FAO: [TW]Fox
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Ok, this is quite a complicated request so its going to need some thinking about. People will scream diesel because of the mileage - it probably makes sense, too, but we need more information.
The 35k is the big issue here. It's going to make something like a lease hugely expensive as the monthly cost of a lease is very dependant on the residual value of the vehicle and the residual value of a vehicle 3 years and 100,000 miles later is... not much.
So, some questions.
a) Do you get a monthly car allowance from work and if so how much? Or do you just get expenses at a mileage rate?
b) Is the vast majority of this mileage for work, and therefore in theory funded entirely by your employer?
The biggst concern here is going to be depreciation but depending on the package you get for your work mileage this could end up being mostly funded anyway.
My thoughts at the moment are a BMW 320d of some description with a monthly paid BMW warranty. This will mean you don't need to worry about anything going wrong as it wont be your problem, and it also means if the turbo explodes at the side of the road when you are working you'll get a nice hire car to carry on whilst BMW scoop it up and fix the mess.
You really want peace of mind and zero faff with this sort of mileage.
Compeltely random figures based on no research at all just as a ballpark thing..
a) Buy 320d of some description for circa £13-14k (Might get you an 08/09).
b) Pay £42 a month for top whack warranty with BMW Emergency Service.
c) Allow £10k for depreciation over 3 years - this is probably excessive, but you dont want to underestimate it
This means you've paid £11500 over 3 years in depreciation and warranty costs, plus another probably £1000-£1500 over the same period to service it and probably about £2500 in tyres. Road tax is pretty cheap.
So that works out to fixed costs of about £15500 over 3 years, plus whatever it costs you to insure it and fill it with fuel.
The 35k is the big issue here. It's going to make something like a lease hugely expensive as the monthly cost of a lease is very dependant on the residual value of the vehicle and the residual value of a vehicle 3 years and 100,000 miles later is... not much.
So, some questions.
a) Do you get a monthly car allowance from work and if so how much? Or do you just get expenses at a mileage rate?
b) Is the vast majority of this mileage for work, and therefore in theory funded entirely by your employer?
The biggst concern here is going to be depreciation but depending on the package you get for your work mileage this could end up being mostly funded anyway.
My thoughts at the moment are a BMW 320d of some description with a monthly paid BMW warranty. This will mean you don't need to worry about anything going wrong as it wont be your problem, and it also means if the turbo explodes at the side of the road when you are working you'll get a nice hire car to carry on whilst BMW scoop it up and fix the mess.
You really want peace of mind and zero faff with this sort of mileage.
Compeltely random figures based on no research at all just as a ballpark thing..
a) Buy 320d of some description for circa £13-14k (Might get you an 08/09).
b) Pay £42 a month for top whack warranty with BMW Emergency Service.
c) Allow £10k for depreciation over 3 years - this is probably excessive, but you dont want to underestimate it
This means you've paid £11500 over 3 years in depreciation and warranty costs, plus another probably £1000-£1500 over the same period to service it and probably about £2500 in tyres. Road tax is pretty cheap.
So that works out to fixed costs of about £15500 over 3 years, plus whatever it costs you to insure it and fill it with fuel.
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1. Oil filter around 150, brake fluid around 60, vehicle check around 75, spark plugs around 100, major service ( every 3rd ) 140, any time microfilter is involved add 40 ish.
2. Computer tells you, you will fetch around 18k between services.
3. On the mway I would expect very high 30s. Around town mid to high 20s.
4. Petrol.
5. E90post should help you there.
Buy private with low miles and loads of toys, then get a nice pay monthly warranty which will stay with you upto 100k.
Seriously drive this car for a whole day, I didn't find it hugely comfortable and I found the rattles inside irritating. I was also doing mway mileage in my 330i.
2. Computer tells you, you will fetch around 18k between services.
3. On the mway I would expect very high 30s. Around town mid to high 20s.
4. Petrol.
5. E90post should help you there.
Buy private with low miles and loads of toys, then get a nice pay monthly warranty which will stay with you upto 100k.
Seriously drive this car for a whole day, I didn't find it hugely comfortable and I found the rattles inside irritating. I was also doing mway mileage in my 330i.
Source of financing is the most important bit of info needed here as per the other posts. You will absolutely destroy any residual value of a relatively new car with that mileage and will have hefty maintenance costs (comparitively) - if you are being appropriately reimbursed that's fine, but if at a more junior level without the relevant perks/recompense then you may wish to adjust the budget somewhat
Assuming it'll be possible for me to pop into any local BMW deal and test drive one of my used options?
Ok, this is complicated. This isn't really business mileage. Infact it's not business mileage at all, its your own commute.
The vast majority of your annual mileage (28k of it) is your commute not business miles.
