper than diesel but you'd be £300 down a year by my maths which is a pretty sizeable amount.
The clio would be a laugh, my folks had one when I was younger makes a great sound and you can fully exploit it's (small) power fully without killing it or yourself.
D and reach down the back of the sofa for an extra few quid for this:
http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...
http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...
A or B for me, because having to drive any of those options without a nice toy would drive me mad. Probably B, realistically; there is nothing wrong with the Mondeo, but the 5-series is an appreciably nicer car.
Even if you can't store a second car, there are plenty of things you could do with £3-4000 pounds.
Even if you can't store a second car, there are plenty of things you could do with £3-4000 pounds.
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