Car to do 50k/year in

50k a year lease will be interesting. that alone will put the price of most hire cars up!
 
I run my 57 plate 530d for £322 a month (inc insurance) and don't pay for fuel. Just tax, tyres and an MOT when it's due (before I chop it in for the new 5er).

I did have a failry chunky deposit to put down on it though (£6k)

How do you manage that? Company scheme?
 
Your budget may be better than you think - it depends how your company operates its car scheme(s).

Are they saying you can have £7000 p.a. + diesel at cost to run your own car? Or is the fuel paid on a mileage basis?

If the former, that equals about £12,000 p.a. assuming (say) 50,000 business miles at £1.00 per gallon based on 50 m.p.g. The tax-free rates approved by HM Revenue & Customs are 40p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter. That equals £14,000 p.a. tax free. You can claim the difference of £2000 from HMRC as a tax deduction at your marginal rate(s) of Income Tax.

That should give you a MINIMUM monthly budget of just ~ £1050.00 per MONTH to fund everything - which leaves ~ £600 per month after the diesel costs. Even more, if the company are more generous with mileage alloewances.

If it were me, I would be looking for a low mileage 18 month old diesel and change it every year while still in warranty.
 
why look for a 2nd hand car? you pay tax on the original cost of the car no matter how old it is.
 
i wouldnt want to buy a new / 2nd hand car every year, thats just a waste of depreciation.
 
i wouldnt want to buy a new / 2nd hand car every year, thats just a waste of depreciation.

It would depend on the car - but anything over 100K miles can be more difficult to sell. BMW/Audi/Mercs only make good money with low mileages.

I reckon an 18 month old car with (say) 10,000 miles will still have lost over 30% of its value. So at 60,000 miles and 2.5 years it's not looking so bad.
 
how many decent cars that you would want to do 50k a year in would only have 10k on them and still be nice and cheap?
 
how many decent cars that you would want to do 50k a year in would only have 10k on them and still be nice and cheap?

Again that would depend on the individual.

Personally, I would probably have a Mondeo type diesel and spend the balance on something more to my liking which would do a lot less miles privately.
 
Thanks for all your advice. To answer a few of your questions:

I work for a major retailer managing the development of new stores, visiting numerous sites on a weekly basis. I do around 30k/year business milage and 20k/year private/commute to the office (250 mile round trip).

I currently have the equivilant of a pool car and claim 16p per mile for business milage. I am however taxed based on the company car tax and pay a personal contribution. The overall cost per year for everything (including fuel for both business and private milage) is around £2k/year.

If I decide to run my own car I can claim 35p per mile for the first 10k, and 15p per mile after that. As these figures are below HMRC reccommended figures I can offset the difference against tax.

Taking all this into account for me to be no worse off I need to be able to run my own car for £7k per year. This includes:

o Depreciation
o Servicing
o MOT
o Tax
o etc.

It excludes

o all Fuel (this is included in the calculations).

In terms of purchase price I am not too fussed as long as it fits within the 7k per annum sum.
 

Would the 4 services a year not eat into my £7k/year quite rapidly?
Also the 19mpg would cripple me doing 50k/year, it would cost me nearly £7k a year, leaving nothing to cover depreciation and running costs.

How about something like this?
http://pistonheads.com/sales/969738.htm

Or this
http://pistonheads.com/sales/1030819.htm
I assume you will still get 3/4k back for it with an extra 100k on the clock?

Interesting thought. If depreciation is £8k over 2 years, that leaves me £3k/year to service/mot/tax/repair. This should all come in budget other than if something major goes wrong.
 
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Would the 4 services a year not eat into my £7k/year quite rapidly?
Also the 19mpg would cripple me doing 50k/year, it would cost me nearly £7k a year, leaving nothing to cover depreciation and running costs.

haha, that wasn't a serious suggestion :D

my serious suggestions were posted earlier. big volvo diesels or the like
 
If I were doing this I'd pick up a Mondeo ST TDCi for £8-£10k and run it for 2 years. You'll easily get £3k back for it with 130k on the clock and they are relatively cheap to run. Its a much nicer long distance car than an Octavia vRS - more comfortable and more refined. I've had both, although my vRS is a 2.0T - love the engine, but overall if I had both outside for a 500 mile trip I'd take the Mondeo every time.
 
Why are people recommending sportyish cars with stiffer suspension when the OP will be doing serious miles, surely softer and more comfortable cars are a more sensible choice..
 
Why are people recommending sportyish cars with stiffer suspension when the OP will be doing serious miles, surely softer and more comfortable cars are a more sensible choice..


i dunno, im doing about 24k a year atm in a sports model. other than really crap roads its more than ok.
 
Why are people recommending sportyish cars with stiffer suspension when the OP will be doing serious miles, surely softer and more comfortable cars are a more sensible choice..

Stiff suspension isn't uncomfortable if you get the suspension design and damping right. Some cars are much better than others - the Focus and Mondeo ST models run stiff springs with relatively little compromise to the ride and comfort over the ordinary models, in fact I found my ST rode better than the Zetec I had before.

VAG cars with sports suspension are a bit crashy at times.
 
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