Should I Take A Company Car?

Heidi_2

Thank you all for your very helpful answers and I now have all I need to decide - cheers

alflavor

I would always opt for the company car, as it will usually be fully serviced, no charge for tyres etc, insurance and tax disc paid for.

I know 3 people now in my circle of friends who have opted out of company cars as they couldn't have the car they wanted, and all regret the change. Once you opt out it's not easy to opt back in either.

Added up I reckon a car is worth £5-8k a year if you add up buying one, insurance, service, and all extras.

anniecave

alflavor wrote: »

Added up I reckon a car is worth £5-8k a year if you add up buying one, insurance, service, and all extras.

Totally depends on what car you buy.

I bought a low mileage 5 yr old ford fiesta over 5 years ago for £3,500 and am still using it now. I was allowing £800 per year for depreciation so I have more than saved up enough for a replacement car now.

My total expenditure per year on tax, insurance, breakdown, mot, servicing, repairs etc etc has been between £1200 and £1500 per year. (My highest exp is always insurance - dodgy area I live, I had an accident that was my fault, then 2 and a half years later another accident not my fault but it is still going through claims so at the moment I have lost my no claims bonus again!)

So I only spend between £2000 and £2300 per year on my car inc depreciation.

That does involve an upfront cost of course for buying the car. Getting a loan for the same thing would obviously be more.

Obviously if you do lots of mileage (I only do around 12K per year) or if you have a bigger car the figures go up but I would always check the figures out.

It does look like quite a good deal having said that - If I were you I might go for their standard option (so you don't have to pay any extra) but of course it's up to you!

I don't think of car costs per month, I look at price per year, it's bigger so it brings the figures home more to me!

blisteringblue

Been through all this several times as your scheme sounds just like mine.

Another factor is how many miles you intend to drive a year too. I was all for opting out and trying to save money but I drive over 30k miles a year and I just think that is too many miles to run and service your own car.

I opted out of our fuel card system as that is only a benefit these days if you drive well over 10k PRIVATE miles in a year, which I am nowhere near, so I pay all my own fuel and claim back business miles. Basically at 17p a mile these days it almost covers my private miles anyway.

Back to the car, last time round I have a lower co2 BMW and paid around £180 a month in tax and capital contribution as it was over my allowance. Personally I find this great value as you certainly could not buy and run a £25k car for anywhere near that.

I have since swapped to a larger 4x4 Honda this time as I wanted something bigger and while my tax has increased because of the CO2 even now my total tax and capital contribution is around £225 a month, which again is great value to be driving a top of the range 4x4.

At the end of the day it's your own decision. I have a colleague who has gone to the other extreme and just got a basic Skoda diesel. It's well under his allowance and he gets the difference in his salary. Again personal choice but I wanted a little more luxury for the amount of miles I do.