Best value company car.
Discussion
texasjohn said:
Yes, never look at the list the month after you have committed to a certain car, price always comes down.
Unless of course you are dithering on what to have, a new list comes out and the prices of the cars you were looking at have all gone up!
Sods law...
Unless of course you are dithering on what to have, a new list comes out and the prices of the cars you were looking at have all gone up!
Sods law...
Yes I used to have that prob, spec up a nice 5 series with a poo brown interior, dither, then find the lease deals ended and it's up by £150 pm. 
There are so many factors, but here are some rules of thumb, IMO:
Your wife's company will be wiling to pay up to £X/month, and you may be expected to make up any shortfall (or benefit from some of the saving if she spends less). But the lease cost is only part of the story. Tax payable is a percentage based on CO2 emissions X car price including accessories
A 4x4 with a poor CO2 figure might well attract 35% tax based on it's value, so a £34K car would be a taxable benefit of £12K/year which as a 40% tax payer is £400/month. That's without free fuel.
So if you're going for a company car, the 320ed is very hard to beat. I pay about £300/month from my take-home for a 520d. Audi's are close.
If you do >10K business miles and can opt out, it might makes sense to. My company pays 45p/mile for the first miles then 25p/mile. I do less than 10K/year on business, so it's not worth it for me.
If you do >10K PERSONAL miles (including to/from the office) it might make sense to take free fuel if it's available. Free fuel is again taxed according to the CO2 level. I live close to work and don't do enough personal miles to make it worthwhile, and my employer won't pay for personal fuel abroad. ETA: Reading pferdestarke's comment, I get 13p/mile for business miles, which is almost exactly what the diesel costs me, so not profit/loss.
Your wife's company will be wiling to pay up to £X/month, and you may be expected to make up any shortfall (or benefit from some of the saving if she spends less). But the lease cost is only part of the story. Tax payable is a percentage based on CO2 emissions X car price including accessories
A 4x4 with a poor CO2 figure might well attract 35% tax based on it's value, so a £34K car would be a taxable benefit of £12K/year which as a 40% tax payer is £400/month. That's without free fuel.
So if you're going for a company car, the 320ed is very hard to beat. I pay about £300/month from my take-home for a 520d. Audi's are close.
If you do >10K business miles and can opt out, it might makes sense to. My company pays 45p/mile for the first miles then 25p/mile. I do less than 10K/year on business, so it's not worth it for me.
If you do >10K PERSONAL miles (including to/from the office) it might make sense to take free fuel if it's available. Free fuel is again taxed according to the CO2 level. I live close to work and don't do enough personal miles to make it worthwhile, and my employer won't pay for personal fuel abroad. ETA: Reading pferdestarke's comment, I get 13p/mile for business miles, which is almost exactly what the diesel costs me, so not profit/loss.
Edited by -Pete- on Saturday 26th November 22:59
Pferdestarke said:
I have the 320d ed and it's still cheap at 40%. Best to get reimbursed for business mileage @ 15p / mile as you make money offsetting the tax liability. It really will do 700 miles to a tank or 580 if you have a lead foot like me.
How much does it cost to fill the tank on a 320ED from empty, i.e. showing a couple of miles left on the range?I can get about 700ish miles out of the C250 but I fear the tank is a fair bit bigger!
Pferdestarke said:
I have the 320d ed and it's still cheap at 40%. Best to get reimbursed for business mileage @ 15p / mile as you make money offsetting the tax liability. It really will do 700 miles to a tank or 580 if you have a lead foot like me.
Can't see how you're making money on that - you may be *marginally* ahead, perhaps a penny a mile - but it's not a lot more than that - and very dependent on where you buy your fuel.Double check with the company - my wife is in pharma also, we've opted out of the company car scheme but they set an absolute limit of 140g CO2 on any chosen car.
We chose an ex demo VW Passat CC TDi Bluemotion with leather, DSG, satnav , just 1.7K on the clock, creeps in at 139G CO2. Even with full VW maintenance, accident and GAP innsurance and comprehensive RAC cover we were comfortably within the given allowance. So opt out if you can ....
We chose an ex demo VW Passat CC TDi Bluemotion with leather, DSG, satnav , just 1.7K on the clock, creeps in at 139G CO2. Even with full VW maintenance, accident and GAP innsurance and comprehensive RAC cover we were comfortably within the given allowance. So opt out if you can ....
moffspeed said:
Double check with the company - my wife is in pharma also, we've opted out of the company car scheme but they set an absolute limit of 140g CO2 on any chosen car.
We chose an ex demo VW Passat CC TDi Bluemotion with leather, DSG, satnav , just 1.7K on the clock, creeps in at 139G CO2. Even with full VW maintenance, accident and GAP innsurance and comprehensive RAC cover we were comfortably within the given allowance. So opt out if you can ....
All depends on your allowance and annual mileage.We chose an ex demo VW Passat CC TDi Bluemotion with leather, DSG, satnav , just 1.7K on the clock, creeps in at 139G CO2. Even with full VW maintenance, accident and GAP innsurance and comprehensive RAC cover we were comfortably within the given allowance. So opt out if you can ....
I couldn't make a £6k allowance stretch to anything like what was on the company list.
Pferdestarke said:
U T said:
Hyundai i40 is worth a look. And those low CO2 Volvo models, DRIVe I think they call them.
Very funny. It's actually worth looking at some of the low capacity petrol turbos these days - not sure if the 160bhp TSI is available in the Passat, but that kind of engine is actually better for your BIK liability than a diesel now.
Chicharito said:
All depends on your allowance and annual mileage.
I couldn't make a £6k allowance stretch to anything like what was on the company list.
Even allowing for the BIK tax on having a company car?I couldn't make a £6k allowance stretch to anything like what was on the company list.
In my last company most people got £7200/yr and 15p business mile, doing typically 30K miles per year, vast majority business miles. What I thought was a bit stupid was that a fair number of people opted out and then took a PCP etc on exactly the same car as they could have had as a company car.
Most admitted the sums were about equal, but of course they had the considerable disadvantage of being personally responsible for the car.
Deva Link said:
Even allowing for the BIK tax on having a company car?
Couldn't get close.Not sure how it would work out now - but, as an example, I could have had a BMW 320d SE with leather (this was a good few years back) - out of interest, I looked into how much a lease would be on the same car, including maintenance etc. - came in at over £800 PCM.
Obviously, if you're doing less than 50k miles / year, the calculations are very different - but if you do a lot of miles, a company car is a no-brainer and I'd never even consider opting out.
(Just for comparison, I tend to use the gross allowance figure to do all my calculations, as the tax on that is largely cancelled out by not paying the BIK tax, if that makes sense? - once you've settled on a car you can get into the real detail of it)
Chicharito said:
50k miles / year isn't exceptional for those in sales roles with large territories to cover.
I daresay there are people doing 50K but it is exceptional.It doesn't add anything to a cash vs car discussion because, as you've already pointed out, it's a no brainer to take the company car if you're doing very high mileage.
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