I opted out of company cars about 8 years ago. The carbon based BIK tax killed it for me – too expensive.

Not so sure now though. Motoring costs seem to have risen dramatically (fuel, insurance, tax, servicing, more VAT) and easy / cheap car credit has disappeared, and is less appealing anyway…

So, has the time of the company car returned? Does anyone still want to hold personal debt on behalf of travelling for your firm?

Not sure what the answer is for me personally just yet, but interested in the wider opinions on here.

I’ve just gone the other way not so much out of choice but necessity.

But I wouldn’t borrow money to buy a car that I was going to use for business.

I looked at some of the personal leasing deals but my annual mileage was a bit of a killer.

So I’ve bought something 2nd hand I would never have got on a company car scheme. Time will tell if I’ll regret it!

It depends what you want to drive, some of the new engines that are coming out have extremely low emissions and the BIK is a fraction of what it used to be. The new Passat and some of the new BMWs/Mercs are particularly efficient. If you want something new then you may as well get your employer to buy it.

If you want to drive anything quick, you are probably better getting it yourself. The BIK percentages and the fact that it is worked out from the new price of the car means that anything expensive when new is going to cost you a fortune every month, even if you go second hand when you actually buy it.

The BIK percentages and the fact that it is worked out from the new price of the car means that anything expensive when new is going to cost you a fortune every month, even if you go second hand when you actually buy it

Im not sure many companies would go for a 2nd hand car on a company car scehem would they?

Yes, agree that the manufacturers have got their heads around the carbon based tax thresholds (whether they be road fund, EU taxes or UK BIK) and now produce engines that are stunningly efficient on the test cycle…

That’s one of the things tempting me back. The newer motors are much more efficient, and fuel prices are only going one way.

I currently run a 4 year old S-Max – pretty much the perfect vehicle for us, spacious, kit car capable, efficient, good to drive even. But not sure how long to keep it. Tyres are criminally expensive.

My company mileage is not massive, and traditionally wouldn’t be in clear cut company car bracket. Just that I’ve got round to thinking that the traditional recent choices might have changed.

Check out the Volvo V50 Smart Drive. Very low emmissions. I’m hoping to get one.

Be sure to check what rate your company pays for private mileage first too. Depending on your ratio of private to business mileage mpg may be less of an issue.

rate your company pays for private mileage first

You can’t get paid a “rate” for your private mileage, surely… Some companies pay for fuel, so effectively your private mileage is covered by their fuel payments.

Where ever I’ve worked, for using your personal vehicle on work, you either get paid:

a) 40p per mile as allowed under tax allowances
b) a fuel rate of somewhere between 7p and 12p per mile – with the balance to 40p being claimed back from HMRC up to the stated mileage limit (10000?), then balance to 25p/mile.

For a company vehicle you should be able to claim back the fuel cost rate – ie 7-12p depending on car, fuel, engine size, company policy…

Unless, of course, work pays for all fuel -but I believe that is adifferent tax regime again???

Yep, private fuel = a bigger self-cert tax bill.

I’m lucky that I get both a company car & a fuel card..
I use the fuel card all the time, wether it’s personal milage or work related.

I just have to pay the tax of it as a benefit in kind.

1 trip to the fuel pump, and it’s paid for itself.. 🙂

Im not sure many companies would go for a 2nd hand car on a company car scehem would they?

Probably not, they might take up a lease on your behalf. I own the business so I can do it whatever way suits me.

The private fuel allowance on a company car is a very hefty proportion of the BIK – nearly half from what I can remember. If you don’t do a lot of private miles it might be cheaper to just buy your own fuel for private use.

Sorry what I meant was if your company pays a rate of say 10p per mile rather than say 20p per mile for a private car then you are still worse off even though you can claim 40% of the difference back from taxman

7-12p per mile would only be OK if you were driving a 4 cylinder diesel I would say but it also depends on your car allowance I spose

Also it might be influenced by how secure your job is in these difficult terms. It could be argued that a company car is better in that you just hand it back with no outstanding debt if you lose your job. Of course that also means you then have no car…

I had a company car previously, but now have my own (as I don’t work there any more!)

For me, the ease and convenience of being able to just get, for example, a set of tyres replaced, would have me jumping back into a company car, given the chance.

Was a company car driver some years ago but opted out of the scheme for a cash allowance. I bought a just 3 year old Volvo which I ran into the ground over a 5 year period at roughly 40,000 miles a year. However due to the price of purchasing & more importantly running a car I’m opting back in. Looking at a diesel Mondeo estate, reasonable MPG and big on space for bikes, plus I’m old enough not to worry what type of car I drive.

i have a skoda octavia vrs tdi estate as a company vehicle it costs me around £70 a month in tax as i have declared that i will use it for personal use and it is not a pool car. when i drive my car for personal
use i pay my company 13p a mile for which i need to keep milage records,and surrender each month.This does away with the bik tax as you are declaring all the miles for business and personal use .

