Spec me an AWD car/crossover/SUV or proper 4x4

Greebo

Greebo

Greebo

Caporegime
Joined
20 Jan 2005
Posts
45,777
Location
Co Durham
Okay, I think I have struck a pretty sweet deal with work and coming into winter living and working where I do, I really need a 4 wheel drive vehicle again.

I have a £10,000 per annum (£833.33) per month to spend on a car and fuel. Anything surplus not spent will be paid to my wages (not likely looking at the kind of car that I am ;))

However, fuel (diesel) will be deducted at a cost of £1.13 per litre from my wages as gross so effectively only costing me 68p per litre and I will not be charged private fuel on the company car. Originally I had thought to take the whole £10k and buy my own petrol car but only been charged 68p per litre (effectively) kind of swings it in favour of a diesel. Annual mileage is 25k, 99% private.

So my essential criteria are

4 wheel drive for winter

Diesel

A hatchback, estate, SUV, 4x4 as I take my dog to work so would like a boot area to keep the dog in away from the nice bits of the car so saloons are out.

Something fast - after quite a few years of driving "eco" company cars I fancy, especially since mpg is not really much of a factor, driving something pretty quick even though its a diesel.

Highend, well specced, top of the range, leather etc

Work leases cars so lease cost is important in conjunction with benefit in kind. I had thought it was going to be simple and a VW Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI R-Line seemed to tick all the boxes as available for only £540 per month on lease until I spotted the BIK.

So hence the VW Touareg would cost me the following

Lease Cost £540
Fuel £265 (net cost to me £168)
BIK £462
Surplus Extra Net wage £17

Total Net Monthly cost to me £613

And that got me thinking, big 4x4 are high co2 and poor mpg and cost more, so it made me look at AWD cars as they are generally cheaper and lower co2.

Hence this one, a BMW 330d xdrive M Sport Prof Media Touring

Lease Cost £498
Fuel £205 (net cost to me £122)
BIK £326
Surplus Extra Net wage £182

Total Net Monthly cost to me £266

Is the VW worth £350 a month more? Hell No!

So can anybody recommend some other cars or crossovers I should be considering please bearing in mind the above? So far I have the following I am thinking of taking a closer look at.

BMW X1 (shame they only do 2 litre diesels and may work out dearer than the 3 serie)
BMW X3
Audi Q3
Mercedes GLA (I like the look of this but early days)
Volvo XC60
 
You need to clarify some things here.

Why are you paying for the lease *and* BIK? Surely you pay for one or the other. Either:

a) Your employer gives you a car allowance. This is treated for tax purposes as simply additional salary. There is no BIK on a car allowance. So, the amount you have to spend after tax can easily be calculated by adding it onto your salary and seeing what the change in net pay is.

You can, this way, also expense your mileage at up to 45p a mile tax fre depending on your employers policy.

b) Your employer pays for a lease and gives you the car. This is where you pay BIK - the car is considered a benefit and therefore you pay benefit in kind tax on it. Your mileage expense rate is much lower this way, but obviously its your employer not you who is responsible for paying for the lease.

Which option applies to you?
 
It sounds like he is getting a mileage allowance for private travel also (and apparently only does about 250miles of business travel!) which I think would be classed as a BIK?
 
Just to tray and clarify. I can have 10k as an increase on my salary and pay tax etc and take home 6k ish and source my own car and fuel.

Or pick any car I want. Whatever the annual lease cost plus whayever fuel I use comea off my gross 10k and anythong left over gets paid to me as normal. Hence in this case there would be BIK to pay on the car as the company will be supplying it for private use.

I did consider the option of taking the money and buy my own but I thonk depending on the car I pick I would be worse off.

In th examples I gave above I only showed the monthly lease cost to show how much of my allowance I would then get paid as well if that makes sense. The net monthly cost is thrn just bik less the extra wages
 
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And from bmw webiste am I correct yjat even on the top of the range 330d model costing over 40k xenpn headlights are still an optional extra? Wow
 
With the types of cars you are looking at, I would be suprised if the company car worked out cheaper. It generally only works if you are particularly desperate to drive a brand new Focus Econetic or something.
 
Greebo said:
Just to tray and clarify. I can have 10k as an increase on my salary and pay tax etc and take home 6k ish and source my own car and fuel.

Or pick any car I want. Whatever the annual lease cost plus whayever fuel I use comea off my gross 10k and anythong left over gets paid to me as normal. Hence in this case there would be BIK to pay on the car as the company will be supplying it for private use.

I did consider the option of taking the money and buy my own but I thonk depending on the car I pick I would be worse off.

In th examples I gave above I only showed the monthly lease cost to show how much of my allowance I would then get paid as well if that makes sense. The net monthly cost is thrn just bik less the extra wages
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sounds like a salary sacrifice scheme but they are giving you a salary bump to manage it. i found that unless you get a realy low co2 engine and your on 20% income tax it doesnt really work. most companies will want a serviced lease too bumping up the price.

take the money!
 
I know ehat you are saying but that is the least cost so that is fixed and no bumping. If I take the meney I will jave 500 a month take home. The 330d will cost 600 inc vat to lease plus fuel plus onsurance etc
 
would suggest test driving a mazda cx5 sport awd diesel. economical to run low emissions reasonable amount of grunt and most importantly doesnt handle like a suv/crossover.
 
So if I opt out what car 2nd hand would you siggest that fits my criteria then? I do quite fancy the lease idea just to get a brand new car. And looking at my 3 series example letting them lease one and me paying bik works out pretyy much the same as if I took the money and leased one. Okay the touareg would be much better to own private. The other problem is that after my 7 months off work earlier means o have zero deposit to buy a car with which might cause issues
 
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so ignoring whether I buy or the company leases, any suggestions for cars which fit my criteria please?
 
[TW]Fox;24867155 said:
How are they managing to charge you for fuel VAT free on your gross salary for private use anyway?
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ssssssssssssssshhhhhh Any advice on cars though please? And also am I right about the 40k 3 series doesnt come with xenon as standard?
 
Right cause i have no kids and dont need a big car, Audi A3 184bhp Sportrak S line added to the list.

Anymore? Any other 4 wheel drive high performance (oxymoron?) small diesel cars out there I am missing?
 
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