Thinking of getting an EV

[danlightbulb]

Dude this is just top-tier mental gymnastics. You aren't getting the benefit of the salary sacrifice. Life sucks. It is a system that benefits the "richest".

Take a loan -> buy an ICE. Save on insurance, double your MPG. Alternatively buy an EV. Lose on insurance, save on your fuel big time.

It's not mental gymnastics it's just the way the maths works. My gross salary is into the 40% band.

What ICE should I buy that saves on insurance and mpg and keeps my total cost under £500 a month with limited repair risk? It can't be done.

 

[Spleen Sauce]

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Get it onto the VW Group ‘all-in’ plan when the warranty is up. Job done.

 

[Journey]

I'm going to loop back to my original comment in the thread, which was about keeping the total cost (exc insurance) approximately at the same cost of your fuel out going per month.

Trade in your current car for £2.5-3k or whatever you value it at, and get an £8k loan and pick up a car for £11k. If you don't like it, or don't get on with it, you are going to lose less than you were spending fuel as the repayments will be ~£160, and that includes having a charger fitted. Not sure why you are moving to a model of buying an expensive car tbh.

 

[danlightbulb]

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Get it onto the VW Group ‘all-in’ plan when the warranty is up. Job done.

I don't know what that is.

But £22k for a diesel Skoda. Loan £400 a month and I save what £60 to £80 a month on fuel and maybe £50 on my repair buffer, and nothing else.

I can't afford that.

 

[Spleen Sauce]

I don't know what that is.

But £22k for a diesel Skoda. Loan £400 a month and I save what £60 to £80 a month on fuel and maybe £50 on my repair buffer, and nothing else.

I can't afford that.

Then I also recommend you do exactly as Journey has suggested above.

 

[danlightbulb]

I'm going to loop back to my original comment in the thread, which was about keeping the total cost (exc insurance) approximately at the same cost of your fuel out going per month.

Trade in your current car for £2.5-3k or whatever you value it at, and get an £8k loan and pick up a car for £11k. If you don't like it, or don't get on with it, you are going to lose less than you were spending fuel as the repayments will be ~£160, and that includes having a charger fitted. Not sure why you are moving to a model of buying an expensive car tbh.

I can't get a decent size EV for £11k.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Keep your current car until it actually dies.

Buy another one then.

Wild card: the cheapest Model 3 standard range on auto trader is £13k, quite a few not on 100k for about £15k.

Huge boot as well, sure it’s not a hatch but it’s big, plus the frunk.

By all accounts they are very reliable. Even if you had a motor failure, the rest of car is probably worth most of that parted out.

 

[danlightbulb]

Huge boot as well,

I don't need a boot that's just big on volume..I need one that's practically big, in length, width, height. I don't carry suitcases.

 

[dlockers]

It's not mental gymnastics it's just the way the maths works. My gross salary is into the 40% band.

What ICE should I buy that saves on insurance and mpg and keeps my total cost under £500 a month with limited repair risk? It can't be done.

lol it is mental gymnastics because you've sacrificed your salary to the 20% bracket with your pension. Any further sacrificing is at 20% benefit. Unless you want to pay less into your pension, your maths is just wrong for sal sac.

I don't need a boot that's just big on volume..I need one that's practically big, in length, width, height. I don't carry suitcases.

Why do you have a 325 then?

 

[Kenai]

Gross cost on my scheme is £905 and it's saying £15 bik, for 3 years and 12k miles a year.

After tax that is £666. But that is because I have input my salary after pension contribution so the residual is getting tax relief at basic rate. If I input my full salary then the after tax figure shows as £584 but oddly the gross cost has changed to £934.

Essentially my salary is only just over the 40% bracket so I get 40% tax relief on my pension OR the car, not both.

The increase to £934 gross is because the BIK will be higher as a 40% tax payer.

It's not mental gymnastics it's just the way the maths works. My gross salary is into the 40% band.

I assume you know this but just to be clear because you say 'only just over the 40% bracket' - you'll only save 40% on the salary you're sacrificing that's in that band.

So if you don't have £900+ in the 40% band, you won't be saving 40% on all of it. If for example, you had £300 in the 40% band, then you'd save 40% on £300 and 20% on £600.

