Company Car choice time again

The last gen Merc E is not £300 better than the Insignia imo, bank the money.

Ive been trying a few Volvo's, the V60 through our scheme can be had for £140 ish all in (im a 20% tax payer though), £200 gets me in a XC60 R design. You must have been paying a fair old chunk for the Merc, as ive never really seen them that well priced on company car schemes for any company ive worked for. The superb is pricey on our scheme, there dont seem to be decent discounts on em according to the dealer.

Pity you cant get Jags, as the XF seems to be a decent deal at the mo, ive just handed back a XF demo and it was a top top motor. Nicer than the A6 i had last week.
 
Yeah I really wanted to have a good look at the Jag. The Merc was cheaper than the Passat I had previously, there were huge discounts on 20 month lease deals. I think my trade up is £39 for the E220 CDI, whereas is was over £50 for the Passat Highline Plus.
 
We've got a 65 plate Insignia 1.6 CDTi Design Nav Sports Tourer as a pool car and I've done about 1500 miles in it.

Good points are the 700 mile+ range, the infotainment system and Nav is pretty good, it is rides well and it's quiet. The handling is fine, it steers well and there's nice short throw on the gear change. The 1.6 engine is actually OK too provided you don't get caught off boost, but it's only good for low 50's mpg.

Bad points are the sports tourer is rubbish for load lugging and the ergonomics. The Nav is touchscreen but due to the dash sloping back towards the windscreen is a proper stretch to get to it. The drivers seat is a complete mess - the electric adjustment for height and lumbar support is OK, but adjusting the backrest rake is a manual job and it's got a stupid lever which makes fine adjustment impossible. The seat is way too hard and I just can't ever seem to get comfortable in it.
 
Gilly, if you're serious about pursuing the Insignia please let me know if you have any questions at all regarding spec, which model to go for, options etc. I've had a bunch of these myself, and also part of my job involves determining the spec of around 6,000 Insignias each year.
 
blueboy2001 said:
Do the seats differ between models?
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Yes they do. There's quite a few different options, including comfort leather (standard on the Elite), sports seats (standard on SRi), and sports leather (upgradable on SRi and Elite) - these on the Elite are my preferred seats.

Fully electric adjustment on the driver's seat is standard on the Elite.
 
Thanks blueboy some things to think about :)

Joe, do you know what the autobox is like in these? I've had the DSG in the Passat and then the 7 speed autobox in the E Class and they've both been tip-top.

[edit]Why on earth have they put a 1.4T lump in a car the size of the Insignia? :confused:
 
Unless they've changed it in the facelift, the autobox was probably the most useless ones I've ever experienced. I tested a 2.0 CDTi auto a few years ago and it was as dumb as a box of rocks. The one in my 12 year old Saab is better!
 
I drive the auto and find it OK if you're interested in a relaxed drive. I actually prefer it over the 9 speed in my wife's Evoque (which I really dont like!).

It probably isnt as good as the DSG in VW products. However, the new car which comes early next year should have GM's new 8 speed.
 
If you are a 40% tax payer and can take additional salary instead of the car have you done the personal lease maths? It's almost certainly cheaper.

My 328i was running me about 650 a month in foregone salary and BIK.
 
Still think the Merc C350e is extremely viable option as a company car.

BiK is ridiculously low, (5%), 40% tax payer would only be looking at about £68 a month, saves me £130 a month over the A4 diesel I had before.

It's fast, 0-60 in 5.9 secs, and extremely well equipped and supremely comfortable in the cabin which is also one of the best in class.
 
Ste said:
If you are a 40% tax payer and can take additional salary instead of the car have you done the personal lease maths? It's almost certainly cheaper.

My 328i was running me about 650 a month in foregone salary and BIK.
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I was in the same position. Took the £7,100 car allowance and run an Audi A6 via a personal loan for less money than it was costing me to have a base model Toyota Avensis company car.

Gilly, assuming the motorway miles you do are business mileage you will also be able to offset your tax liability against it so it may work out a far better option.

In terms of what car to buy I don't think it's a great time to buy premium German saloons new:

BMW 5 series - Released in 2010/2011 and being replace this year
Mercedes E-Class - Released in 2009 and being replaced this year
Audi A6 - Released in 2011 and being replaced in 2018 with the new design being used in the A7 in 2017
Volvo S90 - Being released this year I believe?

Your most viable option is probably the new XF which hasn't been out long at all.
 
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Abyss said:
BMW 5 series - Released in 2010/2011 and being replace this year
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Next year.

Whether its a good idea to buy a new exec at the moment depends really. As these cars are getting towards the end of the model life the discounts are incredible - for example there is over £10,000 off list on decent model 5 Series. When the F10 first came out there was £1000 off if you were lucky. I'd imagine once the new model comes out the same will be the case for a while, so effectively to buy the new model will work out significantly more expensive.

But on the flipside, you'll get a much more modern, fresher car that will be residually stronger in the future.
 
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