Car allowances - what do you do?

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

Associate
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
1,856
Location
Cambridge
Hi Everyone,

I've not had the need for a car allowance in the past, but I've been offered a job that has one as part of the package. They have no favored option for me to go with, other than it has to obviously be reliable.

I've been told that anything further than 2 hours drive away they will pay for trains etc.

I know some people have bought a cheap-ish car outright, some have got a car on a lease agreement, so I'm curious as to what others have gone with in this situation. My employment contract states that I will be entitled to £6,700/year for a car allowance, which is a taxable benefit paid into my salary every month.

So, for those in a similar situation, what did you opt to do?

Thanks,

David
 
I just add it to my salary and buy whatever I want. Of course, you can't buy a 20 year old shed as they won't accept "I'm sorry I didn't make the meeting my car broke down because it's old and crap" as an excuse if you have a car allowance.

In years gone by I used to buy an approved-used exec on a PCP for a little bit more than my monthly allowance.
 
Wife just started a new job with a car allowance. We are going to just get a lease for 3 years, may need to add a few quid to get the car we want but they are pretty flexible. Just tell them what you want and they source a few quotes and sort it all for you on a business lease.
 
I pocket the money and use my Golf still, no point spending it on a car just because it's called a car allowance if you already have a perfectly usable car.
 
Thanks for the comments so far.

Pocketing the cash and using my own car isn't really ideal, as my current car is a 3.0l Z4.

For those that have leased/pcp, would you mind posting the sites you used? Ta
 
There are a ton of leasing sites, google and have a look through at some of the deals. The deals seem to change fairly often as manufacturers want to get cars out the door(and other reasons I assume).
 
DiscoDave said:
Thanks for the comments so far.

Pocketing the cash and using my own car isn't really ideal, as my current car is a 3.0l Z4.

For those that have leased/pcp, would you mind posting the sites you used? Ta
Click to expand...

Why isn't that ideal? You already own it, it's a nice car...the allowance just puts money in your pocket!
 
Registering my interest as my girlfriend has just secured a new job with a car allowance, but will be based in London with rail travel paid. Hoping to use it as an opportunity to find a more modem replacement for our X-trail.
 
When I initially switched from having a company car to an allowance I had no choice but to go out and get a car, that car is now 12 years old and although I'd love to change it as far as I can tell it's still a good little runner. For me the allowance paid for the car in around 5 years, so since then it's been spending money for me :D

Your allowance is also a decent amount, I've seen some people here state that they only get £3-4k so £6.7k even after tax would leave a decent amount if you opted down the lease route.
 
Last edited:
deaglecat said:
Mind you if I was spanking the mileage, then I would go for one.
Click to expand...

I was going to ask whether I could have an allowance as like you I'm not keen on company cars (doesn't help that I'm on my second hand me down company owned one while the other two in the company are leased) but my mileage has jumped up recently. No matter how good the deal was I wouldn't want to be putting big miles on something I owned.
 
I have a totally different view on the mileage of a personal car - it really doesn't bother me.

I keep the cash and own my daily outright, I bought my Auris Hybrid 2.5 years old with ~26k on the clock, 14 months down the line it now has 53k on it. 2 years time it will be well past 100k but I'm quite happy that other than the odd bit of maintenance I will be far better off keeping it for as long as possible.

I also concur I'm not a big fan of leases given you have zero option to damage or modify them, also if you wanted to change jobs during the car ownership to a job that either provided a company car, or lost your job entirely - you are still stuck with the lease of the car. Whereas I still own my car outright no matter what - I can either keep it or sell it!
 
I took the money and used it to fund a track day Clio :)

I've now managed to get it removed and my salary increased by the allowance amount which means better bonus and pension payments. Although bizzarely, after getting rid of the allowance, I now lease a Skoda :p
 
I get an allowance and 25p/mile, as I'm officially home based, I claim for every business mile I do

I'm running my 09 Scirocco and will continue to do so until it breaks, I just treat it as extra salary.

We have no restrictions on age or type of car, so long as it is "reliable and suitable for your role". I'm sure someone could argue that certain cars aren't suitable, but as it spends 90% of it's time either on the drive at home or in a station car park it's unlikely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom