Cheap unlimited miles car hire

jam14

I am self employed and use my car to travel the country sometimes local but on occasion on return trips of 700-800 miles - with the wear & tear on these long trips and depreciationon my cars value as a result I am wondering if it would be beneficial to do local jobs in my car but on longer trips hire a vehicle for a couple of days, it would need to be unlimited mileage - has anyone any thoughts or advice on this and any cheap companies/deals to hire from?

I am based near Wigan but could easily pick up a vehicle enroute & leave my car with them until I return

thanks

forgotmyname

Cost of a hire vehicle will be huge compared to depreciation on your own car.

pitkin2020

forgotmyname wrote: »

Cost of a hire vehicle will be huge compared to depreciation on your own car.

I don't agree with that. If the OP is do a fair few of these large trips it could easily start pushing his own car well above average mileage thus bringing its value down (compared with an average mileage car). Not to mention the extra wear and tear on the car and the extra maintainence it'll need.

I used to do a very similar thing where I would hire a car for the longer trips and keep my van for the local trips. Just find a local independent car hirer who will usually be cheaper but won't be running 1 year old or less cars (usually around 3 years old). I would hire a car for around £20 a day or less for more days and use that. Saving extra mileage, brakes, tyres etc on my car aswell as overall value. You only need to be going up and down the motorway a few times a year before the front of your car looks like a dartboard too.

pitkin2020

another option is too look at http://www.whipcar.com you can some cheap rental in some places of an average car

vikingaero

It depends on the OPs car. If he has something mildly exotic then the depreciation will be high and he will struggle to convince Mr HMRC that he can claim a larger than normal mileage.

Most of the household name rental companies offer unlimited mileages on their passenger cars as do a lot of local hire companies. It's only the prestige or ultra cheap sector that have mileage limits - I returned one hire car with just over 2,000 miles over a weekend rental.

The other advantage of renting is that the cost can be fully accounted for as a legitimate business expense.

Notmyrealname

You will ruin your car if it spends most of its life doing short journeys. Unless these trips are going to take you over 15,000 miles a year, just do them in your own car.

If he has something mildly exotic then the depreciation will be high and he will struggle to convince Mr HMRC that he can claim a larger than normal mileage.

Codswallop. Define larger than normal mileage. The ex-fleet car I bought had 90k on at 3 years old.

pendulum

I'd have bought an older car that's economical and suitable for the longer trips as well as the short, a car which has already depreciated heavily so running up the miles wouldn't matter. Why buy a nice new car, have to stomach all the running costs and depreciation, only not to use it a lot of the time, and have to hire another car instead? It doesn't make much sense.

mikey72

If you're self employed the more milage you do, the better your tax return looks.
I find mine more than pays for depreciation.

jam14

ok guys thanks for that I will explain a little further - i set up last year with a 3 year old car worth £6000 since then I have done 35000 miles which has depreciated the car to approx £3000. mileage is now 70000 so I dont think I will get another 35000 out of it without bits falling off.

I am looking to par tex it add another £5-6000 to it and purchase a 1 year old car with a slightly smaller engine approx 15000 miles on the clock.

Average mileage will still be 35000 so I am looking to use my car daily on more local trips however I class more local as 50-300 mile return trips. My work is for different companies in different places but should I receive a rollout of work that will see me have a solid run for 3-4 days staying away at nights and covering say 1000 miles in those days whats the best option? is hiring a car going to save me over the 2 years only using it for such occasions????? hard to get your head round but Ive given you a few more figures hopefully someone can work it out better than I have so far!! thanks again

pitkin2020

If you can get the cost of car hire low enough and you use it frequently which if you could use it for 20k a year I think you could make a huge saving not only on depreciation but the extra servicing, tyres and brakes your car will go through.

Notmyrealname

jam14 wrote: »

ok guys thanks for that I will explain a little further - i set up last year with a 3 year old car worth £6000 since then I have done 35000 miles which has depreciated the car to approx £3000. mileage is now 70000 so I dont think I will get another 35000 out of it without bits falling off.

I don't see why. I bought mine at 3 years old with 90k on the clock for £6000 so I don't see why yours is worth £3k less with 20,000 fewer miles. Four years later its now on 160k and has had very little in the way of repairs.

With the mileage you're doing on your local trips, a hire car isn't going to make a big dent in the mileage you are doing. Even if it saves 10,000 miles a year you're still going to be doing 25k local mileage.

Personally I think you need to rethink how you claim for the costs. Instead of claiming at HMRC mileage rates you may be better off claiming the running costs which would include the purchase price of the car and the depreciation. Done right, the car should effectively be free.