New job, car allowance, help me buy a car!

jonnyfingers

Hi guys,

Short Version:

I work in the UK and need to find a car that is less than 5 years old, is a saloon or decent sized hatchback, diesel, with cruise control for £8000 - £9000. Has anyone any suggestions?


Longer Version:

I've a bit of a project for anyone who has the time and the inclination to help me out.

I've just verbally accepted a new job here in the UK. It comes with a £5,300 car allowance, which sadly equates to just around £256 per month after tax. I currently own a 07 Vectra with 100k miles on the clock and also have a 2010 Focus Titanium Diesel as a company car in my current job.

A company car is offered instead of the allowance with the new job, but I've just received my tax code for the year for keeping the company car and after waking up after fainting at it I've decided I will be definitely taking the car allowance!

Now I need your help choosing a car. I've not seen the exact requirements of the new car but I assume they will be a car that's no more than 5 years old, 4-5 doors, usually a saloon or family car hatchback. With the mileage I'll be doing I'd probably opt for another diesel. One feature I definitely want is a car with cruise control, which will probably narrow the options.

Onto the money, I might get around £2000 for the Vectra if I'm lucky. I might be able to scrape another £1000 to put towards the new car. And for the rest of the money I'd like to get finance that wouldn't come to much more than the £256 car allowance per month, and here's the tricky bit, for hopefully a 2 year repayment term which may get me a £6000 loan. But I might need to stretch to a 3 year term to get a nicer car but I'll wait and see how things go.

So can anyone suggest a decent car that meets my criteria for £8000 - £9000?

Red Kev

jonnyfingers wrote: »

I currently own a 07 Vectra with 100k miles on the clock and also have a 2010 Focus Titanium Diesel as a company car in my current job.

A company car is offered instead of the allowance with the new job, but I've just received my tax code for the year for keeping the company car and after waking up after fainting at it I've decided I will be definitely taking the car allowance!

Now I need your help choosing a car. I've not seen the exact requirements of the new car but I assume they will be a car that's no more than 5 years old, 4-5 doors, usually a saloon or family car hatchback. With the mileage I'll be doing I'd probably opt for another diesel. One feature I definitely want is a car with cruise control, which will probably narrow the options.

Onto the money, I might get around £2000 for the Vectra if I'm lucky. I might be able to scrape another £1000 to put towards the new car. And for the rest of the money I'd like to get finance that wouldn't come to much more than the £256 car allowance per month, and here's the tricky bit, for hopefully a 2 year repayment term which may get me a £6000 loan. But I might need to stretch to a 3 year term to get a nicer car but I'll wait and see how things go.

So can anyone suggest a decent car that meets my criteria for £8000 - £9000?

Just keep the Vectra and forget about the finance that you may not be able to get or afford. You'll have less worries about repayments and more cash in your pocket at the end of the month.

listermint

Mondeo Titanium, Job done.

jonnyfingers

Red Kev wrote: »

Just keep the Vectra and forget about the finance that you may not be able to get or afford. You'll have less worries about repayments and more cash in your pocket at the end of the month.

I would but the car is likely to be too old to meet the criteria.

Drummerboy08

Are you leaving anything out of your allowance to maintain the vehicle?

Hidalgo

Does the £256 a month allowance have to cover all other car related expenses
i.e fuel, tyres, tax, insurance, maintenance etc.
If so will you not leave yourself short by using the allowance just to pay back a loan?

pitachu

You may have already done this but double check how the car allowence should be taxed (there may be tax credits that can be applied for). My wife recently got a sizable refund from HMRC for tax she incorrectly paid on her car allowence over 3 years.

jonnyfingers

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Are you leaving anything out of your allowance to maintain the vehicle?

Hidalgo wrote: »

Does the £256 a month allowance have to cover all other car related expenses
i.e fuel, tyres, tax, insurance, maintenance etc.
If so will you not leave yourself short by using the allowance just to pay back a loan?

No. I already pay that anyway on my Vectra. The allowance is going solely towards getting a new car.

One extra I forgot to mention is I can claim back on my business mileage. Not sure the exact amount but probably 14p per mile.

pitachu wrote: »

You may have already done this but double check how the car allowence should be taxed (there may be tax credits that can be applied for). My wife recently got a sizable refund from HMRC for tax she incorrectly paid on her car allowence over 3 years.

I've checked most things but will check out any tax credits. I do need to call HMRC about my change in circumstances when changing jobs so will ask them. Cheers.

justsomebloke

what about a civic http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Saloon/details-583208-Saloon.asp?viewtype=0

Passat

http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Saloon/details-587272-Saloon.asp?viewtype=0

or an S40

http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Saloon/details-585066-Saloon.asp?viewtype=0

R.O.R

What would the BIK be on the company car they are offering?

I don't know what BIK is in the UK, but I know it's a good bit lower than here.

For a driver who needs a car for thier work, it's rare that they'd be better off on an allowance rather than in a company car.

jonnyfingers

R.O.R wrote: »

What would the BIK be on the company car they are offering?

I don't know what BIK is in the UK, but I know it's a good bit lower than here.

For a driver who needs a car for thier work, it's rare that they'd be better off on an allowance rather than in a company car.

For my current Focus the BIK on the car and the fuel card come to over £6000. They problem is they take that from your tax free allowance, so in a way you're being hit twice as you will pay the higher rate of tax on more or your earnings. The BIK has just risen again for this year so unless you do an absolutely massive amount of miles it's not as attractive to take the company car as it used to be.

I've done my sums and will be over £4000 a year better off taking the car allowance, even with servicing, maintenance and repair costs.

mickyellow

In the exact same boat myself. Recently started a new job and have had company cars for the last 10/2 years. Mondeo's, Passats, Avensis etc.

the best value saloon cars in the 8k-10k range appear to be the Saab 9-3 or Volvo s40. A colleague of mine recently imported a 09 Saab 9-3 from the UK and it worked out at 10k. You can also pick a 2/3 year old insignia for around the same price.

Your new mileage rate appears to be on the low side. That would hardly cover your fuel costs.

R.O.R

If you've run the figures, and are happy enough that Car allowance (swear words in my book :pac:) is the way to go, I'd probably be putting my money in something like this:

http://www.sparshattsgroup.co.uk/used-cars/used-cars/view/11246/honda-accord-2.2-i-ctdi-sport

Pretty comfortable. Generally very reliable (all issues should have been fixed under warranty at this stage) and fairly low fuel consumption.

Not too keen on the tow bar on that one. Could have been used to pull a small trailer every now and again, or could have been used to tow a massive Caravan / Horesebox every weekend - just never know.

jonnyfingers

Just found out there is no limitation on what car I drive if I take the car allowance so I might reconsider getting a new one for now. It probably makes sense to drive my Vectra for a while longer and save a bit of money towards a new car at a later stage.

Thanks for the suggestions though. Will keep my eye out for a bargain.