Take a Merc E250 company car and sell our Mondeo?

thelawnet

The Merc sounds expensive. It would have been at least £30k new (maybe more, depending on spec), and with 154g CO2, diesel, that's 24% BiK (£7200 income), 40% tax on that, that's £2880/year. Goes up next year to 25% BiK.

He should ask for a payrise instead.

Hintza

w211 wrote: »

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

It's a company car so all costs will be covered by the company. They are not offloading it.

agrinnall

rev_henry wrote: »

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

You must be thinking of the original Panda because the rear seats on my 2008 Panda definitely folded (I got a wheelbarrow in there once).

pinkteapot

Yep; hubby worked out yesterday that the tax liability will be about £200 a month. This is what we currently spend per month on two cars (assuming minor repair bills but nothing too major)!

Since the Merc would replace the Mondeo, it would be the car we do long holiday trips in etc so I was less than enthused about (a) having a three year old car that someone else has ragged about and (b) having a car we didn't choose. We spent quite a while researching large cars before buying the Mondeo.

Although it would be nice to free up the Mondeo's cash value, it's not worth it if the Merc costs us twice as much per month as the Mondeo I don't think. On that basis, he's going to tell work thanks but no thanks and wait until either (a) a smaller 'old' car becomes available in which case he'll take that and we'll sell the Astra, or (b) he can choose a brand new car himself.

The Merc only has 18 months left on its lease so he only would have had it for that long. So there was also the chance that we would sell the Mondeo at a heavy loss and then he'd get stuck with another cast-off from work that might not have been as big.

I know it was a Merc E250 and an automatic diesel; not sure of the exact model/trim level though.

Re having the Merc and selling the Astra... Now that the Astra is our second car it is literally just used around town. Once a month I run it up and down the dual carriageway so we don't completely knacker it, but its lifestyle would definitely not suit a diesel car. Plus the Astra can park in places the Mondeo can't so when it eventually dies it'll get replaced with another small/mid-sized car.

Thanks for the input all - company cars are a new world to me in terms of all the finances of it so I'm better equipped if we get offered one again in the future.

rev_henry

agrinnall wrote: »

You must be thinking of the original Panda because the rear seats on my 2008 Panda definitely folded (I got a wheelbarrow in there once).

No, I believe the on the cheapo 'Active' model folding rear seats were a £200 extra!

ukjoel

Hintza wrote: »

It's a company car so all costs will be covered by the company. They are not offloading it.

But they are offloading a rather large tax bill onto whoever takes it. Company car tax will be your hubbys responsibility and this will not be cheap as the cars has a high P11 price, a high CO2 emission and combined these will cost you.

Work out the numbers.

Also if the company is paying for private fuel this is taxable as well.

pinkteapot

Company have offered a BMW 1-series instead now. That's a bit more like it in terms of replacing our old Astra so we're making progress.

I found this which is very helpful:
http://www.parkers.co.uk/company-cars/tax-calculator/

I told MrTeapot he can take anything that's reasonably small (so suitable as a town car Astra-replacement) and costs £100 a month in tax or less. Our Astra costs us a bit around £750 a year for insurance, breakdown cover, road tax and MOT/service (everything that comes with a company car) so around £65 a month. However, it's getting on a bit now and has needed repairs in each of the last three years that make it more like £1,000-£1,200 a year.

If we can keep the cost to £100 a month that'll be a pretty good deal as we won't have to pay for an Astra replacement. Astra's worth about £1,500 in private sale and if we sold it and wanted a replacement ourselves I'd want to spend more than £1,500! I'm very attached to the Astra though (Oscar) so I was planning on keeping him until he became ridiculously uneconomical to repair. Do you think I could sell him with "Must go to a loving home - no boy racers" on the ad.

Company don't pay for fuel so it's simple on that front.

duchy

If you have friends with elderly teenagers Oscar might make a nice first car ?

pinkteapot

Just looked on the car ads near where I live and actually Oscar would probably only fetch £800-1,000 privately, if we're lucky. Outrageous - he's great. And just last week I spent £215 on road tax!

Ideally Oscar will go to a middle-aged driver - old enough to be sensible but not so old they'll crash into a lamp-post that they don't see.

There's a chance I'm too attached to him but the Mk4 Astra really is a rock-solid practical car. I am a bit conscious that he looks slightly chavtastic these days compared to all our neighbours' cars. Maybe they all have company cars.

There is a chance MrTeapot will be able to pick his own company car and get a brand new one so the possibility of going round the poncy car dealers (BMW etc) and speccing up our own car is helping to break the bond with Oscar. :rotfl:

I did say we should get a Fiesta as it'd only cost £70 a month in tax. Apparently though MrTeapot's boss would want him to have something that looks a bit flashier. *sigh* Not very MSE.

agrinnall

rev_henry wrote: »

No, I believe the on the cheapo 'Active' model folding rear seats were a £200 extra!

Ah, well, mine was an Eleganza, I didn't slum it with an Active .