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Post by Humph on Jun 14, 2017 8:42:52 GMT
My company car was a year old two weeks ago, and yesterday, it tipped over 40,000 miles run. Nothing unusual about that from my side, but it maybe serves to remind how much I use it and need it.
At the moment it costs me around £370 a month in personal tax, which while seeming "quite a lot" is do-able and my only personal other expenditure on it is private fuel. Which is not a lot as most of its miles are business.
Looking forward though, within two years, if I had the same car or an equivalent one, the tax burden will rise to £460 a month which starts to feel like "too much".
I can't manage with anything any smaller really, I can regularly easily fill the back of the existing car ( E class estate ) and sometimes have to use a top box too so going for a smaller car isn't an option.
I genuinely am not a badge snob, but I am a comfort and reliability snob, so the list of vehicles I could consider is by default limited unless I look beyond the obvious.
In terms of things that would provide at least similar levels of comfort, reliability and space, it really seems to come down to Superbs, Mondeos, V90s, A6s, maybe a 5 series but they aren't all that great on load space in truth.
Of course I could look at MPVs such as Galaxys or SMaxs, perhaps large SUVs such as X Trails etc but the common issue with more or less all of the above is that bik is rising and none of them would come out particularly cheap.
I could, come to a different arrangement with my employer where I fund my own car with their help, but needing to do 40,000 miles a year still draws me back to the company car option being the best.
So, I could go for something that qualifies as a van, that would reduce my tax burden to £112 a month which sounds attractive, but finding a van that you'd want to do 40,000 miles a year in isn't feeling easy.
Ever so slightly tempted to go and have a proper look at the Dacia Duster Commercial. Ok it's not going to be anywhere near as nice to use as Merc estate, but you can spec them up quite well. If I went down that path it'd mean I only had two front seats, but family needs could easily be met by my wife's current car or indeed a better one funded by the tax savings I'd enjoy by having a van.
Any other bright ideas chaps?
No rush of course, this current car has at least 11 months to run but I need to be getting my ducks in a row with my own thinking before that.
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Post by commerdriver on Jun 14, 2017 8:52:20 GMT
I understand the problem, I don't know why they ever changed the old company car tax situation where the tax was halved if you did over 18000 miles a year. Separated out the perk users from the business users.
Anyway, back to your 1st world problem. I don't see a van giving you the same levels of comfort over a long distance, but in your position I would be looking at which LECs have a hybrid option, even if you never or rarely use the electric options the BIK and tax situation can save you a fortune.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2017 9:06:52 GMT
I think I mentioned it before, KIA Optima PHEV estate. BIK must be way lower then the Merc, surely.
EDIT: Also Bitsomushi Outrager PHEV, maybe? |
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Post by Humph on Jun 14, 2017 9:53:05 GMT
Yeah, I guess what I'm kind of hoping is that most of the manufacturers will offer hybrid options on their large estates in short order. Then it'll just be back to which of them ticks the other preference boxes I currently have. Ironically though, I'd imagine my usage of a petrol hybrid would actually lead to greater fuel usage and therefore quite possibly higher emissions than a good old fashioned diesel would, but if the system drives me down that road then so be it. I'd use up the battery power most days before most people had had breakfast !
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2017 10:15:21 GMT
Why don't we have PHEV diesels as an option? There are non-plug-in diesel-electric hybrids of course, and I'm at a loss as to why they're not more common. Isn't there an E300 Bluetec diesel-electric hybrid? I think a neighbour of mine had one as a company car. I like the look of the Peugeot 508RXH, but I think they've stopped making those.
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Post by Humph on Jun 14, 2017 10:33:06 GMT
Yes, Mercedes did do a diesel electric E class but not any more for some reason.
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Avant
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Post by Avant on Jun 14, 2017 11:05:47 GMT
The changes to BIK are so complex (and I suspect not necessarily logical, because they were devised by Treasury economists) that the only thing to do is to try to work out on an individual basis what a particular car will cost you in tax. What about comparing the petrol-hybrid Passat GTE estate with, say the Skoda Superb 280 bhp petrol and 190 bhp diesel, and the 2.0 diesel Mondeo (not sure whether you can still get 2.0 petrol Fords)? I'm not a tax expert so don't know whether the lower purchase price of these compared with a Mercedes makes any difference.
