Company car advice...mondeos?

[Six6siX]

My dad's 3 year old Mondeo Ghia TDCI has come to the end of its lifetime now at 90k+ miles and a few annoying rattles and faults, so he's looking for a new car.

The company deals only with mondeos if you choose that route - and they get them new from one and only one dealer (who they have a deal with). In his current 'banding' he'd be looking at a Ghia X trim level.

Ideally, it would have been a Ghia X TDCI again, but he prefers an auto box because of the amount of driving and type of driving he does, but Ford don't seem to have them in the diesel models. Obviously the petrol option is still there but I think that equates to higher tax bandings.

If he went the other route, the allowance would be about £900 / month on any other car, but obviously with his own tax and insurance to sort out as well.

Big question is, which would be the better option of the two - stick with the company option and get a auto petrol Ghia X Mondeo, or use the allowance and get another car - preferably diesel automatic. I was looking on Broadspeed.com at other mondeos like the TitaniumX etc and they seem decent prices. But I'm not sure what the 2nd hand arena holds. Bearing in mind the amount of mileage he does etc etc, what other options are there car wise?

Any advice appreciated, cheers

 

[Vertigo]

£900 a month!? Are you sure that's right?

Even considering tax, insurance and maintenance costs that's an insane amount of money and doesn't seem to equate to a Mondeo tbh. Factoring in his current tax liability and he'd have over a grand a month to spend on car plus insurance. No brainer if you ask me, go for the cash, get himself something like a nearly-new 530/535d and pocket the change.

 

[Six6siX]

£900 a month!? Are you sure that's right?

Even considering tax, insurance and maintenance costs that's an insane amount of money and doesn't seem to equate to a Mondeo tbh. Factoring in his current tax liability and he'd have over a grand a month to spend on car plus insurance. No brainer if you ask me, go for the cash, get himself something like a nearly-new 530/535d and pocket the change.

Yeah the figure is right, and plus tax allowance is closer to £1000 or £1100 really. It seems like an easy decision at first but...

When you say nearly new - what age are you meaning?

- Going the BMW route, would I be right in saying you'd be looking at 20-22k for a 03 onwards example, and 16-18k for a slightly older - like 01/02 model?
- It would mean taking a loan for that amount and using the allowance to pay off the car, insurance, tax and also maintenance costs, plus interest.
- We live in postcode S2, and its not the nicest of areas. Sometimes the car will be parked on the road side when the driveway is full. The mondeo we had before was keyed a couple of times down the side as it was parked. Being a BMW or any other nice car, i'd hate to think what else they'd do tbh...
- Obviously, taking a loan is risky and at the moment job circumstances are not set in stone. The company in question is a bit unstable. He doesn't want to be left dead in the water with a huge debt.

Going the mondeo route means its an 'inferior car' to what is potentially possible, but means no loan and company sorts insurance and tax. If the company goes or job goes, the car also goes.

Hmm I think its a difficult one.

 

[paradigm]

- Obviously, taking a loan is risky and at the moment job circumstances are not set in stone. The company in question is a bit unstable. He doesn't want to be left dead in the water with a huge debt.

This would be the precise reason that I WOULD go for the allowance. Buy ANYTHING that will do the job, heck, just buy a £4K car, its paid off in 4 months give or take, and that way, if your dad's job does go the way of the DoDo, he has a car to fall back on, that is HIS, not the companies.

Sure the hassle of your own tax, insurance, servicing etc is going to take more effort, but the upshot is, you have an asset (the car) in your name, and not just driving a company vehicle.

 

[Adz]

With a £900/month car allowance, I'd be tempted to buy a brand new Mondeo (at a big discount through a broker), run it for 3 years/100k miles and sell it on for peanuts. You'll still be left with a massive profit. Depreciation isn't really an issue when you're doing that kind of mileage.

 

[[TW]Fox]

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