Are you sure? This is comically low. You'll be able to claim tax releif on the difference between this and the 45p HMRC rate but.. even so... this is not big money.
My thoughts now are that you are not reimbursed anything like enough for running a £14k 3 Series 35k a year to cost you anything other than a metric tonne of cash. Its going to cost big money to drive any car that sort of mileage - and the more expensive the car the more its going to cost you.
It includes everything except consumables, trim, and seals.
I'm thinking buy something cheap, ultra reliable and comfortable and run it until it dies.
If you were doing 3000 miles a month all paid for with a car allowance and a fuel card then you could easily get yoruself a nice 3 Series and not be much out of pocket. But with your circumstances I cannot see how this will do anything but cost epic amounts of money.
Do you receive a car allowance? £0.15ppm rates are normally only paid when in receipt of an allowance of some sort, remember you can (afaik) only claim the tax relief difference between 15p and 45p back for the first 10k - it's 25p (or has it been updated?) thereafter. Any deal you have going with your workplace for what is technically personal mileage wont count towards the reimbursable sum either.
If we use 50mpg as a benchmark and £6.90 / G for diesel as an example, your fuel costs alone per mile come back to about 14p per mile. That is not a lot of money to be getting back for your work journey, I wouldn't personally be spending £13k on a car. You'll realistically only be able to keep it for say 4 years and even after this time it will be worth practically nothing. Consider halving the budget and buying something nobody really likes that will still be comfortable and reasonably economical.
An even better idea would be to buy something in cash at say £1500 - again an unpopular car and just run it till it dies, scrap it and start agian.
If we use 50mpg as a benchmark and £6.90 / G for diesel as an example, your fuel costs alone per mile come back to about 14p per mile. That is not a lot of money to be getting back for your work journey, I wouldn't personally be spending £13k on a car. You'll realistically only be able to keep it for say 4 years and even after this time it will be worth practically nothing. Consider halving the budget and buying something nobody really likes that will still be comfortable and reasonably economical.
An even better idea would be to buy something in cash at say £1500 - again an unpopular car and just run it till it dies, scrap it and start agian.
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Agreed.
In Feb, I was paid £233.15 from my work towards 54.1 business miles and 3170 commute miles.
The main problem obviously relates to my daily commute. I can stay in Manchester 5 days of the week and claim back the full cost of the hotel, which would drastically reduce my mileage to one weekly commute of 126.8m. Tough decision as I, like many others, prefer to sleep in my own bed at night!
Do you receive meal allowances etc? When I'm away I always spend quite a bit of cash despite everythign I need being paid for. Boredom means many nights at the pub, which aren't cheap. If you could resist that temptation then this makes sense - you get used to being away from home during the week pretty quickly
No meal allowance as such. If breakfast is included in the price of the room, it's covered. Dinner isn't.
As stated by fox, the 15 pence per mile is very, very low and normally only paid if you receive a monthly car allowance - by that I mean you have an agreed sum paid as salary for a "car allowance" - i.e you need a car for the job but the employer doesn't offer a company car scheme/ you have opted out but the contract requires you buy a car. For example I had a £5.5k car allowance and 16 pence per mile business recompense around 2008, 15p in 2012 is very poor.
If it's the career you want to do then it'll be worth it in the end but I think spending £10k+ on a car for work is very ambitious. Do the sensible thing now and you'll reap the rewards when the salary and benefits go up .
If it's the career you want to do then it'll be worth it in the end but I think spending £10k+ on a car for work is very ambitious. Do the sensible thing now and you'll reap the rewards when the salary and benefits go up .
So effectively you're paid an extra £5.5k on top of your standard salary?
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I don't receive any allowance now as I use a pool or hire car if I need to do business mileage but yes, my car allowance was simply a lump on top of salary
And is the sole purpose of that to cover business only mileage? Or does it intend to cover home to work too?
15p per mile allowance? And no car allowance at all?
Who could possibly run a car for this amount!
I used to get 52p per mile back in 2010, no car allowance as I only did about 100-150 miles per month. But I still made money on my fuel to cover tyres, servicing etc.
Who could possibly run a car for this amount!
I used to get 52p per mile back in 2010, no car allowance as I only did about 100-150 miles per month. But I still made money on my fuel to cover tyres, servicing etc.
The car allowance is solely to aid the purchasing and general maintenance of a car suitable for work - the mileage payment is paid for business miles to cover the cost and extra maintenance associated with having to drive for work. Anywhere that isn't counted as a "permanent" place of work attracts business mileage. This used to be classed as anywhere you could not reasonably expect to work at for 2 years or more.
Normally companies will stipulate a car not older than say 4 years old, must have 5 seats etc though I did not have these restrictions. As I was in construction almost every workplace was temporary so I basically made a killing out of the allowances. Yours seem completely innapropriate to me, though sometimes you just have to like it or lump it I guess
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