Rent a Car? Advice Please?!

nirst

Hi, I'm looking to save money and have come up with a plan that I think may work - I'm looking for advice and feedback from anybody who's done this before maybe.

I currently own a 2 year old VW Golf on a monthly payment scheme which costs me about £360 a month. I worked out that with insurance, tax, services etc, owning this car currently costs me about £5000 a year.

The issue is that I work from home 90% of the time, so I actually don't use the car much. But when I do need it to visit customers, I have to appear smart and professional - that means buying an old banger is out of the question! (Also it can sometimes be a long journey so something comfortable is a plus!)

My solution - hire cars when I need them. I looked at the number of times I really needed my car over the last year and it was about 85 days. I reckon if I hired a car from Europcar or somebody that would be much less than £5000. At the weekends I can always use my wife's car so I'd only need it for work.

What do people think? Have I forgotten something vitally important in this plan? Does anybody else do this? How have they found it?

Any advice, ideas or experiences would be much appreciated before I take the plunge and get rid of my car!

Thanks,

Nick

vaio

Taxis are also classless and might be another solution depending on the journeys you need to do.

One other thing you need to check is what are the exit costs of your car loan

anewman

nirst wrote: »

The issue is that I work from home 90% of the time, so I actually don't use the car much. But when I do need it to visit customers, I have to appear smart and professional - that means buying an old banger is out of the question! (Also it can sometimes be a long journey so something comfortable is a plus!)

One option is to lease.

Bangers don't have to be unsightly and uncomfortable. Can you imagine anyone balking at you and taking business elsewhere just because you turned up in something like this?

McAzrael

If you only need a car 85 days a year then I would say you are on to something here. How easy is it to get to the rental lot? Can you group the away trips together so that you can, say, rent a car for a week and see a few clients?

Will HMRC be happy that the rental is entirely for business? I have a hunch that they might, especially if you are using your wife's car for personal use, and this could well work in your favour. This is only a hunch. I'm sure your accountant will have come across this before.

MX5huggy

Simply your 85 days currenty cost you £58 per day so hiring would be cheeper.

nirst

Hi - thanks for all your thoughts. I'm within walking distance of at least one car rental place, so I'd have to look into the costs, but it should be fine. I should point out that I'm not self employed so I don't think tax etc. is too much of a consideration.
Does anybody rent cars a lot? I'd like to hear the kinds of problems people have renting cars if anybody has any stories.