OTOH if I had to buy a car for £19K for work, I'd invest the 19K and get a different job. Make around £2k a year very easily on that, rather than losing several grand a year on a depreciating box. Ultimately you do pay for the car somehow or another - income tax directly, and money the company is spending on the car rather than paying you.
I have been very disappointed with the 2.0 TDI. Nowhere near as good as it should have been.
Lets hope the long overdue change over to common rail improves matters.
Absolutely yes.
Yes, that's right. No Alfa Romeo V6 is as quick as the four pot, in at least one reality. :)
I don't see any comments, but the 2.0 TDI *does* vibrate. It's subtle but it does it. Oh and it also makes a racket. Any claims that you have to look at the tacho to see if it's running will be met with derision.
SteveH needs to try the Accord 2.2 diesel as something that comes closer to being unaudible.
Woah Pikey Pete, stop that at once. You're implying that you actually go places. In different cars. And have experience of such things.
Rather than reading about them and spouting forth opinions that are merely recycled from elsewhere.
You know, if I were forced to drive 50,000 miles a year in a Passat, I'd quit. I suspect SteveH would do the same if it weren't for the job being cushy.
I chose to drive ~25,000 miles a year in whatever I run, which for the time being is a banger diesel Saab.
Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Doki, managed to produce the following words of wisdom
My view exactly.
I have no problem with company cars if they're necessary, but very few of them are.
There is no other country that has a company car culture like the UK, yet they don't grind to a halt because people drive older cars.
I've had company cars, I've had lots of the bloody things, but given a choice of a company car or the cash alternative I'd always go for the cash. "Assumed prestige" doesn't count for shit.. Ok, if someone drives a Vectra out of choice I'll think they're a bit of a spanner, but it makes f*ck all difference as to what kind of person they are - other than they bought a Vectra, so don't talk to them about cars.
Whereas if some "suit, shades and hair gel" type rolls up in their leased company car I'll be more likely to give them a wide berth. They're trying to sell something, and they're going to try and sell it because they've been threatened with an Almera if their sales don't improve.
I'd chat happily to the bloke in the Vectra, but the suit in the company motor would be told, reasonably politely, to piss off.
The 2.0 TDis are beginning to suffer from issues with the emissions system. Issues that the main agents don't seem able to sort. Chap I spoke to this afternoon has a 3 month old Golf GT TDi 2.0 and VW have offered to replace it with anything other than a 2.0 TDi because they can't fix it.
AOL.
Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate DervMan, managed to produce the following words of wisdom
Indeed. They're better than the 1.9, but that was hardly smooth.
Not tried one, so I won't comment.
Ooops, sorry.
My opinions are my own, I don't lease them.
My 'non business" cars do around 15k a year if you add them all up.
Say it with a brummy accent I dare you.
Apart from needing a physically longer space, I've found that the Rangie, and the Celsior have been the two easiest cars I've ever had to park.
Even easier than the Saab convertible with the roof down.
I used to use Thameslink to Kingscross, or Virgin to St-Pancras.
Good for you.
I wasn't.
I'll explain.
It cost me £170 a month just to have it . In addition to that, I was spending £240 a month on fuel (including my own running) and getting back £70. I make that £340 a month net cost for having a free car.
For running my own car, I get paid 40p a mile which now equates to £280 a month to me. It will cost me £120 a month for fuel now I'm on LPG. Obviously I have to pay for the thing - £135 / Month - so total cost to me is £255 per month less the £280 is £25 quid to the good.
Yes, I know, tax, insurance, MOT. I make that about £600 a year or £50 a month. My net gain of £25 a month has become a cost of £25 a month.
£25 a month is way better than £340 - for the free car. It also allows a bit for any repairs, and I like cars and fixing them.Ok, it's a depreciating asset, but it's just a Golf and won't ever cost a fortune to fix or maintain.
Fair enough I don't get a new car fed to me every 3 years, but I can deal with that. As a matter of fact none of us in this job have a car from them any more - we all take the money.
For very obvious reasons.
For that kind of mileage, I can see it working. Especially if you have your own older car of some description.
If I opted out, I'd have to have a car of the same type as I get from the company - which would mean up to 5 years old, large saloon / estate or hatch. Can't do much about this, as the stipulations are very sensible, really.
The cash would be to cover the running costs of the car, with fuel paid at more or less cost.
Of course, your calculations are either based on something expensive with a stupid tax banding, or are based on a higher rate tax payer - if you are, then it puts quite a different slant on things, 'cos a 500 quid / year pay rise could leave you worse off.... strange as it may sound.
