Take a Merc E250 company car and sell our Mondeo?

pinkteapot

We currently have a 10-reg Mondeo which does all our long trips and holidays and a 52-reg Astra which is now just used around town.

MrTeapot has been offered a company car. We were hoping he'd be given a choice of cars in which case we would have got something small and sold the Astra.

However, what's on offer is a three year old Merc E250. :eek: If we take it, it would replace the Mondeo.

I'm reluctant as it's a saloon rather than a hatchback, so is nowhere near as practical.

MrTeapot still needs to find out what the tax cost for the benefit will be per month and we'll compare that to the monthly running costs of the Mondeo.

If we take it we can sell the Mondeo and free up cash. Great in theory but:

1) We only got it a year ago, when it was one year old. We paid £13k but it's now worth about £9.5k on trade-in or £10k privately. So we'd lose a load of money, even though we'd free up the best part of £10k cash.

2) Would it even be possible to sell it? (No, I'm not going to webuyanycar.com) I assume dealers will only take cars on trade-in (not for cash). Would we really stand a chance of selling a car that expensive privately when it's already had two owners in two years? I know I wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole if I saw that. :eek:

Plan when we bought the Mondeo was to keep it long-term.

RDG

The BIK cost is going to be around about £110 on an E250 assuming its a diesel.

Given that you will take a £2000 hit if you sell the Mondeo I think you would be better off keeping it and seeing if the company will give your OH an allowance instead.

pinkteapot

Unfortunately I don't think that's an option as it sounds like the boss is just trying to offload a company car that someone else there doesn't want anymore (one of the senior guys who wants a new one).

Insurance, road tax and service costs for the Mondeo are around £100 a month over the year so it sounds like the Merc would cost us about the same on an ongoing basis... But I prefer the Mondeo.

Any views on whether it would be possible to sell a 2 year old Mondeo with two previous owners?

If not, best option I think (if hubby opts to take the Merc) would be to sell the Astra privately and trade in the Mondeo to get the smaller second town car (trade in for a Fiesta or something). But I think we'd lose about £3.5k on what we paid for it a year ago by trading in.

rev_henry

pinkteapot wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't think that's an option as it sounds like the boss is just trying to offload a company car that someone else there doesn't want anymore (one of the senior guys who wants a new one).

Insurance, road tax and service costs for the Mondeo are around £100 a month over the year so it sounds like the Merc would cost us about the same on an ongoing basis... But I prefer the Mondeo.

Any views on whether it would be possible to sell a 2 year old Mondeo with two previous owners?

If not, best option I think (if hubby opts to take the Merc) would be to sell the Astra privately and trade in the Mondeo to get the smaller second town car (trade in for a Fiesta or something). But I think we'd lose about £3.5k on what we paid for it a year ago by trading in.

I don't really know much about company cars, but I don't see why you couldn't sell the Mondeo; you've a genuine reason to sell it/for the 2 owners. Put 'company car forces sale' in the ad. Though I know some buyers will still be suspicious - a succession of owners can suggest niggling faults that can't be gotten rid of. Having said that though is it still in warranty?

ukjoel

I would stay well clear.

A company car is great if you can choose what you want.

But it sounds like they are dumping a 3 year old large expensive merc on you which will mean a big tax bill.

If your hubby earns 40% this will be a £2500 bill a year for a mid range E class - more details would help us be more specific.

Most companies lease over 3 years and if the car is 3 years old already it sounds like they have bought it and realised the value now is really poor so would rather give it to your hubby for a few years while they write it down.

I think the senior guy getting rid of it wants a lower tax car.
This has a BIk of about 6k so may impact your child benefits if it lifts you over 50k.

Unless he does a lot of miles or they are paying fuel I would probably leave it - sont get sold by the badge.

MX5huggy

Of course the Mondeo will sell, at the right price.

Remember you save the loss on the value of the Mondeo in the comming years. Say £4.5 k over the next 2 years.

vikingaero

pinkteapot wrote: »

Plan when we bought the Mondeo was to keep it long-term.

Apart from the purely financial aspect the other main factors to consider are: Has Mr Teapot been in the job long enough and is his position secure? ie you don't want to sell the Mondeo if Mr T is going to leave the job in x months time, have to hand back the E250 and be car-less.

sebdangerfield

Why not just have the merc and sell the Astra?

w211

As far as I am aware, the Mercedes E250 CDi (assuming is it the CDi version - diesel) had injector problems around the time it was launched - as it was a new model about three years back.

Not sure if they just want to offload a troublesome car?

Also another minor point regarding practicality - although the boot is fairly large, you can fit a couple of medium sized suitcases with ease, with space around the sides, or if the cases aren't too deep you can stack them on its' side - the rear seats do not fold down, as this is an optional extra.

rev_henry

w211 wrote: »

As far as I am aware, the Mercedes E250 CDi (assuming is it the CDi version - diesel) had injector problems around the time it was launched - as it was a new model about three years back.

Not sure if they just want to offload a troublesome car?

Also another minor point regarding practicality - although the boot is fairly large, you can fit a couple of medium sized suitcases with ease, with space around the sides, or if the cases aren't too deep you can stack them on its' side - the rear seats do not fold down, as this is an optional extra.

So mercedes is reduced to the level of a Fiat Panda? Brilliant.

w211

rev_henry wrote: »

So mercedes is reduced to the level of a Fiat Panda? Brilliant.

It's not a car to buy for its practicality, otherwise you'd buy the estate version, or the typical buyer of that car would often have another, more practical car anyway.