Spec me a motorway munching, efficient, diesel repmobile

Lum

Lum

Lum

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2008
Posts
3,283
Location
South Wales
Following on from Fox's attempts to purchase a Golf GTI and Janesey B buying that barried up rusty shed, I now find myself in the position of needing to acquire a Mondeo or similar.

Basically my new job is going to want me to have a company car rather than use my own car and I'm concerned about getting raped by the inland revenue. I'm not sure you have to pay any company car tax if you refuse to have private use on the car, HMRC's site isn't clear on this point, if I don't have to pay tax it changes the options somewhat.

I'll be doing similar work to what I'm doing now, that means that the minimum distance for an on site job is 2 hours away, furthest about 8 hours, with the first 45 minutes or so being fun Welsh single carriageways, and the last hour or so possibly being fun Scottish single carriageways. The bit in the middle is, of course, motorway.

Problem is I hate modern cars. I hate transverse engines, front wheel drive, cars that have the indicator stalk on the left instead of on the right where it belongs. I hate German fog light switches that require you to switch on the front ****** lights before you can switch on the rear fog lights. I hate Ford's heated front screen that fills with a pattern of hexagonal dots when you are driving towards the sun, something I will be doing both outbound and inbound. I do however like modern automatic gearboxes, DSG, SMG and CVT all are cool. Cruise control is also a must.

Additionally, because I have back issues (some pillock did 50mph straight into the back of my stationary car) I need decent seats for the long trips. As far as I can tell this excludes ALL Vauxhalls, I have never driven a Vauxhall that hasn't given me chronic back pain since this accident.

Practical requirements aside, I want something I'm actually going to enjoy, which basically means good acceleration and handling, not to fussed about top speed. Given it's a company car I'm guessing I can't get anything chavvy looking like an Impreza either.

I'm told the company are generally a Ford shop which basically means Mondeo, but which one. I am, however going to try to negotiate so would appreciate some non-Mondeo suggestions. Currently the only one I can think of is the 2009 Subaru Legacy 2.0D which comes as close to ticking all the boxes as I think I can reasonably get. Any other suggestions are appreciated though.
 
If you want comfortable seats, nothing beats Saabs and Volvos. You can get out of one of those after a 1,000 mile trip without a single ache or any stiffness.

Must be something Scandavian.
 
I know you said no Vauxhall, but the Omega is a pretty comfy motor.

I'd go with a Lexus GS300, cheap as chips, bags of kit, they will break but not as much as beemers and Mercs, but in my experience, they are pretty trouble free upto 150k, couple of the Taxi lads round here run them.
 
Lum said:
Basically my new job is going to want me to have a company car rather than use my own car and I'm concerned about getting raped by the inland revenue. I'm not sure you have to pay any company car tax if you refuse to have private use on the car, HMRC's site isn't clear on this point, if I don't have to pay tax it changes the options somewhat.
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From memory if you're an employee and you use the car to travel from your "ordinary" place of work and home (irrespective if you do not use it for private use), it would be considered private use. Compared to if you parked the car at your employer's premises overnight and travelled home using your own method, then it would not be considered a benefit.
 
Yep if you are office based, any commuting is private use.If you are a homeworker then and travel to any of your companies sites are classed as business aslong as you dont make those trips regularly at the same times and you dont have a fixed desk/phone at those offices.
 
aMb said:
From memory if you're an employee and you use the car to travel from your "ordinary" place of work and home (irrespective if you do not use it for private use), it would be considered private use. Compared to if you parked the car at your employer's premises overnight and travelled home using your own method, then it would not be considered a benefit.
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What if you are officially based from home as this is quite likely.

I am happy to leave the company car at the office overnight, quite frankly I don't want the hassle of a fourth car at my house anyway. It's bad enough with 2 Nissans on the driveway and a Volvo on the street. A fourth car would mean parking outside someone's house which is what cocks do.

BMW would be nice apart from the "everyone will think you are a **** before you've even done anything" factor, they even have the engine the correct way around, and the correct wheels driven, but there may be problems with a new employee requesting a "prestige" brand, and as they are more expensive I may end up having to go with a poverty spec 320D wheras the same money could get a high spec Volvo or Subaru.

Didn't even think of Lexus. Any particular models I should look as as I find their naming scheme confusing and difficult to remember.


Edit: Oh yeah, one other thing, the ability to replace the radio with a standard one cheaply would be nice, obviously this would need to be 100% reversible for when I return the car. Bonus points for double DIN.
 
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According to the Volvo website, there is currently no S60 model, and wont be for another 6 months.
 
Depends on the budget. If it was to be a used Mondeo i'd probably look for an ST TDI.

However it's hard to say exactly what to recommend. mjt got it spot on - when you say Mondeo money, are we talking new or old, and if old, how old? :)
 
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