Company Car Help

[The Mad Rapper]

Mrs Mad Rapper (to be) has just been offered a new job with company car. She was given a choice of the following manufacturers: Audi, Mercedes, Saab, Toyota or Vauxhall.

Use will be fairly frequent drives from Buckinghamshire to Northumberland, and then during the week just 10 miles to the train station and back.

We want an estate, so have narrowed it down to the following:

Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI Quattro S Line

Mercedes C350 CDI Sport Estate

Opinions on which of these please?

Additionally, neither of us have had a company car before, so should we use up to the £450 a month they'll pay to take one of the above, or £5500 in cash she's been offered and put that towards something else?

 

[The Mad Rapper]

Remember the company car tax bill on either of those cars will be fairly high!

How does that work? We know she'll get taxed on it as a benefit in kind, so we understand the Income Tax implications, but have no idea what else we would need to pay.

 

[The Mad Rapper]

*Bump for the evening crowd*

 

[The Mad Rapper]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=company+car+tax

Top one

I've already looked at that - both cars are less than £300 per month. I was asking if there were any additional costs or taxes?

They pay for the servicing, breakdown cover and insurance according to the paperwork we've been sent.

Seems almost too good to be true...

 

[The Mad Rapper]

This. Fabulous cars and this is arguably one of the best engines in the range. Easily take this over the rather dull A6.

Although that spec would suggest a 335d M Sport is on the list, which is better again.

Unfortunately BMW isn't on the list. I don't understand why, but she's restricted to 5 marques and BMW isn't one of them sadly

She has to choose from Audi, Mercedes, Saab, Toyota or Vauxhall. The A4 offers no more rear legroom than our A3, the E Class is too big for my Mrs, so I think those models will probably suit us best.

 

[The Mad Rapper]

I do not see this as a good deal personally as you only seem to be renting a car at a good price. I assume your o/h can claim expenses should she use her own car for wear and tear?

The rental is costing us nothing though because it's covered by her allowance. If we took the cash it would be far more expensive to buy either model outright and with the company car scheme, we get a new car in 3 years assuming she's still working for the company then.

If she took the allowance in cash that covers wear and tear on our car, she could claim fuel expenses for any business trip. That said, our car is 8 years old, has almost 100K on the clock and we were going to buy a new Passat/3 series BMW this year, so this has come at a good time.

 

[The Mad Rapper]

I'm guessing for the others you'd be looking at Avensis, Signum and 9-5? Presumably at a lower cost? Not sure any of those are particularly worth consideration

We're just not looking at those at all mate.

 

[The Mad Rapper]

Thanks to you all.