Ok, time has come to replace the Mondeo Estate, the only company car options are a Golf 2.0 GT TDI (too small) or an Estate Passat.

Passat will cost me £600 in personal usage, plus about £1000 in additional tax a year.

+ maintenance, servicing, tyres, insurance, VED etc all included.

– can’t have any modifications, which includes no tow bar, which means no tow bar mounted bike rack (4 bikes), which means no family cycling holidays.

Alternatively, I can take £6000 as the cash equivalent and sort it all out myself.

Which I’m tempted to do.

Thinking of something a little smaller than the Mondeo/Passat, e.g. 3 Series Touring, Avensis Estate, Skoda Octavia, Focus Estate etc.

Possibly, going cheap and spending about £6k on the car (probably rules out the 3 series as I’d like something less than 6 years old).

Doing about 25k miles a year.

What would the Singletrack massive do?

What restrictions do you have on a self-purchased car on allowance? Plenty of places require <5 years, which gets costly even buying at 3 years old and changing every other year. There are a few expensive ways for modern diesels to go wrong too. £6k before tax works out at about £310 a month in your pocket, to buy, insure, service, etc – although hopefully you make something on the mileage rate to help. It doesn’t cover a lot of car though.

I can really see the appeal of a new car every 3 years, fully maintained and insured, no worries about leaving it in dodgy carparks or big bills to fix things. Especially if you rely on it for your work and spend a lot of time in it.

The modification thing surprises me, our scheme allows it as long as you ask, pay for it yourself and remove before it goes back. Can you get a no-bumper-cut detatchable one for the Passat? Would they really know? And can you get 4 bikes on the roof?

I’ve got a company car through Lloyds Autolease (i think) and i asked about fitting a tow bar.
No problems, as long as fitting and towing doesn’t cause additional maintenance problems, explained it would be for a bike rack and they sent a letter giving permission.

I have had company cars for the last 15 years or so, main reason i took the company car option rather than buying my own was the mileage i was doing. Covering 30 – 40k a year meant at least 2 services a year, 2 sets of tyres and brake pads, a set of brake discs every 12-18 months, a chipped windscreen repalcement approx every 2 years, shock change every 24-30 months. Residuals would have been pretty poor after 4 or 5 years. I know i pay a lot in tax having the car and fuel option, but i see it as worry free motoring, with no nasty financial bills if something breaks down.

I used to have a company car and now no longer do due to moving jobs. Running a 56 plate 318i Tourer cost me approx 5k last year (new clutch, tyres and major services) so I would go back to a company car like a shot. Pass at Estate comes with roof bars so easy to carry bikes.

An alternative could be getting another carbon a PCP – should be able to choose whatever options youlike

Key thing is what mileage rate will you get for your business miles (both for a company car and private car), and how many will you do pa – then you can really understand the costs/income.

Best is to set up a spreadsheet with all in, and then once you’ve the full picture make your call.

Does look like a tow bar can be fitted to the passat without cutting the bumper….