£400 a year maintenance sounds cheap.

I gotta be honest, isn’t this the whole point of PCP and the Allowance.. in that if you structure it correctly it should be net nil to you.

Obvz the BIK is in there somewhere to consider don’t forget.

I thought you were only allowed to claim 10k miles at 45p and anything over that was at 25p per mile.

Or is that just the tax relief rule?

Those are HMRCs rules, yes the PPM allowance does go down, has done for about 10yrs IIRC.. (it’s been a while since I’ve claimed mileage)

£400 a year maintenance sounds cheap.

In the 2.5 years I’ve owned the car I’ve had one service costing £400. It was serviced the day before I picked it up foc.

Merc E320 cdi class estate here.

202,000 on the clock. Owned from new. Only got pricey to run after 160k

Between 160k and 200k it had –

New shocks all round ( air suspension on rear ) £1000
Wheel-bearing and engine mounts £700
Ball joints & track rod ends £500
Turbo £1500
Odds and sods £300

Plus the usual servicing, brakes and tyres.

As we’d spent so much on it we figured we’d replaced pretty much all the running gear so we then paid £1500 to tidy up the paintwork, replace minor damaged trim and refurb the wheels.

So its had best part of £6k spent on it in the last 40k miles but … it now looks and drives like a three year old car.

Bit of gamble but hoping for another 200,000 miles out it without too much hassle. We know this car’s history so buying another used one is also a gamble.

A new one is £50k and depreciates at £800 a month or silly money on PCP

On balance 200,000 miles is not a big deal.

Overall the service will cost you more though, a set of tyres isn’t cheap (my 125d just needed new @£750!)
Still, it’s a pretty cheap way to run a car

So you get the 45p/25p mileage allowance on top of your car allowance?

If so your quids in! I can’t understand what all the fuss is about.

In the 2.5 years I’ve owned the car I’ve had one service costing £400. It was serviced the day before I picked it up foc.

Fair enough. I do about 15k a year so need a couple of services in any one 12 month period, maybe a tyre or two.

525d touring (E39) 234k. Still on original clutch etc and turbo. Have said it now.

So you get the 45p/25p mileage allowance on top of your car allowance?

No car allowance, just 45/25p rate per mile.

I’ve got a 135k 335d got it with 90k on it 6 years ago.

Fault wise I had to replace the turbo actuators/vac switches, both thermostats (main and egr) shocks and springs all round and the just has the abs pump/actuator unit reconditioned. These seem to be common faults but not mega money if you can DIY or don’t go to BMW. The rest is usual servicing and wear and tear.

Been happy with it, was only planning on keeping it 3 years….

Sorry to drag this up again but…

You get a car allowance and 45p per mile fuel rate? That’s pretty good. I get car allowance plus something like 15p per mile, then obviously claim the tax relief back on the difference. Although I now do pretty much 0 business miles a year.

Pushing it a bit that, a brand new 320d M-Sport tourer is just over £35k and that’s a bloody good spec

He did say with a good engine 😆

On a more serious note, I’d be tempted to hang on to what you’ve got because it’s largely a known quantity. You can never be sure of how something else has been treated.

Our 330 (E90) had done just over 90k when we sold it and it was a good car. We did just over 30k in the car and other than consumables (tyres, discs, pads) and routine servicing it only had one issue – VANOS actuattors failed. It was a much better made car than my previous E46 which at similar mileage (60 – 100k) went through a new rad, water pump, thermostat, rear shocks, rear spring sets x 2, brake lines, front wishbones, rear bushes plus tyres etc.

It’s possible to be a good high mileage car, but there are some shit heaps out there. Ex-company cars may not be the best thing – as mentioned previously lease companies keep maintenance to a minimum (i.e. only replce if something is shagged) plus not many company car drivers I know really give a damn about the car.

Oh but hold on:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-2007-passat-se-saloon-20tdi

😀