 

[Journey]

I can't get a decent size EV for £11k.

Here.

 

[Spleen Sauce]

Here.

Yes but the seats don't fold flat, and I can only assume he must be sleeping in the car.

 

[dlockers]

Yes but the seats don't fold flat, and I can only assume he must be sleeping in the car.

 

[Uther]

So back full circle to the MG5 lol.
If you can't afford the perfect car then you're going to have to make sacrifices...

 

[danlightbulb]

Why do you have a 325 then?

I had no choice. My Mondeo MK4 estate failed at 115k miles (£3k vanished) and everything at the low end was crazy prices. My friend was selling this car which had 100k miles at the time and FSH. I didn't even consider EVs then, I never realised that home charging would be so cheap to run.

it is mental gymnastics because you've sacrificed your salary to the 20% bracket with your pension. Any further sacrificing is at 20% benefit. Unless you want to pay less into your pension, your maths is just wrong for sal sac

You could have another person with the same salary as me who only puts 5% into pension. You'd happily say they are benefiting at 40% tax relief on the car then would you? What if they get the car this year then next year put more into the pension, would you say they are then sacrificing their pension only at 20% because the car came first,?

I salary sacrifice my pension, and I could salary sac my car. What I allocate to each is a personal choice. I put 15% pension currently, way above normal, but I don't have to do that. I could put 6% then o could say the whole car is at 40%. I'm being honest with the maths and trade offs by not doing this.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I don't need a boot that's just big on volume..I need one that's practically big, in length, width, height. I don't carry suitcases.

The opening is small but it’s deep. Sure you can’t fit a fridge in it, but the boot is large.

What are you actually carrying?

 

[dlockers]

I put 15% pension currently, way above normal,

How old are you?

 

[Journey]

Yes but the seats don't fold flat, and I can only assume he must be sleeping in the car.

I suggested an Ioniq 38 as well, but there's been no feedback on that, so this time around I chose something else.

 

[Kenai]

You could have another person with the same salary as me who only puts 5% into pension. You'd happily say they are benefiting at 40% tax relief on the car then would you?

I salary sacrifice my pension, and I could salary sac my car. What I allocate to each is a personal choice. I put 15% pension currently, way above normal, but I don't have to do that. I could put 6% then o could say the whole car is at 40%. I'm being honest with the maths and trade offs by not doing this.

The more you post, the more I suspect you misunderstand how the tax relief works - in simpler (over simple) terms, assuming you sacrificed nothing into a pension, you'd need to be earning £61.5k to manage getting 40% off the £934 Enyaq gross quote you mentioned before.

 

[Haggisman]

I mean the issue there is it's still a 5 year old car firstly.

Secondly yes it really is too small. I had a bike rack on a car many years ago, it's an absolute faff. One big tent, BBQ, bag of food, clothes bags, dog in the back seat. Won't fit in that boot. Scuba gear X 2 people (all the kit, 4x air cylinders, drysuits) won't fit in that boot. A trip to Wickes to pick up 6 2x4s won't fit in that car.

Agreed that a Kona will be too small.

An eNiro with roof bars and a box will do all of the above except for the bikes - how many do you need to fit in? I've not tried in mine, but I reckon you could probably just about manage 2 adult bikes with the front wheels off, and other stuff tucked in around them, but not much else.

However, that's going to be the same with most cars - even a big estate is going to struggle to fit much else in when you've got a couple of bikes in the boot.

A towbar mounted rack is going to be significantly easier for that use (hatch mounted is out as the tailgate is made of aluminium and will probably crumple like a tin can )

Unfortunately you're running into exactly the same issue I found - a lack of affordable decent sized EVs, the MG5 is a good start, but it's not massive - my previous car was an Octavia estate, so it was quite a change downsizing from that

If it's size you want, how about something like this:

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Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

Considering something similar for our next car, although unfortunately the range on them is a bit pants

BTW, have you checked your sal sac T&Cs to confirm you definitely wouldn't be liable for any repairs? You'd hope most things are covered under warranty, but you know how they like to try and weasel out of it...