Hi everyone
Got a bit of a dilemma coming up and I thought I'd seek opinions.
At the minute I have a (company) Focus 2.0 tdci Titanium, around 2 1/2 years old on a contract hire. Annual mileage approx 40,000. It needs to go back soon (slightly earlier than planned as mileage is over the contract amount). I own the company. Or some of it at least!
I'm not sure what to do next in terms of replacing it. In terms of requirement, no smaller than a Focus type car and quite happy with bigger. Would also prefer to be moving upwards in quality as 40k a year is a long time sat in the car - a while ago it looked like my car was going to go to a new employee and I was looking seriously at an A5 3.0tdi or a BMW 123d (very different cars I know but I liked them both for different reasons!). However the credit crunch may have put a bit of a stop to this. Insurance costs are not a concern as I have any car cover under our fleet policy.
I've liked having the contract hire as everything is covered & service is very good, but it's not good for the high mileage and also I suspect quite overpriced at the moment due to uncertainty of used values in 2 or 3 years time. So that's not the way to go I suspect. Also I don't want to get stuck with anything for that length of time that is not my A5 or 123d or similar!!
But I suspect the best thing to do would be to get hold of some money and be a cash buyer for a car.
Should this be nearly new - keep hearing ads on the radio for ex dem (I think) Vectra 1.9cdti 150 SRis for £8k ish - surely a year later with 40k extra miles it won't have lost a fortune - or a bit older? Have seen almost new 123ds for £16-17k which while tempting I don't want to tie up that much money at the moment as company cash flow is iffy to say the least.
Or I can do long term rentals on a similar Vectra for about £400 per month all in, for this level of mileage, with servicing etc - ideal as on one month rolling contracts and predictable cost but probably a bit more than the depreciation on something else.
Really what I'm looking for I guess is the cheapest way to do 40k per year motoring for say up to a year. Don't mind too much how but reliability is absolutely imperative hence only looking at nearly new. And the nicer the car the better. The theory then being that in a year the economy might be a bit more stable and I can get something better. I am only in my early 20s so slightly concerned about image but not overly.
I've not owned my own car for some time and never for very long (my record for ownership is 10 months) so not too up on the pitfalls! Really I would love to hang on to the Focus for a bit longer but the lease company are not prepared to let me buy if off them.
Any thoughts? I know really I need to do some research in terms of costs, economy, etc but just looking for any bright ideas really before I get down to the job. Sorry for the long post!
Thanks in advance
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Have at look a SAAB 93 very comfortable cars for that kind of mileage - the click through to the Motorpoint deals on the link above which has some interesting prices.
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I guess the first question is whether it might be better to keep the money in the business?
I think the lease market is in a bit of disarray at the moment - some have adjusted rates to cater for predicted lower final values, some haven't. I used to find I could get BMWs quite cheaply. It might be worth seeing what Ling (dragons den) can get her hands on at the moment and whether any of them appeal? Her website is worth a visit anyway - lingscars.
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A few yrs back a "business friend" ran rougly 60 cars renewing every 3 yrs - a lot of money on lease every month and 20 x renewals / yr.
Got him off buying new as the cars had a mostly a rough life and high mileage.
Advised him to buy 6 mth old ex-day rentals at about 60% of the list price and lease these over 28/30 mths - keeping them in warranty. Saved about 50% the monthly payments.
Buying @ £8K instead of £12K was the saving and the re-sale prices of under £2K were just the same - no complaints from employees as they got a "new car" every 2.5 yrs rather than 3 yrs
I got him to swap high mileage cars with low mileage to even the costs over the fleet. He also paid bonuses to drivers with no accidents and for returning "good quality cars" even with high mileage - £200 M&S Vouchers for their wife or GF made sure the cars were washed at sometime.
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One of my good friends is a UK sales manager, and due to the mileage he covers, regularly changes his cars, always for a different make / model. His most frequent comment on the Saab 9-3 that he ran last year for a time was about how comfortable it was. He regularly does 200 - 400 miles a day, is 6ft tall, and 15 stone ( perils of the lifestyle! ) Also, the Saab got many "car park" comments versus the usual BMW / Ford / Vauxhall / Toyota / VW / etc company transport.
Without research, i suspect that leasing would be better than buying your own car, with your own cash, considering the mileage you do, even though there will be a shortage of used '58 - '09 reg cars in a couple of years,
I have recently read that leasing and hire companies are now extending their contract periods due to the uncertainty of retained values over the next year or so.
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Falkirk Bairn - have you a link to a site for day-rental sales?
Hire companies in Jersey etc were always a good bet, but that appears to ahve dried up in last 12 months.
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