Company car or cash allowance?

My employer has given me a choice between a company car (Ford Focus 1.5TDCi Titanium) or an annual allowance of £3420. I do around 12k a year of which just under half is business mileage.

After doing the sums I reckon I could save around £2k over 3 years by buying a nearly new car and running it myself.

To make the sums work I need a car that depreciates heavily in its first year then slows. So far a 1.0 EcoBoost Focus Zetec fits the bill. Have you any suggestions of other cars to look at or would you just take the company car?

Asked on 1 March 2015 by will86

Answered by Honest John
The problem with this sort of calculation is the basic figures you rely on. If it's the fuel economy of the Fiesta, reckon on a real average 45.6mpg, not the ECDC figure of 65.7mpg. And work from the new discounted price of the car, which is likely to be about £11,000, not the list price of maybe £14,000. Remember, also, that you pay BIK tax on the list price of the car, even though no one ever paid that much for it.
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