Morning All,

 

I'm in the fortunate position that I may soon qualify for a company car.  Naturally this has led me to looking at what I could get next to replace my current daily driver, and also am I best taking the car or the cash.  I want/like/need a large estate.  

 

The first thing I discovered was that the XF 3.0 shooting brake was still out of reach :-(  

 

The next thing I discovered was the future changes in BIK rates.  I see these came in a while ago but without a company car I hadn't paid much notice.  I see that BIK rates will go up 2% every year from here to 19/20.  

 

According to Parkers, the Octavia tdi L&K DSG puts out 117 carbons.  With a list price of £29k that's a taxable benefit of £6.7k this year but rising to £8.4k by 19/20.  That's a hike from £220/month to £280/month for a 40% tax payer.  

 

I also looked at the petrol plug in low emissions option, like the Passat GTE - the BIK will rise from 7% to 16% across 4 years which, when you consider the list price here (c£40k) is a huge impact.  

 

I've had a look and I didn't see this has had much coverage on here.  What do people think?  Will this be the end of traditional company car schemes?  Right now the cash option seems vastly better value for money.  

 

Cheers.  

For me, in my situation, a fully funded company car pays and as yet I haven't been get the numbers to work if I took the cash allowance. I can't purchase (or lease), tax, insurance, maintain and run a similar car for the cash. Although I am doing more business mileage now so it may swing it slightly. I know I have piece of mind with my company car in that if anything goes wrong it will be repaired, if I breakdown it'll get recovered etc.

 

I had looked at a Passat GTE as it only attracted a 5% BIK rate so was equivalent to a c£300 pay rise. 

 

I do get money back on our fuel cards though - instead of paying BIK to HMRC, I pay the equivalent rate to a third party company who then do a true up at the end of the tax year based on the cost of private mileage and business mileage. This year I got £600 back. 

 

 

PS Jaguar don't make an XF Estate anymore. Stopped it, and trying to get people into the F-Pace.

 

PS Jaguar don't make an XF Estate anymore. Stopped it, and trying to get people into the F-Pace.

 

That's a shame, I think the F Pace is stinkin' ugly.

That's a shame, I think the F Pace is stinkin' ugly.

 

Tis a shame, one of the best, if not "THE" best estate on the market IMO.

Yeah, I say they stopped production but sadly anything in that class will still be out of reach.........  

They stopped production because they changed models from an old version of the XF to a new.

 

I'd be amazed if there wasn't a shooting break version of the XF in the works. You're right though, I would like an XF estate as my next car, but wouldn't touch an XPace

That as maybe, I'm surprised the BiK hikes haven't had more coverage.  I guess people aren't that bothered about it.