High mileage commute - help!

Nalascot

I have applied for a new job and may be jumping the gun slightly however I am trying to work out what my best option is with regards to buying a car to commute. I will do approx 17,500 miles a year purely on commuting to and from the office 5 days a week. I will also be expected to use my car for visits therefore reckon I will do around 21,000 miles in total. 

At present, I have a Volkswagen Golf GTD with 2.0 litre Diesel engine, approx 61mpg. This is on a PCP deal with contracted 10,000miles a year and I have 2 years remaining on this contract.

I was considering trading this in for a cheaper, more economical car however I am unsure on whether I should finance this through PCP or HP. I looked in to leasing however can not afford the large initial payments. 

The Company will pay £115 a month car allowance and 0.44p per mile. 

Any help much appreciated! Thank you.

Mercdriver

I suspect you will be in negative equity at the moment unless you paid a large deposit.  Have you considered paying the bubble at the end, and then being over the mileage won't matter?

MinuteNoodles

Don't bother trading it in for a more economical car, you won't save any money. I do around 17,000 miles a year and the difference in fuel between my MX5 that does 37MPG and my Mondeo that did 55MPG was about £800 a year if I did the mileage in one or the other an amount that'll be more than eaten up with any costs involved in changing. That's with an 18MPG difference and you're not going to find a car that does 18MPG more than the Golf and even if you did it'd be one of those really small city cars you'd really not want to do 17k a year in.

Keep the Golf, pay the balloon. The Golf will quite happily do 20,000 miles a year. Might not be as comfy doing it in that as it would be in something Mondeo sized but it'll be plenty capable of doing the mileage.

Goudy

I wouldn't bother changing it either.
Keep the Golf and forget the contracted mileage figure. Start saving some of the mileage allowance to pay the GFV in two years time, or settle the finance sooner if you can.
When the Golf's paid for and yours, they'll be still plenty of life it for a good few years yet if you've kept on top of the servicing.

Once you start using a car like this you need to start looking at it as a tool rather than a status symbol or your pride and joy. 
Keep an eye on the running and repair costs, that'll tell you when it's time to fork out for a new tool.

The_Rainmaker

I concur with the others, start saving  now to pay off the balloon alternatively if you have savings (earning very little interest)  it might be worth settling the finance now and replenish with your car allowance as you go.  Do the sums.

mcpitman

Another vote for keeping the Golf.

When I started my previous role I was doing north of 25k miles a year (so bought an Insignia), I couldn't imagine doing that many miles in a cheap city car or equivalent.

Penelopa.Pitstop

Keep the Golf. Allowance and business miles will pay for any excess charges or you can just buy the car at the end of PCP and not worry about excessive mileage.

onlyfoolsandparking

If your commute to the office is on motorways, consider doing it at 56mph yes its a little boring and you will most probably have to adjust your 'setting off' times but the savings could be big?. I once did 750 miles on one tank of diesel in a big heavy transit van, I did 56mph all the way there and back, that mileage and fuel range pleasantly surprised me as normal range in my van (around town usually) was around 350!

Herzlos

Make sure you update your insurance to cover commuting and business use, since you're talking about doing 5500 miles of 'visits'