Company Car or Allowance

antijoke

antijoke

antijoke

Caporegime
Joined
28 Jan 2003
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Location
England
I will be changing roles with-in the company I work for to a field based role and will be getting a car. My option is to have a Golf SE 1.6 TDI, or a car allowance.

Using my own car is not an option, so I'm unsure of whether to take the allowance or the car offering. Allowance is circa £300 a month after tax.

Are there any other options available around this price point that I should consider?
 
Take the company car. £300/month isn't a massive amount, and at least with the company car it's less hassle/headache.
 
After tax is the key thing there. It is a personal lease as it is out of the car allowance which means he needs to take the VAT into account too.

NO WAY he will get a 320D for that.

You'll be looking at a hatchback of some sort for this money.
 
MikeHiow said:
But it isn't a personal lease, and its £319 over 3 years.
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Yes it is a personal lease! If he arranges his own lease using his car allowance he will need a personal lease and will pay vat. If he chooses a company car he must pick from the company list and cannot pick the lease firm. He has already explained the company option is a 1.6 golf.

Stop clouding things.
 
anticonscience said:
Fuel is 12p per mile for a company car or 40p if using a personal car.
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I'd check that. It's unlikely you'll get 40p per mile if you also get a car allowance. Certainly where I work those who use the car allowance option get the same rate mileage rate as the company car drivers.
 
I will check it, but a colleague of mine who gets a car allowance said she gets 40p per mile for using her own car. She may be full of BS so I will check with the bean counters.

Although at this moment in time I'm thinking of just getting the Golf.
 
If it really is 40ppm, which sounds VERY high for a rate including a car allowance, then you need to get yourself a supercharged range rover. You'll STILL cream it. I drive a 4.3 V8 Auto S-Class on 21ppm, and i still end up in profit, for comparison.

If you accept that rubbish golf on such an astonishingly high fuel rate, then you are mental.
 
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You'll get taxed on the 40ppm then have to claim it back, I think it's for the first 10k then 25p thereafter

Have you considered the tax liabilty of the golf, if you are getting 300 pm allowance you could be taxed 150 therefore your better off by 450, I've always had car allowances even when offered a company car, as long as your sensible I have allways made money even on a new Alfa 147 and all the horrific servicing cost
 
Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon C200CDi Executive SE Blue Efficiency
Personal Contract Purchase »

£319.75 /month

36 Month Personal Contract Purchase
Initial Payment of £1,918.50 followed by 35 monthly payments of £319.75
Click to expand...

You could also go French or Ford, which would be less. Otherwise you'll have to get a 1 series if you want a BMW.
 
But I do not have a deposit to place down on a vehicle.....when did I say I want a BMW?

I'm not sure of the tax liability on the Golf, this is why I was unsure if to get a company car (last time I had a company car I was hammered for tax as the benefit was around £20k, even though I nearly always ended up in a £15k Auris) or get the £300 a month allowance.

I will double check the 40p allowance, but as I say someone who I know has her own car with the allowance gets 40p per mile, she showed me her end of month expense form from the accounts department.
 
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With such a crummy car being offered by the company I'd take the allowance and run my own car. For two years I got a £450 a month car allowance and carried on running my ancient Corsa which gave me a massive profit, granted I wasn't doing many miles!
 
anticonscience said:
But I do not have a deposit to place down on a vehicle.....when did I say I want a BMW?
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If you haven't got a deposit then the only option is a personal loan - thus running your own car, but i thought you ruled that out. £250/month should get you £10k over 4 years though, so it's not like you'd be running around in a banger. Obviously you wouldn't want to spend the entire £300 allowance if you're running your own car to allow a little left over for running costs etc.

Otherwise choose the best car they're offering.
 
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