Using your own car for business

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DaiRees
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Using your own car for business

Post by DaiRees »

Due to a bit of a restructure (one of my fellow Managers getting sacked :roll: ) I'm going to have to spend a bit more time on the road. Now I've always used the car for business but I didn't often have to go all that far so my business mileage is typically only around a couple of hundred miles a month, not that bad. Already in the diary is an additional 300 mile round trip every month, that doesn't sound like a lot but it's over 3.5K a year (without any other trips), and I normally only average 12K/yr.

When I mentioned to a friend that I didn't want to be putting all this extra mileage on my own car he was like "Why? Your car was built for it". OK, that's a fair point, I'd rather sit on the motorway in my car than in most other stuff, but I want to keep the mileage down, keep the car in good nick and get at least 10 years out of it. I use the "fuel log" app to monitor my costs etc, so I know that the car is costing 24p/mile to run overall (not including depreciation) and we get 30p/mile reimbursement (so technically I'd "make" 6p per mile, but I'd have to up the mileage on the insurance etc).

We're looking into getting a pool car, but I don't personally think that's a very good option because it'll probably sit outside the office most of the time, then everyone would want it the same day! There'd obviously be a changeover point where it'd be cheaper for the company to rent and fuel up a car for the day, rather than pay reimbursement, I reckon that's around 250 miles a day. I think I'm gonna start doing that.

Or am I just being stupid here guys?
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Welly
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Welly »

30p/mile is sh*t. I understand the norm is 40p/mile up to 10K miles and 25p thereafter.

I would NOT travel for business at 30p, it's more than enough to cover the fuel but not enough for the additional servicing, tyres etc.

Here's a great* example for you and this actually happened to me 2 weeks ago: On a Friday afternoon I kinda agreed with my unequal Partner at work that I'd go 'spy' on our site workers to see if they were leaving early and ripping us off.....I shoot over the other side of town, 15 miles, in a bit of a rush and pushing my car a bit, low fuel light came on, anyhoo as I hid around the corner from these people I properly mashed my front wheel against a cobbled curb.....who pays for that? and it was purely down to business use not my own I wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Using the Hire Car example: if you did 300 miles @ 40p that's £120.00 expenses, a hire car would cost £60.00? and about £40.00 in fuel? most hire firms will drop the car off at the office etc.
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by DaiRees »

I know 30p is shyte (when I was a director I was getting 45p :roll: ) but it does cover the whole running costs of the car excluding depreciation.

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...but that's not the point. The point is the potential damage and general wear and tear as you said. I'm gonna rent cars for these trips I think.
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Welly »

My calculator just said you're getting 42MPG? thought you'd get more than that but I guess it's quite hilly there? or I'm wrong? if not you could well benefit from a remap? if you could squeeze another 10 mpg you'd save £400.00 per year. Or something.
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by DaiRees »

Yeah, average of 43.5, very disappointing if I'm honest. 58 on a run though so it must be the hills and the run to work being not quite long enough to warm it up fully. Also all the short journeys running around after the kids don't help :(
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Welly
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Welly »

You wanna try 25mpg :o
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by PeterN »

If its a diesel it should comfortably do 200-300,000 miles especially with motorway work. I rarely buy a car at under 150k, the two I have now have covered 230k (406) and 200k (C5). I have had a couple of XMs that have done 300k. Driven sensibly and serviced properly you wont wear them out.

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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Bailes1992 »

Personally it wouldn't bother me.
I bought a high mileage car knowing full well I was going to stick a load of mileage on it. If someone asked me to do a 1000mile round trip it wouldn't bother me one bit! My car is reliable, good on fuel and as its already got 145k on the clock then another thousand miles wouldn't go amiss. :lol:

That said if I had a new low mileage car with a manufacturers warranty then I would be a bit funny about it. At the end of the day if your car has an extra 10k in the clock due to business mileage and something fails at 66k and the wareenty ran out at 60k then you would be pretty pissed off.
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by PeterN »

If I had a new low mileage car I would be a nervous wreck. :?

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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by rwb »

It's 45p per mile before you have to pay tax on it.
It's a bit stingy to pay less. Some local authorities pay more -- while pleading poverty.

Resale value? That's a rich man's game :wink: :P

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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by D4B »

As I understand it, if your employer pays you less than 45p per mile, you can claim the difference back from HMRC

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-emplo ... fuel-costs
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Doggy »

I get 45p/mile, but only do a few hundred miles a year. For the occasional trips abroad etc. we use hire cars.

I'd be disappointed at 43.5 mpg.
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Welly »

PeterN wrote:If its a diesel it should comfortably do 200-300,000 miles especially with motorway work
I'm not so sure anymore, a 1.6 Diesel running 2.3 Bar of boost at over 200K miles? with a HP fuel rail :o
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Bailes1992 »

Yep I'm with Welly on this one!
A 2.0HDi or even the 1.8 diesel I have in my Mondeo would quite happily do 300k+! It's approaching 150k rapidly and yet still drives like it came out of the showroom!
I can't imagine such a small highly stressed engine lasting as well, especially in a heavy car like the Volvo!
I suspect with good quality fuel, 6,000mile/6 month oil changes and a fair bit of mechanical sympathy it would manage 300k but it wouldn't be able to take abuse like the 2.0HDi could!
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Re: Using your own car for business

Post by Welly »

The 2.0 HDi was massively de-tuned for reliability, I think this forum has proved this. It was made to be horribly abused in all kinds of countries, Idled for hours on end, Taxi'd, Motorway'd, you name it......

In the struggle to meet emissions targets now I think the days of monster-mileages are over but then the demographic of high-mile owners of older motors is fairly small in comparison to the very popular culture of lease-and-bin drivers so maybe manufacturers are not interested in longevity anymore, that's certainly the impression and experience I've got.
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