New driver - work lease scheme or second hand?

elmarko

elmarko

elmarko

Soldato
Joined
22 Sep 2011
Posts
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Location
Portsmouth (Southsea)
So,

Having delayed the inevitable for as long as possible I've decided to join the ranks of "the drivers".

Work's got me going to meetings in Reading/Cardiff & countless other places & I'm not longer able to rely on public transport.

I have two options, either go it alone (own insurance, car purchase) or - go for the work car lease scheme 36months (which has a salary sacrifice element, inclusive insurance, all repairs replacements with an option to buy at the end).

The second consideration is which car, I havn't got a strict budget as so to speak, but I'm looking to spend around £350 to £450 a month which looking at the work car scheme has a large number of options (all have to be below 120g cO2).

My current short-list is...

Audi A3 2l TDI (or A4, but A4 seems a bit excessive for a first car)
BMW 1 or 3 series - Diesel (nothing too specific).
Volkswagen Scirocco
Mercedes A Class

Any factors which would push you onto one of the above? (car aesthetics sadly do matter to me :/.. ), fuel efficiency is a plus, but due to the work restrictions it's already a bit of a given anyway.
 
If you've no driving history then insurance is likely to be horribly expensive on the go-it-alone route. Getting work to pick up that bill along with all the others looks a good option. Once you've built up some experience, you ought to be able to get work's insurers to confirm your NCB when/if you go it alone.

Use a price comparison site to see what it would cost you. Age, location etc make a huge difference. Also make sure you choose the "business use" option - its generally an add-on. *Most* policies only cover you driving to and from your normal (and single) place of work - not travel during work.
 
I couldn't possibly justify £350pm+ for 3 years to get bugger all back on any of those to be honest - the only way I could see it working out reasonably well for you is if insurance is included?

If it had to be one of the list only the Scirocco would be tempting, and only if it was petrol, even then you can get a decent one for what, £10-12k? Pay the same amount of money and you'd actually own it in 3 years

The new A class looks very nice in the flesh, but there is absolutely no way I'd spend £12.6-16.2k of my own money to rent one for 3 years.
 
Ours and every one i've ever seen is the same - even at 40% our salary sacrifice car scheme starts off with such a poor price that the saving is pretty negligible
 
Well, our work one seems to be alright from what I can see.

For example, the Audi A3 S-Line 1.2 petrol (insurance included as a brand new driver, car tax, all repairs, tires, service & MOT) works out to approximately £255 a month (taking into account benefit in kind & salary sacrifice) - for that one it would cost a total of £9k for the 3 years - about £270 for the 1.4l.

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A little bit more for the Merc.

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Financials for say, 1.4 A3.

Gross Salary Sacrificed
£327.85

Net Cost to You at Basic Rate of Tax
£222.94

Net Cost to You at Higher Rate of Tax
£190.15

Benefit in Kind at Basic Rate of Tax
£61.07

Benefit in Kind at Higher Rate of Tax
£122.13

Total Cost to You at Basic Rate of Tax
£284.01

Total Cost to You at Higher Rate of Tax
£312.28
 
Last edited:
£9k to borrow a car for 3 years.

Repairs, servicing, MOT = irrelevant as it'll require no repairs outside of warranty, a single service and no MOT. Car tax is probably £30 a year anyway.

The only real bonus is the insurance - I've no idea how much you'd otherwise have to pay.

I'd be interested to see your maths which bring it back to £255 a month net?
 
[TW]Fox;24449450 said:
£9k to borrow a car for 3 years.

Repairs, servicing, MOT = irrelevant as it'll require no repairs outside of warranty, a single service and no MOT. Car tax is probably £30 a year anyway.

The only real bonus is the insurance - I've no idea how much you'd otherwise have to pay.

I'd be interested to see your maths which bring it back to £255 a month net?
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Well, the apr £255 was based off the below calculations (perhaps a little higher).

BzJH0q7.jpg


Unless I'm missing something, but I'll be the first to admit this isn't my area of expertise :) (Hence the post!).

On a side note - it does have the option to purchase at the end of the agreement.

Insurance quotes for me are around £600 to £900 pending on the choice of car (brand new driver, 28)
 
[TW]Fox;24449509 said:
Are you really only planning on doing 7000 miles a year?
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Well, total miles to work (with an estimated 250 days a year) is 5500 PA (live close to work), but as we pretty much have to do car-share to get a parking space I'll be driving half the time & getting the lift the other half.

So, 2750 PA for work, but even upping it to 10,000 only changes it from £258 to £270.
 
But you said in your opening post...

Work's got me going to meetings in Reading/Cardiff & countless other places
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Is that mileage included in your 7.5k PA?

Remember, you will be penalised for going over your stated mileage - the lease cost is based on expected depreciation which is heavily mileage dependant.
 
[TW]Fox;24449573 said:
But you said in your opening post...
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Hehe, well - not all the time & yeah I've factored in those meetings on-top of the standard mileage with the rest of the allowance, as the mrs already drives I'll only be using it half the time for personal use anyway.

[TW]Fox;24449573 said:
Is that mileage included in your 7.5k PA?

Remember, you will be penalised for going over your stated mileage - the lease cost is based on expected depreciation which is heavily mileage dependant.
Click to expand...
Ay, I've done some napkin maths but it was just to give an indication really of the approximate costs.

Even pushing it up-to 12k PA (which is well above what I'd do with the work-share thing) only pushes the total cost to £278

desires said:
There's no way I would pay £3k a year for a 1.2!
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Hehe, well - I'm not looking at just that one - was the example that was mentioned.
 
elmarko said:
Even pushing it up-to 12k PA (which is well above what I'd do with the work-share thing) only pushes the total cost to £278
Click to expand...

Which means you will pay £10,000 over 3 years to borrow a car through your employer. If they are sending you here and there for work should they not be providing you with transport rather than expecting you to pay £10k every 3 years for a bottom of the range hatchback?
 
elmarko said:
Insurance quotes for me are around £600 to £900 pending on the choice of car (brand new driver, 28)
Click to expand...

Those quotes aren't particularly expensive and will plummet after your first year, assuming you don't crash at least. It would be significantly cheaper to buy and run a car yourself unless you plan on buying new/nearly new anyway.

(and that's before you have to buy your car at the end of the lease)
 
[TW]Fox;24449640 said:
Which means you will pay £10,000 over 3 years to borrow a car through your employer. If they are sending you here and there for work should they not be providing you with transport rather than expecting you to pay £10k every 3 years for a bottom of the range hatchback?
Click to expand...

Bottom of the range? They're 'AMG' and 'S-Line'...:p
 
[TW]Fox;24449640 said:
Which means you will pay £10,000 over 3 years to borrow a car through your employer. If they are sending you here and there for work should they not be providing you with transport rather than expecting you to pay £10k every 3 years for a bottom of the range hatchback?
Click to expand...
Well, sadly not.

They will pay the fuel costs (At a pretty good rate iirc), or the full cost of public transport which I can claim back as expenses, but the desire to drive is for my personal convenience & mostly for the regular drive to work.

I mean, I'm open to alternative suggestions (if just buying a second hand car & sorting out the rest myself would be preferable/cheaper) - but wanted to get a feel for what people think of these salary sacrifice schemes.

I mean, the most I'm willing to spend is about £500 a month currently, but don't really want to spend that much as a brand new driver (but neither do I want to get a old banger).

I'm trying to be sensible & picking something not too expensive :p.
 
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