I just can't see any way to make opting out work for me - especially given that it's essentially a business tool. However, not having to shell out for the general expenses and having to spend time fettling my own car is a huge bonus to me. Changing brake pads on a Sunday morning in mid-December isn't something I want to get into doing again - neither is having to plan my maintenance around when my local guy can do it or when I have time for him to do it.
Cool. Shiny blue R32 it is then...
My calculations are based on SA 53 KSX - the Passat TDI 4Motion, the one wot I used to run.
A lot of the chrome on the Celsior is blacked out (like on the door frames). The japs don't do excessive blinging on executive cars. They leave that to europeans and americans.
Yeah, I know I'm resurrecting this thread but I was on holiday...
I'm going to/from Cannon Street and the (few) direct trains to Ashford are very crowded indeed. Well, the 19.14 isn't but I like to get home shortly before I have to leave.
In fact I'm currently trying to work out if I'll take the train for a week or chance it on a bike, given that I'm more than slightly jetlagged...
Charing Cross is only a few minutes away by tube, and you always get a seat whether heading into or returning from London - on the way out it then fills up at Waterloo East and London Bridge (although not all stop at the latter), but not your problem given you've already had your pick of the seats.
Funny you should have resurrected this, only I've gone the other way this week - no, not turned gay... although some tend to associate a man in leathers with activities normally conducted up on Hampstead Heath amongst other places.
No... I've gone out and bought another VFR750 (1), and started going into work by bike.
I'm saving about 50 minutes each way on average, although fuel stops and the fact I need to sling on protective gear probably eats a tiny bit into that.
Unlike some, I know my limits and will be getting back on the train when it starts getting icy etc, but for now I'm actually feeling quite liberated by the fact I leave work when I want to rather than when a train is allegedly going to be available to cart me home, and I'm no longer being subjected to fuckwits shouting incessantly into their mobiles, the stench of manky coffee (2) and toilets that can't have been cleaned for a decade, or ignorant 'tards battering my shoulder with their bag as they shuffle past my seat on the train.
Good it is... heated grips help too.
In a weird turn of fate, City of Westminster council rather considerately put in a brand spanking new bike parking bay almost opposite my office only yesterday, so I'm even more of a happy bunny than I already was.
Another thing I have discovered in this brave new world of travel:
Avoid the A13 / Limehouse link, if you prefer your enemy not appear in the form of two wheels - this route seems to attract the most impatient bikers out there, and I've found that skirting along the South Bank along Jamaica Street / Deptford / Greenwich, whilst about the same in terms of journey time, is far less 'interesting' when it comes to the possibility of involuntarily becoming enrolled in someone elses game of skittles.
(1) A mere 126k from new, and seems to be as mechanically sound as my last one which had something like 32k under it. (2) I can't stand the taste or smell of coffee at the best of times - the breed dished up at stations seems to be even more offensive than the stuff encountered elsewhere.
-- JackH
Only that this would mean I'd have to also buy a tube ticket on top of my train ticket, which I don't need at the moment. Not to mention that this adds to the journey time. Again.
Good on you. I actually decided that I was awake enough to take the bike myself.
That's pretty good - it's a bit less for me (about 30 minutes each way, I'd say) but still worthwhile. And as you say, the freedom to (mostly) turn up and especially leave in your own time is worth it, too.
Well, I'm expecting to be on the train in December and January, but I'll make that dependent on the weather...
I should probably give that a try - I tend to use the A13 out to Blackwall Tunnel on the way home as I found that works best for me, but I'm still up for improving on that.
Well... I had a think about it - you can get the Charing Cross train and then change at London Bridge - means you have to stand for the last bit into Cannon Street, but it sounds like you do that anyway most of the time.
Or... you can walk from London Bridge - I got so pissed off with the cramped stand when I've had to change to get to Charing Cross, that I walked the whole way to work from London Bridge one morning - took me about 30 mins, but quite enjoyed it.
Good stuff.
I have mostly decided I need to slow down a bit - watching the post box with interest for the next 14 days...
The trains to my neck of the woods invariably get heldback when they divide them at Ashford, so that adds a few mins on... that, and I walk to the station.
Same here... that, or not having a licence might not help, either. ;-)
Old Kent Road is s**te as well... I'm mostly dipping over Waterloo Bridge and then doing the route above at the mo - just seems that little bit less fraught.
Next thing I need to sort is the suspension - feels a bit too rigid at the mo.
-- JackH
That's not the problem - the issue is the other way (Cannon Street - Ashford).
Oops.
Well, I tried walking to the station but that's about half an hour each way, and that's a bit too long for my liking. And the busses are pretty useless.
The latter doesn't stop other people :)
Actually I did try that, and it's quite nice compared to the A13.
Isn't it just...
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