Well we can pick either a Toyota or a Vaux.. never mind. We have a set amount given to us to help us to 'buy' the car. It's a very clever scheme. Each year there is a rate book published and the idea is that for your money there should be at least one or two choices that are covered by that amount. As I didn't fancy 40k in a Yaris, I opted to pay a little more myself and have a Cruiser. All business miles are included as are servicing insurance tax etc. All you pay is private miles. So if I had a Yaris and never went to the shops in it, I'd basically have the equiv of a pool car. It would cost me nothing. If I did Tesco and back, I'd pay a few pence per mile. Good deal. Buying the cruiser gave me a great Co Car, but also suited my needs for shooting, laning etc so the extra I paid to own it was worth it in my view. When it came to renew I thought I'd have another Cruiser. Shocker - the rate book had gone up on that vehicle to ridiculous levels. So much so in fact that I could have bought a cruiser myself cheaper, straight from the dealer. Clearly they didn't want these in their fleet. I picked something else, which was as good a car as I needed for work but no good off road etc. However, all rates had gone up and by now I owned my own cruiser for pleasure miles. In order to have a decent work car, I had to pay about £100 per month plus private miles. You might think that's cheap. But I didn't need the car, so I was paying £100 per month to have it sit on my drive - for the company. My monthly fuel returns showed that I wasn't driving it out of hours. So it's a good scheme if you don't have your own car and want to bomb about cheaply in something like a Yaris or an Auris. But if you need a decent car for work but don't drive it aside from that, it's £100 down the drain.
What is the wading depth of a Verso - shall we find out?
Chris