Tell your company to provide a pool car which you can collect and return to their office each day!

I spent years paying through the nose for vehicles i did not like and that were overwhelmingly for the benefit of my employer.

The last government seemed to think the driver was the polluter and so penalised us heavily. It was infact the employer that was doing the polluting!

This was another exmple of the left wing politics of envy, but they killed the golden goose which they themselves had reared decades earlier!? Company cars were introduced as a way of increasing real incomes for higher grades, but without affecting inflation. Wind forward two or three decades and businesses were using cheap cars to move staff around primarily for their advantage. No lower grade was given a car as a perk, it was a neccessary tool of the trade!

Labour shot themselves in the foot because they lost a fortune in tax receipts 8-9 years ago when they changed the tax system to one based on emissions. The only sweetner was a fuel card, but this ewas taxed as if one was doing 14000 private miles a year. That was the break even point. I wasn’t doing a tenth of that mileage. Good old financially clueless Labour politicians!

Buying my own car was barely worth it too, but after years of paying tax, I was then getting money back form HMRC for mileage. How dumb was that political move!

The company I worked for was just tight, especially considering how generous they were with higher grades who didn’t actually need a vehicle for business.

My advice is to find a job where you dont need to drive. Much better for your health and wellbeing! You might also enjoy private driving a bit more.

Spooky, I have been thinking the same over the last week. I get car allowance but now having spent £200 on front tyres and £285 on a service and filled up with £80 fuel and drive a 6yr old car that I can only just afford to run on my allowance, I am going to see about getting back into a company car (with fuel card) this week. It also helps that the car list now has other makes on it and not just Fords.

I’ve had a company car for years presently I have an Audi A4 Avant with a fuel card and pay for private mileage at the HMRC rate of 12p a mile which currently works out pretty even with the actual fuel cost let alone the cost of using the car so works in my favour as far as I am concerned.

I have no option to opt out so stuck with whatever system is put in place, I will be changing it in November and I will be getting whatever is the best on emmisions v costs price on our companies limited car choice.

I would definatley prefer to have a company car and not worry about running costs, for example 4 tyres for my A4 cost £880 last month 😯

Company is in the process of changing lease provider at the mo, so no decision to make right now. MOT bill for 4 tyres, exhaust, pads & discs has left me gutted – and it will be insurance time in a month or two…

Thinking of passat sized estate or premium hatch. Diesel for tax / fuel costs, needs to be nice to drive / nice to be in…

Bluemotion Passat or Golf sound near the mark. Tick most boxes, but bland???

(mind you, don’t know what’s on the list yet)

if I need to go anywhere on business, they either hire me a car for the day(s) that I need it, or if there’s a pool car I use that; any fuel I put into it I claim back on expenses.

At our place you only get a company car at director level or if you’re a sales rep. Keeps the company car bill down, and anyone needing a car for business use for the odd day gets a hire car – the level of which can vary dramatically. Before he was made a director, my manager once ended up with a Fiat Seicento, while I’ve had Rover 75, Alfa 159 and Vauxhall Corsas

No chance of choosing a new company motor from watching Top Gear …

If you want to drive anything quick, you are probably better getting it yourself.

Not necessarily. The HMRC company car website suggests that a pre-1997 RX7 entirely paid for by my company (around £6k for a good one) and with all fuel paid for by my company (which it needs, at an average of 18 mpg) would give me a total tax liability of around £6300. At 20%, this is about £100 a month. Granted, this would all hinge on finding an RX7 registered as a 1300cc as opposed to a 2600cc on the V5C, but that’s not hard.

EDIT: even registered as 2600cc/rotary-engine, it still calculates to about £300 a month (in the 20% income bracket). For a rocket-ship car, all the fuel, all the maintenance bills and the insurance? My missus paid nearly that much last year to run her Ford Ka.

I’ve not had a company car since 2003!

Current company pay 17p / mile and I reckon my Octavia costs 11 or 12p. That only leaves me with 5p to cover tyres, servicing etc..I still get my allowance but that pays for the loan.

Not much but my car of past used only to cost 9p/mile. It was a Mondeo and was a bit more frugal than the Octavia but not that much.

I’m now a BA frequent flyer as well as a frequent train user when I can. Manchester to Gatwick with BA, if i can book early enough is £39 each way, and you get breakfast on it! First class to London by train the other day was only £59 each way. It was £30 cheaper than second class ticket for same journey!!

keep the mileage down and I’ll end up with a car thats’s still worth something too. 😀

Currently averaging 20,000 a year with this tactic but that used to be nearer 30,000.