Car Options - Advice/Input Welcome

[northernladuk]

Of course, a real contractor shouldn't be financing a fancy new car but instead buying a cheap shed for cash

This is exactly what i thought and have done for the last 8 years.

[bobspud]

https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/support/incentives

Yeah looked at this earlier in the year the cars are nice but for the cost of the x you can get a very nice s-class

[bobspud]

Ermm - 45pp, for the first 10k.

And if you're happy with a Civic diesel, get a Toyota Hybrid instead and do the numbers again.

Whoops 40p

[PurpleGorilla]

You lost me a Civic diesel...

[WTFH]

So that we are not seen to be a bias website, other cars are available. (Ones that won't make you drive like your grandfather and require you to wear a hat/cap in the car at all times)

[bobspud]

i think the key to this is the amount of time you have been contracting. I wouldn't spend more than 3-5k on a car if you think you are only going to use it for this contract then start parking it in a train station or leaving it to rot outside your home.

Building the war chest up is a good piece of advice because having the choice to say Im done with this contract Im off or Im just not working this month, is the best model for working as a contractor. Every pound you accrue in debt makes it harder to say not interested to crap contracts...

trading in cars is a mine field because it works fine when the market is moving and they are not struggling for profit, but I have tell you when the market dies suddenly having a tulipe commodity tin box is a real pain in the arse to shift back to a dealer with a carpark full of stock just like it.

[LondonManc]

Get a cheap (£3k) Focus or Mondeo diesel for your business mileage; they're cheap as chips to maintain and will run well past 200k miles. Then you can be more fussy about the car that you actually want to drive when you're not working.

[drob1984]

Get a cheap (£3k) Focus or Mondeo diesel for your business mileage; they're cheap as chips to maintain and will run well past 200k miles. Then you can be more fussy about the car that you actually want to drive when you're not working.

Hi - thanks for all inputs so far. Having done the sums and thought about it some more, I am very much going to focus on buying the car outright with personal funds. Its a pity no-one can shine any light on the Employer 13.8% additional NI contribution.

As for what car, each of us have a preference and we go for cars we like. For me, I am less keen on Fords and French/Italian/German cars. I've owned and driven many different types of brands of cars and lived in a country where only 25% of the roads are surfaced. There, Toyota's and Subarus are king as they are the only regular vehicles which seem to stand up to the roads. I'll only buy Japanese cars as reliability is absolute for me. When I've had German cars, they've generally spent more time in a garage with a fault than being used. Never had any such issues with Toyota or Honda. Secondly I could never bring myself to buy an Audi, BMW or Mercedes - again all personal and don't want to distract from the original point of the thread.

So I'll likely be narrowing it down to a Toyota or a Honda. The last car that I really enjoyed driving and still miss to this day was actually a Civic Type-R.

[northernladuk]

Had a Civic for 4 years. Just got rid of it last week. Great car. Bit quirky to make it interesting but does the job. I'll be looking at another when I need a new runabout.

[LondonManc]

Hi - thanks for all inputs so far. Having done the sums and thought about it some more, I am very much going to focus on buying the car outright with personal funds. Its a pity no-one can shine any light on the Employer 13.8% additional NI contribution.

As for what car, each of us have a preference and we go for cars we like. For me, I am less keen on Fords and French/Italian/German cars. I've owned and driven many different types of brands of cars and lived in a country where only 25% of the roads are surfaced. There, Toyota's and Subarus are king as they are the only regular vehicles which seem to stand up to the roads. I'll only buy Japanese cars as reliability is absolute for me. When I've had German cars, they've generally spent more time in a garage with a fault than being used. Never had any such issues with Toyota or Honda. Secondly I could never bring myself to buy an Audi, BMW or Mercedes - again all personal and don't want to distract from the original point of the thread.

So I'll likely be narrowing it down to a Toyota or a Honda. The last car that I really enjoyed driving and still miss to this day was actually a Civic Type-R.

Each to their own on cars, I was more giving an example of what I'd consider doing (indeed, what I'll be doing at next car change). Happily agree that something like an Avensis would do a similar job to a Mondeo - they certainly seem to be the two private hire cars of choice round our way.