Replacing company car, suggestions for good BiK rates?

Scrapit

akira181 said:

My work are replacing their cars and they've given me the choice of what car to get (within reason, more VW, Skoda, etc range rather than BMW, Audi, etc).  I do mostly motorway driving, couple hundred miles a month on average, 18 to 20k a year.  I currently have a VW passat saloon but the boss want's to replace them with an estate style car.

I was looking at a hybrid but read that they're not great on motorway mpg and considering I can't charge it at home (don't think an extension cord out a 3rd floor window and potentially around the block is a viable solution ), I don't think it makes much sense. 

Can anyone suggest what would be a good estate model car to be looking at?  I was thinking a Toyota Corolla or Skoda Octavia but not sure if there's alternatives I should be considering or if i even understand BiK tax properly.

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

Do you have to get an estate? If so why not a passat estate? The new one looks nice

akira181

Sorry for the lack of reply, been a busy weekend.  Mileage thing was me confusing myself.  I did 20k a year pre-lockdown (monthly around 1,500 work, the rest personal mileage) when I was going into the office every day when not on site.  Now I'm doing 400 to 500 a month on average as work is slow at the moment, but my longest one day trip I make every 2 months is over 350 miles, so full electric isn't really practical even if I did have a means of charging.

The Passat saloons we have just now are already on the small side, so an estate is necessary as I don't want a van.  i've never driven a car with the CVT before so not sure if the noise is going to be an issue but I've booked a test drive for one to find out.  I was considering the Skoda Octavia/ Superb estate or similar but the BIK rate is 10% higher than the Corolla with not much better MPG, although the P11D price is lower(?) I think so it might not be that much of a difference.

The passat estate is too expensive I think, work have given me a budget of around 20K

treeroy

Hybrids don't make sense for motorway driving as theyre only efficient when using their electric motor which is only at low speed. They are great for town driving but not economical for high speed driving, in fact they are worse than equivalent petrol/diesel because they weigh more so less fuel economy.

Mercdriver

Grumpy_chap said:

I had an Auris hybrid estate and, for my mostly motorway 25k miles per year, the fuel economy was no better than a regular petrol car.   Generally quite a boring car to drive.

If the OP considers the Corrolla, it would be worth investigating whether it is improved in terms of mpg since the Auris.  BIK will be favourable and loads of specification though.

I ended up with am Auris hybrid estate for a hire car as an 'upgrade' from a BMW 220 in Italy.  I drove from Bologna to Viareggio, plus lots of trips around the Tuscan countryside then across the country to the east coast over the space of 2 weeks.  The only time I filled it with fuel was close to Bologna airport on my way North from Rimini.

You're right about the joyless driving.  It did a decent impression of a dying fly.

AdrianC

Mercdriver said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I had an Auris hybrid estate and, for my mostly motorway 25k miles per year, the fuel economy was no better than a regular petrol car.   Generally quite a boring car to drive.

If the OP considers the Corrolla, it would be worth investigating whether it is improved in terms of mpg since the Auris.  BIK will be favourable and loads of specification though.

I ended up with am Auris hybrid estate for a hire car as an 'upgrade' from a BMW 220 in Italy.  I drove from Bologna to Viareggio, plus lots of trips around the Tuscan countryside then across the country to the east coast over the space of 2 weeks.  The only time I filled it with fuel was close to Bologna airport on my way North from Rimini.

You're right about the joyless driving.  It did a decent impression of a dying fly.

I think I've posted before about hiring an Auris hybrid estate in Sweden about three or four years ago. It aspired to dull, and I didn't care whether it actually achieved it or not.

It also had a couple of electrical shenanigans (including the entire dash turning itself off - fortunately it came back after turning the car off and on again), the boot was very shallow, and the reversing camera was unusable unless you got out and wiped the lens damn near every time you wanted to use it. Which was a shame, because the visibility was bad enough that you needed it.

And, agreed, it really wasn't that economical. Electric-only mode was ridiculously slow and short.

akira181

As most full-hybrids go, I don't think they're exciting to drive but I read that the Corolla has a stiffer chassis and independent suspension upgrades over the Auris, so it feels a bit better but I'm still not expecting much.  My 1.6 TDI Bluemotion Passat isn't the most exciting either and lacking in power, the 1.8 Corolla is ever so slightly faster on paper, so I'll see if that's noticeable on the test drive.

Multiple sources have also claimed 60+mpg with mix of motorway and city driving.  My current car only gets 58mpg motorway at best and the advisory fuel rate is calculated on a 1.6 diesel achieving an unrealistic 62.6 mpg (73.6 mpg before they adjusted it for "real life conditions").  The rate for a 1.8 petrol is calculated at 40.5 mpg, so I'd have a good chance of at least breaking even with business mileage costs.

Grumpy_chap

If the OP finds the Passsat saloon too small, cars like the Corolla, even in estate form, are going to be and feel smaller.  Suggest the OP consider the Skoda Superb or Ford Mondeo.

akira181

Grumpy_chap said:

If the OP finds the Passsat saloon too small, cars like the Corolla, even in estate form, are going to be and feel smaller.  Suggest the OP consider the Skoda Superb or Ford Mondeo.

Just back from my test drive and the interior was excellent.  Comfortable, smooth driving, seamless switching between petrol and electric drive trains and the CVT was better than I expected.  Hard accelerating sounds a bit "time to change gear" but obviously doesn't and quickly quietens down once you stop accelerating and begin cruising.  The 1.8L is not the fastest (comparable to my Passat) but I'm not expecting sports performance from an economy focused hybrid.

The road noise in my 1.6 diesel Passat was louder on the motorway and my current junk courtesy car, a 1.4L petrol Vauxhaul Mokka X, is louder all the time at any speed in any gear.  The engine sounds like a transit van from the 90s.

However, you were right about the boot size.  With the seats up, it's smaller than expected.  Slightly shorter than my Passat in length.  However, the additional boot height of an estate vs a saloon makes it better though as I have more flexibility in how to stack things in there.  Seats down, it's huge, a bit more than 2m in length with my driving seat position (I'm 5"7).

Only thing I hated was the infotainment system in the Corolla.  Dated, slow, clunky, and just all round trash.  Luckily, with a software update, it now has Android Auto / Apple Car Play, so you can avoid the onboard infotainment system entirely.

Also had a look at a Skoda Octavia and Kia Optima.  Bigger and cheaper upfront cost but higher insurance, BIK tax, and worse MPG.  I think I'm sold on the Corolla, just need to sell it to my boss now

Grumpy_chap

I had an Auris hybrid estate 2014 and the "sell" to the Finance Director was dead easy.

Grumpy_chap

I had an Auris hybrid estate 2014 and the "sell" to the Finance Director was dead easy.