I know you're not a badge snob, but does it make any difference to your employer's image? If it helps business to have you turn up in a Mercedes, perhaps they will offer you a pay rise to counter at least some of the increased BIK.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jun 14, 2017 11:07:39 GMT
>> Why don't we have PHEV diesels as an option?
In the UK they'd not be popular for company cars because it's a diesel and would be paying the extra 3% BIK (I don't think a diesel hybrid is exempt).
I think we'll see more hybrid electric cars and just more petrols. My VW dealer was telling me the Tiguan is very very popular with the 1.4 TSI engine and people are not ordering the diesels. Even Audi now offers a version of the A4 as the 1.4 TFSI in S-Line trim which wasn't the case until very recently in the UK.
The trouble with most PHEV versions of cars is the batteries mean some luggage space is reduced to accommodate them.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jun 14, 2017 11:12:24 GMT
The silly new tax rules on company cars means if you have a cash allowance alternative, then you pay tax on what is the greater between cash allowance or BIK calculation. So for me I'd pay as much tax on a VW Up! as I do on my A3 saloon. Madness.
They've kept the 3% extra charge for BIK on diesels because of the particulate/NOx problem highlighted by the VW diesel gate scandal. So with the bands changing every year, soon most decent sized diesel estates will be taxed at over 30% BIK.
The Passat GTE is still appealing to me because of BIK and the fact I could run it on electric. The Superb hatchback will be the more practical car and with few options will cost me the same as the A3... but then I'd be tempted to add a few more options.
One thing I'm not so keen on with the Passat GTE (Passat in general) is the current choice of colours. I've not seen what 'manganese grey' looks like yet... maybe it's a bit like Skoda's Quarz Grey??
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 14, 2017 11:45:37 GMT
Where's this stuff documented, Rob? All I can find on gov.uk is changes to the bands and percentages.
This affects me too, as I have the option of a car this time, instead of the cash allowance that was the only choice in my old job. I don't think I need one - and I suspect my business mileage will be close to zero as my customer visits will be in central London or in other countries. And it's not obvious what I'd choose to improve on what we have without costing a fortune, but it would be good to have the full facts.
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Post by Humph on Jun 14, 2017 11:58:42 GMT
Use this tool WDB. Once you get used to navigating the site you can plug in your car choices, your salary etc and see what a specific car in a specific spec would cost you... comcar.co.uk/ |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2017 12:02:32 GMT
This area is completely outside my area of knowledge as I run my own car, but would your employer be happy for you to be seen in a three or four year old E-Class estate? There are three of us on this site who have such cars, mine is 5 1/2 years old (only 34,000 miles) and drives like its new. I bet yours even at 40,000 miles in a year is still solid and would easily do 160,000 miles in four years without issue. So perhaps take the cash instead and find a suitable second hand model? (Could you buy the car you are in now off the leasing co?)
EDIT - just looked on Autotrader. Lots of 2013/2014 models (facelift), E220 and E250, with 25,000 miles - 45,000 miles at under £20,000.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jun 14, 2017 12:03:31 GMT
Which bit not being documented? The bit where the tax paid for BIK is either based on the old calculation or taxed on the cash allowance, whichever is greater.
So if you took my current car, the Audi A3, it had a recognised BIK rate for CO2 of 109g/km when new (it's not that on new ones). Let's assume it's a new car after 1st April. So that falls into the 20% tax band for this tax year. List/P11D price is £31165. So work out the BIK and you'd be taxed on £6233. But that's less than the cash allowance of £6300 so I'd pay tax on £6300 and not £6233.
In reality, most cars I'd be interested in are expensive enough and the CO2 levels such that the tax I pay is more than the allowance.
The exception is a ultra low emission vehicles, e.g. PHEV. If the emissions are below 75g/km you do not have to worry about the rule that says you'd pay tax on the allowance instead. So for a slightly spec'd up Passat GTE saloon list price might be £38435 but you'd pay tax on 9% of that this year so £3459. But the rate jumps to 13% next year for ULEV and then 16% the following year. So the gap to low emission petrol cars narrows. The following year if they pass the legislation then BIK will be based on battery range for ULEV cars so tax could drop again.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jun 14, 2017 14:17:44 GMT
Any other bright ideas chaps? Renault Espace |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jun 14, 2017 15:44:55 GMT
The load capacity of a Super Estate is actually slightly better than a current E Class estate.
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