company car drivers help

J

jjinit

New Member
just received a list (about 7 pages long) of my choices of car for my new job, and its mind boggling, apparently im taxed on a combination of the value & the fuel emissions, I get a fuel allowance for bus miles (approx 12p a mile) so am not taxed on petrol, I quite fancy a golf 1.9 tdi?? anyone well up on this subject?? :oops:
 
What else on list you fancy?

you cant go wrong with a new Golf TDI - best car in class all round.
 
N8 said:
What else on list you fancy?

you cant go wrong with a new Golf TDI - best car in class all round.
Click to expand...

mate there's loads!!

mini cooper 1.6 steptronic
audi a3 1.9 tdi
alfa romeo 146 tspark

i reckon diesel is way forward??
 
Diesel will cost you less :)

I'd go for the A3 or the Golf, go have a look/drive both!
 
My mate had exactly the same problem this year.

He was overwhelmed by the different options. He looked into it for a few months and he opted of the VW Tdi in the end.

Don't know why exactly, but he must have had some method in his madness.
 
We have a couple of Golf TDIs at work. Really good fun to drive, just make sure you get the sport suspension though, as they're a bit spongy. Go like Flo though.
 
Yeah

the shortlist is as follows!
vw golf 3dr 1.9tdi s mk5 05
mini 1.6 cooper steptronic
audi a3 3dr 1.9tdi
alfa romeo 147 3dr 1.9 jtd turismo
honda civic 3dr 1.7i ctdi se

I got a mini cooper for a couple of weeks till my car arrives
 
I,m looking at my options for changing at the minute and this is the 1st time we can have anything other than at Vectra/Mondeo/Laguna bland mobile. I have looked into the tax thing and the best way i found was to look at each manufacturers website, they can calculate the tax on each car.
I have to have at least a 4 door car so will be getting Golf Tdi SE as the A3 in 5 door looks pony
 
chewie got a company car earlier in the year (well i think it was a company one anyway) and he got a mini cooper thingy, maybe you could ask him how its going with that ?? cos i quite cleary havent got a clue on the subject :D
 
have a look at this link jjinit

http://www.fleetdrive.co.uk/Company_car_tax/new_2002_company_car_tax_rules.htm


you basically need to find out the co2 emissions of the vehicle, then depending on what it is, is used to calculate the taxable benefit of the car.

so for example, using the table in the above link, if you have a vehicle which costs say £20k and has a co2 emmission of 145, then your tax will be 15% of the list price (15%*20k) which is £3000, if you are a basic rate tax payer then the amount of tax you pay is 22% of this £3000 is £660 per year or £55 per month. this is reduced if you have to pay anthing towards to car out of your salary
 
I have done this recently too. Frankly I would choose it not on the emissions/tax bracket as generally you will get a bunch of cars that are all fairly similar in this regard.

I chose mine on the following:

How many miles am i going to do in the car?
Is the engine big enough to make these miles a comfortable experience? - the more miles you do on motorways , the bigger you want the engine to be or driving will soon be a drag.
Make sure its well built - I crossed off anything British, French, American and Italian immediately. Also crossed off all VW's too as the reliability of Golfs arent what they used to be, the spec is Pi** poor compared to other cars in the class, and Polos are just too flippin small (and I have had 2 crap ones in the past). This applies to Audi too - to my mind the dullest cars known to man.
Does it have the necessary toys to keep me entertained for three years? CD Player, Air Con, power steering, Electric Windows, remote central locking and ABS are an absolute must. Climate control preferable and Sat Nav is an absolute gift if you can get it.
How safe is this car? Look at the ENCAP crash test and dont buy anything less than 4 star rating. Some kind of traction control is good here also and as many air bags as they can fit in (I have 9!!).
Who gives a stuff how much petrol it uses as you get the money back in expenses anyway (If not - dont have a company car!)
Should be fairly quick but not too sporty as the ride will kill your back in the long run. 10sec 0-60 or less should be fine.
Has to look good on the drive/out side the house.
Cant stand diesel engines as still noisy when at speed (esp the Audi A3). Usually heavier than petrol and the power delivery is in one area which makes B road driving a painful experience. The extra weight makes the handling even more ungainly than any other front wheel drive car.

Anyway thats what I did .......but then I ended up with an Almera SXE (It has been a fantastic car to drive for last 12 months if a little funny looking), so you can make of that what you will.
 
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