I am looking to take on a new salesman for my business at the moment and will need a car for them as they will cover the whole country.
My first instinct is to go an lease a Mondeo TDCi but as I haven't been trading long and don't have audited accounts yet leasing at reasonable cost would be tricky, so really I'm going to have to buy it.
It really needs to be brand new, 100bhp+ diesel engine but ideally more, have a decent sized boot, decent kit and be comfortable as it'll do at least 35k a year. Good fuel economy and reasonably priced main dealer servicing is important and it will quite likely be used to tow a ligh trailer at some stage.
Tricky bit is the money, an absolute max of £15k but ideally something around £13-£14k would be easier to swallow.
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First things that spring to mind are a citreon C5, Pug 407, Renault Laguna, Skoda octavia or a Toyota Avensis. All of which are available for well less than £15k and fir the bill you've described.
I'm sure people will soon come along saying X is a bad car so buy Y instead but have a look and see which ones take you fancy, try a couple of test drives then decide which one fits the bill the best.
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Er... how about a Mondeo tdci LX then? From £12,424 as a pre-reg from www.ukcarbroker.co.uk for the 115 bhp Stage III.
That said, he'd probably rather have the Euro IV version to keep his BIK low, and 130 bhp wouldn't hurt, which would take the car to £13,212, plus possibly metallic.
If reliability is everything then a Euro IV (I think) Avensis T2 D4D is £13,570 with 114 bhp from the same people, or ask Mr Haddock.
List price is lower on the Avensis, which means less BIK liability, as are CO2 emissions, but the Mondeo is quite a bit quicker. Depreciation will be heavy on either of these, but I'd expect the Toyota to do slightly better.
Neither of these is exactly loaded with spec, and you might feel that you should go up to the next trim level, but they both have all the basics - air con, CD player, electric mirrors, etc.
Have a look at the company car guide on the Toyota website.
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Avensis T2 spec isn't too bad but it's hardly generous, if you do a bit of shopping round though you should be able to find a T3 for about £14.5K. I personally would go with a T3-x but with the mileage he's doing a T3-S with it's sat nav could be useful.
And yes it is Euro IV compliant so only 15% BIK
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I think the key thing here is that Quinny isn't buying his own car, but a company car for an employee.
As such, it's more of a business decision and, whilst I drive a French car, I'm not sure I'd be willing to run my business around one, even though my own experience of my car's reliability has been very good indeed. Maybe I'm being irrational, but that's just my thought.
As for the Skoda, again it's a car I'd be very happy indeed to own, but I'm not sure I'd want to be offering a key employee of my new business venture a Skoda as a company car. If he's sensible, business focused and knowledgeable, he'll have no problems, but sales people and customers can sometimes be image conscious and reluctantly, I'd be nervous about what a Skoda would say about my business to the wrong type of person...
As for sat nav, assuming the sales person will have a company phone, I'd get the T3-X rather than the S, plus a smart phone to run TomTom Mobile which, by the time the recruitment process has run its course, will be out and should be about £200, leaving him free to enjoy the bells and whistles of the T3-X.
Or of course I could just take the view that the car is just a business tool and the T2 or LX are more than adequate for the job.
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As such, it's more of a business decision and, whilst I drive a French car, I'm not sure I'd be willing to run my business around one,
Actually having read the full title properly and realising he wants it to be reliable strike the pug, citroen and renault from my original list!
*Ducks and grabs flak jacket in preparation of oncoming onslaught from C5 and Laguna drivers*
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For some reason I thought Mondeo's were dearer than £15k brand new, but apparently not. Might get myself a new Zetec-S and give him mine to run into the ground :)
Seems there will be more choice than I imagined.
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New Octavia sounds perfect.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Have you considered a van?
You say you want a big boot and it's likely to tow a trailer at some stage.
You can pick up a brand new Vauxhall Vivaro SWB 2700 1.9 CDTi 100PS for £10195 + VAT at the moment from www.pentagon-vauxhall.co.uk (roughly SWB Transit sized)
They're nice vans, 6 speed gearbox, common rail engine, and you can add elec packs or CD or air con too as options. 120PS version available too.
I know nothing about company vehicle tax so there may well be some financial reason against buying a van, or maybe it wouldn't make the right impression for your business, but I thought it worth a mention.
PP
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Just had a couple of thoughts - VW bora's are pretty cheap now and in my opinion looks better than either the new or old golf.
Also the Rover 75's have been going very cheaply just recently.
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Quinny, it seems to me that DavidHM was closest the mark with his suggestion that image might be important to your salesperson.
So why not draw up a shortlist of cars which you would be prepared to buy, and offer the employee a choice from that list?
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Can I be your new salesman?
I have had plenty of experience buying and selling cars?
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For what it's worth, some observations based on too many experiences of employing and working with sales people and the very emotional issue of their cars:
1. If he's going to be covering at least 35K a year and unless you are paying him well over the odds, you should want him to enjoy driving the car. Getting himself out of bed before the first sparrow breaks wind to get to early morning appointments 200 miles away and then home late in the evenings in a car he doesn't like and then hates will soon be bad for his morale. His business performance will eventually suffer.
2. I assume you are going to put him on some sort of "trial period" say 3 months? Don't buy the car until after this time and you know he's absolutely the right person for you at this critical stage of your business. In the meantime maybe involve him in the car selection process as NoWheels has suggested and consider renting short term so he can maybe try out the cars from your short list - Mondeo, Avensis, Octavia (based on reliability, cost of ownership) - the rates are quite expensive but you are only committed to one month at a time. If it does not work out for you both during the trial you are not stuck with a depreciating asset that the next person might not want to drive. If it does work out, buy the car he prefers and he will thank you for it.
