Company Car and Depreciation

[novanglus]

I'm entitled to a company car and have found out that after three years/80,000miles my company gives the option for me to buy the car from them.

I'm allowed to spend up to 18K and have a free choice on the make and model but it has to be a diesel hatch or estate.

Given this choice which car is likely to have the lowest residual value (and therefore cost me the least to buy from them)?

[__LEE__]

my guess on what you ask would be somthing like a vauxhall vectra.

Excuse me for being nosey but why would you want to do that?
I am assuming that after 3 years you will be buying the car for alot less that the current market value?
If not then why would you want to buy that car. If you do buy for less then surely you could make more on a car with a higher value..

I am not doubting your method as i do not know of your intentions.. .. just me being nosey:)

[kramer81]

maybe because the price he would pay in 3 years is relative to the market value of the car, so a car with high depreciation is best.

To be honest, I would have thought the best thing to do is to buy the car you like best. If you are planing on buying it then, given the relatively small saving you would make driving a car you don't like every day for 4+ years might not be worth it.

[novanglus]

Thanks for the replies, my logic behind the question is that after 3 years I'll be getting a new company car and will be able to buy my old company car from them for my partner.

Simply a case of better the devil you know. I'll be able to buy the car and will know what's already been fixed and what's likely to go wrong. I've been stung in the past by buying a second hand car with a dodgy past!

I've been told my company generally sells their old company cars at below market value to get them off the assest books so could end up getting a real bargain with a good history.

[__LEE__]

Nice one :)

[kramer81]

look at parkers.co.uk and you can see used prices for the models you interested in. That will give you an idea of which depreciate the most

[tali122]

your company car will cost about you about 4.5% ( in tax) of its purchase price over 3 years- to spend the same amount on buying the car after 3 years it will need to depreciate by circa 83% - which is highly unlikely