1) Insurance is included, but check if there's an excess - some companies have high excess or even only insure the cars 3rd party and then expect the employee to pay say £250 or £500 in the event they can't recover the cost from someone else (note that it's "can't recover", not "at fault" - so if someone hits and runs then it could be down to you).

2) I'm not really sure about this, but logically you would have to pay tax on the excess over the approved rate. The rates are reviewed very 6mths and large employers are apparently pushing HMRC to allow them to pay their employees more.

3) Assuming you're just on the basic personal allowance and have no other income you'll end up with approx a zero tax code, and as the 20% band is 0-£36K then you might just escape! As pointed out in the post above, it's only the excess of £36K that is taxed at 40%, s it will be neither here nor there for you.

4) Agree again with the above poster. 30K business miles, plus your private mileage, takes a heck of a lot out of a car. Do some comparisons at www.cashorcar.co.uk but my view was the peace of mind benefit of having a company car is worth at least £100/mth, so you're going to need a big allowance to make that worthwhile. The company can probably lease the Vectra's at quite a good rate and they're not going to want you to opt out if it's going to cost them more. Also, company cars are a really good deal for 20% tax payers - they cost 40% tax payers twice as much.

Opting out makes more sense for 40% tax payers. Two ways of doing it:
1) Fixed monthly allowance, varies a lot, but could be £300-£600 per month. This is effectively added to your salary and then taxed at your normal rate (so watch for breaching that 40% barrier!). On top of that there's usually a business mileage allowance of maybe 15p-20p. As it's your own car you can claim *tax* back on the difference between what you get paid and 40p for first 10K miles and 25p for all other mileage. So for 20% tax payer, getting 15p/mile you would get a tax refund of 5p for 10K miles and 2p for 10K+ (those refunds obviously double if you're paying tax at 40%, but then so does the tax on your monthly allowance).

2) Mileage only - the company may pay you the full 40p for 10Kmiles and 25p for 10K+ and those payments are tax free.

If you're sure of doing high mileage then 2) can work out best, depending on the monthly allowance offer you get. However be aware for both of them that the Government has suggested it might do away with the 40p rate, although there is much clamouring for it to be increased.

Goodyear Excellence or Pirelli P6 both cheapish but average tyre life, or Michelin Primacy HP at a higher price for great tyre life and better fuel economy too. All 3 fairly quiet on new shape Galaxy / S-Max, should be ok on old shape Galaxy as well assuming they do the correct sizes and load ratings.

I'm considering living quite close to the Business Park and just cycling it in ideally, but as you say the area around there isnt the most desirable place to live. I'll need to visit the area before making any decisions, but it seems like a no go from what people have said so far.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback, I'll factor these all in.

Binding front brakes and/or warped discs? Failing front wheel bearing/s? Front wheels out of balance?

Jack up front of car and check if wheels rotate freely to see if brakes are binding. If so, check if the brake calipers are frozen by removing them and gently pumping the brake pedal (not to the floor) and check if the pistons move in and out on both sides.

Also check the brake pads for unneven wear, check the discs for warping by measuring the side-to-side run-out when the hubs are rotated. Also check the brake pads can slide in and out freely when the caliper is mounted to the hub, and is not gettting stuck due to corrosion of the pad and/or sliding contacting surfaces.

If wheels are running freely, grab opposite sides of the front wheels and try to rock them from side to side and top to bottom to check if the wheel bearings are worn.

Funnily enough, I have been researching my family history in the USA by going through newspaper archives from early 1900's. A lot of the small town papers had columns describing motoring offences by local citizens. One of them (in 1910) was for a guy prosecuted for "1 armed driving" for which he was fined $2. Whether they meant he had only one arm, or was driving with one arm on the window ledge a la "Roman Holiday", they didn't say.