3. Does it have to be new? Car supermarkets have nearly new cars of this type at prices well below all the discounted broker new prices so you could save several thousands ? the car will after all be worth very little in 4 years time with 150,000 or more miles on it.
4. Give him your car with a promise of a new one in 6 or 12 months time when he makes his targets and treat yourself to the new car :-)
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Check out www.virgincars.co.uk and click on special offers.
You can scroll down to a nearly new Ford Mondeo 2.2TDCI 155 ST with Sat Nav (ex-management cars?) and metalic for £16,599 (save £5377 on new!). I know it is slightly over budget but as a car for you whilst the sales guy has yours it is hard to beat!
Any good for you?
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Am I the only one who feels that society has gone the full circle now and most people actually realise how good a car the Skoda is?
When I hear of someone wanting a car to do 35000 a year, the Octavia diesel is the first one that would spring to mind. And it would remain there until someone could factually prove that another car is better.
Taxi drivers usually aren't too far off the mark, they need a car that is never off the road, economical and as cheap to run as possible. Most taxis round my way are now Octavias.
If a salesman came to me driving an Octavia I would think this guy is switched on, and so is his company. If he came to me in a Corolla or Avensis or whatever, well, it just wouldn't "say" anything to me at all.
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We have been over and over this 'image thing' with Skodas countless times before. Always it is a case of ''I don't have a problem with the image of a Skoda, it's other people that do''. Then again, I don't have a problem with French cars either.
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Good Citroens are very good - bad Citroens are very bad! Dealer support is crucial. I've been lucky with my dealer (they're on HJ's good garages list) but the complexity of the cars really needs someone who knows their onions.
The HDI has to be one of the best diesels around - there are still days when I find it hard to believe mine is diesel.In fact, the perception of it as 'a diesel' has gone right out of my mind. Great comfort and roominess are also key strengths.
Discounts on Cits are excellent - but beware tumbling depreciation. I tend to buy new then keep for yonks until depreciation has levelled off - but for this to be satisfying you must get all niggles sorted under warranty and drive the car carefully over its lifetime. This might be a consideration in your case if the driver isn't also owner.
Mondeo - great driver's car but probably less comfortable and roomy than C5.
Skoda - probably more reliable than anything French, but to my mind deadly dull.
Japanese - boringly reliable, but a bit like Skoda - no soul!
I suppose there are things like Vectras - but I don't know how good their diesels are.
Good luck with your choice!
Graeme
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Quinny - when you're interviewing your potential salespeople, ask them how they'd respond if they arrived in a Skoda and a customer queried or disparaged it.
If they can sell themselves effectively in such a situation, they should be equally good with your product or service.
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Having run my own TDCi 130 for 87k and nearly three years I would go for a Mondeo Zetec TDCi 130 5dr (the LX is fine though psychologically it is better that the sales guys thinks he is not being given the base model), Euro IV would benefit his BIK however I understand that the 3% benefit for Euro IV diesels will go next year so for the business, accounting for the Euro III being slightly cheaper and more economical, there is not much in it overall.
In a different direction I have noticed some great lease deals on Mazda 6's recently.
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Where have you seen the lease details of the Mazda 6 Cheddar?
I have a friend interested in buying one but he cannot see any great deals on either a new or nearly new one and it could be interesting to look at the alternative route of getting it.
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My sister in law has just been offered a new job which includes a car as part of the package. She has had Puntos for years as she only drives round town and has few long distance trips, but as she will now be driving every day she needs something a little larger, more comfortable and more powerful. She asked me what I would have if I were in her position and I had no hesitation in deciding on a new Skoda Octavia diesel.
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As purchase cost IS an issue, and image and relaibility may be, a 1 year old Rover 75 diesel looks a no-brainer to me.
madf
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Thanks for the advice guys.
I've seen some 7 month old, 8k miles Mondeo Zetec TDCi 130 Estates today for just under £11k - they're on Essex plates so they've probably come direct from Ford's own fleet. Decided that an Estate may be a better idea as the Mondeo seats aren't the easiest to come down in a hurry and on occasion it may be necessary to transport to some odd sized stuff.
Spoke to the guy I'm taking on and he's really not fussed what he gets as long as his 3 kids will fit in the back and its got air conditioning.
At least with the Ford I know there's a good dealer 2 miles down the road, they're dirt cheap to service and are reliable enough these days.
I'd have no problems with an Octavia, but the Estate isn't out yet.
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Why are Fords always dirt cheap to service and other makes appear not to be. Is it because there are so many around? There are lots of Volkswagens, Vauxhalls, Renaults and Peugeots around too. Why does every back street mechanic know Fords inside out but seems to find anything 'foreign' beyond comprehension?
As the owner of two Citroens, over a period of eleven years, I haven't found them to be difficult or expensive to maintain. Of course I don't use main dealers, having found a reliable independent garage, where the labour charges are not extravagant. I wouldn't have thought that Ford main dealers were any different from any other franchise but I stand to be corrected.
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Why does every back street mechanic know Fords inside out but seems to find anything 'foreign' beyond >> comprehension?
What you may find is that because every town has a ford dealer there is a higher number of Ford trained mechanics than any other manufacturer, they eventually leave main dealers and work for themselves in these little garages.
Also because there are so many ford's out there they work on them more than any other manufacturer
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Well, it was suggested that the local Ford main dealer would be cheap too. I can't understand why this should be the case.
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The loss of the 3% BIK advantage for Euro IV is only for cars built after April 2006 --- something like that. Anything built before the cut-off date still gets the 3% sdvantage.
Admittedly it doesn't really amount to a great deal but personally I waited for the EuroIV Mondeo and have been very happy... well apart from the EGR valve problem 10,000 miles ago.
Would I get another Mondeo... probably but this one is up for renewal in 2007 and that weired looking replacement might not take my fancy.
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