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Best way to spend car allowance

Afternoon,

I have just got a new job with a company that I have worked for a while which comes with £5k car allowance, good thing!
The problem is not sure how best to use it.
I expect to do around 50k miles per year and my current little Citroen C1 is not up to the job, although I want to keep it for my wife if I'm going to be working away

My credit rating is not the best and I'm not sure of the best/most efficient way of using the allowance.

Any suggestions/ideas/experiences are much appreciated, thanks for reading and in advance for your help.

Comments

  • Whippetoil wrote: »
    Afternoon,

    I have just got a new job with a company that I have worked for a while which comes with £5k car allowance, good thing!
    The problem is not sure how best to use it.
    I expect to do around 50k miles per year and my current little Citroen C1 is not up to the job, although I want to keep it for my wife if I'm going to be working away

    My credit rating is not the best and I'm not sure of the best/most efficient way of using the allowance.

    Any suggestions/ideas/experiences are much appreciated, thanks for reading and in advance for your help.



    If the company doesn't make any stipulations on what you have to drive (some insist on a particular age, size, etc) then I'd buy a two grand cheapie and run it into the ground, pocketing the mileage payment and the extra allowance.
  • DKLS
    DKLS Posts: 13,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Golf R is currently v cheap on a lease.
  • DKLS wrote: »
    Golf R is currently v cheap on a lease.

    Hardly an efficient tool nor a cheap one to run for 50K a year though, is it?
  • joeyvicks
    joeyvicks Posts: 237 Forumite
    Totally depends what you want from your car and the money you get. 50k is high mileage so you need something reliable that can churn out that sort of mileage i.e. a german engine, audi, bmw, vw. If you buy something cheap it may only last a year and will cost you more in the long run if things are constantly going wrongand you'll be worse off than if you had forked out for something more expensive and newer and used all your allowance.
    Do you get a pence per mile payment?
    I've just come to the end of 4 years of a VW golf that I bought at 2 years old with 26k on. I do 30k a year and barring servicing, tyres and a cambelt change at 80k it has been very good to me. I may have been lucky but it is a good, well built car so I edged my bets. There are other people at my company who opt for a cheap car and cream it on their returns but it only takes a new clutch and gear box to soon eradicate any "increased income"
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,267 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    joeyvicks wrote: »
    There are other people at my company who opt for a cheap car and cream it on their returns but it only takes a new clutch and gear box to soon eradicate any "increased income"

    I think if you do the calculations they would still be better off with the cheap car. Get the right car and you shouldn't need a gearbox replacement, or clutch for that matter.

    You may have service and maintenance items but in my experience they will be far less than the depreciation of a new vehicle doing 50k per year.

    Really depends what the company will allow you to have for the allowance. If it is a free reign then good Golf or Passat TDI would do the job - ideally one from 2007/8 before the DPF was added.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • marlot
    marlot Posts: 4,956 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Whippetoil wrote: »
    Afternoon,

    I have just got a new job with a company that I have worked for a while which comes with £5k car allowance...
    Don't forget you'll be taxed on the amount, so you'll get rather less in your pay packet.

    You also need to find out how what rate they'll pay for business mileage/fuel and whether they'll pay any personal - this makes a huge difference to what car is best.
  • Iceweasel
    Iceweasel Posts: 4,842 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    edited 23 June 2014 at 5:29PM
    50K a year is a lot of miles to sit in an underpowered euro-box.

    If you spend a lot of time on the road you need to be comfortable and relaxed.

    I suggest a 2 year old 120d or 320d BMW on their Approved Used Car programme.

    Get a 2 year service Inclusive deal with it for a one-off payment of £400

    After 12 months extend the warranty for a 2nd year

    Exchange it for another after 2 years.

    That way you have no repair costs - no service costs and have emergency breakdown cover included free too.

    No worries.
  • patman99
    patman99 Posts: 8,532 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    German cars are not as good as they used to be.
    You need something that is cheap to run, but above all, comfortable. You will be spending a great deal of time on the road so a car with a few comforts like air-con and cruise control would suit.

    For £5k you could possibly get a Dacia Duster on a 3-year finance deal.
    Or, how about a Volvo ?.

    If the business is reimbursing your fuel costs based on pence-per-mile, then there is scope for a good profit here as well. Even if they give you a credit card to buy the fuel with, you can still make money by making use of loyalty cards and sticking to certain brands of garage when filling up.
    Never Knowingly Understood.

    Member #1 of £1,000 challenge - £13.74/ £1000 (that's 1.374%)

    3-6 month EF £0/£3600 (that's 0 days worth)

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