Company Car Advice

Having never been in the position of having access to one I thought I
would ask for some advice here.

SWMBO has the opportunity of a Co car. Most people get Vectra 1.9TDI's
but I believe there is a list of suitable cars and she fancies a Zafira
as she currently has a Grand Vitara and likes the raised riving position.
She is likely to cover somewhere in the region of 400 miles a month of
company miles and ~200 personal. there is a company fuel card on offer.

So how much is this likely to actually cost her out of her salary? I have
no idea how much. Its currently costing us £500 for insurance, £200 tax,
£1K depreciation and £200 for tyres/bits each year. Fuel is not good at
about £200 a month if not more.

So, what other hints and tips are there?

TIA

 

At basic rate tax, assuming a Zafira 1.9CDTi-120 Design, the company car
tax will cost her £77 / month. At higher rate, £154 / month.

Take the fuel card, but opt to pay back private mileage, 'cos this will
cost an additional £65 or £130 a month - you need to be doing lots of
private miles for this to make sense.

 

Cheers, good tip there re private mileage. Shes only on basic rate so £77/
month sounds a bargain to have a brand new car on the drive as opposed to
what its costing us at the moment.

 

Another tip - if she can get a BMW, they're very tax efficient
(especially if you don't need an MPV and can go for a 1-series).

For example - a 118d SE would come in at £45 / month in tax.

 

I heard something about the pickup stylee things are meant to be tax
efficient. As she works for a builders merchants I reckon she could get
away with one if they are any good and fell into the right money bracket
Her 'worst' journey is ~140 miles of motorway.

 

My last employer had several Zafiras as pool cars.

My current employer has Berlingos. I miss the Zafiras...

 

Anything specific about them? Comfort, handling etc?

 

That's tax efficient if you can buy one and claim it as a business cost and
therefore avoid paying VAT. Not tax efficient from a company car POV... And
they're supposed to be shite...

 

Both I'd expect, given my experience driving a Meriva. And being able to see
out of the thing - you won't - they've got a B pillar shaped like an upside
down letter y, and you simply cannot see around corners in them - it doesn't
look bad from the outside, but for me, from the driver's seat, it was the
equivalent of a blind spot about the size of a sheet of A4 at the bottom
half of each B post.

 

I hired one. It was just a Vauxhall with wobbly handling.

 

I think I know what you mean. I had a cosra for a courtesy car when teh
volvo was in for repairs. It had blind spots absolutely everywhere, I
couldn't even see the inside kerb on roundabouts due to teh A post.

So what is better? I've not seen the full list yet but are Fords for
example any better?

 

If you're trying to see round corners and the B post is in the way,
your head is in a strange place.

 

I've not driven any of the people carrier type stuff bar that one. I suspect
anything recent will be fairly bad - the old Cit Dispatch (and so the
Ulysses, 807 and the Fiat people carrier) had a similar but not quite so bad
arrangement of pillars. It doesn't seem to have happened to saloons yet, but
I suspect that it'll be par for the course in people carriers to get the
rigidity into such a big box. Perhaps a tall car would be an acceptable
halfway house? Maybe a Kuga or a Qashqai - just googled and they have fairly
normal b-pillars (for current values of normal - they're huge compared to
something 10 years old).

 

Try driving a Meriva on a mountain road and you'll know what I mean. Or go
round a roundabout. Granted, you can move your head about to get rid of the
blind spot, but I'd rather it weren't there...

 

Ah. A post. Ask me about bats and you might get a more sensible answer...

 

I've driven a C-Max for a few days and a Touran.

The Touran was the better car, but they're both utter shite when
compared with a 'normal' car.

Not driven a diesel Toyota Verso, so can only form opinions based on the
petrol - much as I hated it, it was a much better car than either the
C-Max or the Touran.

Unless you really need an MPV, though, I'd generally avoid them.

 

Had a Mervia on holiday this year. It was shite.

How did Vauxhall manage to make a small car with so many blind spots?

 

I'll be back in a minute with a JCB to get a proper hole going...

 

I suspect you're on about the "A" post.

 

Is the correct answer.