buy a new van or lease/rent.

[Phill Fenton]

My opinion is to buy a new van. This will give you trouble free motoring for the next 3 or 4 years. The depreciation on the van will be offset by a reduced tax bill, so it makes sense to buy new.

It’s not much more expensive to buy a new van rather than lease and you can claim back the VAT regardless of if you lease or buy. Once the van is paid off you have an asset.

A new van is a good image for your business and helps to sell your work.

Modern Diesels are much more fuel efficient than older diesels – so a newer van is much cheaper to run than an old one.

I love my van. It even has air conditioning, and I would happily sleep in it if ever Alison kicked me out 😀

[Gwaredd Steele]

I always say leave leasing to the big company’s. At the end of the lease, you have to give it back or buy it for a, usually, large sum of cash. If you give it back, it had better be blemish free or they’ll sting you big time.

Big company I do work for just sent back 3 ‘T’ reg transit tippers. They were in good nick, but after the leasing co. had ‘assessed’ them, they were stung for a ten grand bill! Beware!

Gareth.

[Peter Normington]

if you have the capital to spend, buy, but make sure you get the van for the best price,
But,,, If you have the cash to buy a van… Why not buy some capital equipment that will earn more for you. A company vehicle is a nesasary evil, but does not produce a great deal of revenue, so in some cases it would make more sense to spend your dosh on a revenue earner, and lease your van.
Peter

[Peter Normington]

Sorry Becks, you say you have “lost” £3300 How did that happen, you must be very carless with your money. Now if you bought any other equipment, and used it for several years, would you say you “lost ” money when you sold it? Just illustrating what I said above,
Peter

[John Childs]

Buy.

Lease, contract hire, hire purchase etc etc. Call them what you will, they are only different names for borrowing money. Loans in fancy packaging which they will spend hours trying to justify and explaining all the spurious benefits but my reasoning is that if someone is making a living and paying for their luxurious offices by selling these products then the only place they can get the money is from their customers. Do you really want to finance their lifestyle?

Depreciation on commercial vehicles is different to that with cars, but it is still there. My philosophy is to let someone else take the big hit and to go for the good used vehicle every time.

Becky, It depends on how you look at it. Don’t forget that the taxman helps you to pay for your van. It is dependent on timing, but if you have bought and sold it within a three TAX year period then, with a 25% pa writedown allowance, it should stand on your books at £2110. If, as is more likely, it spans four April to April tax years then it is down to £1582 so if you sell for £1700 then you have made a £118 profit on it.

I always make a point of buying vehicles before April 5th and selling the old ones after April 6th, at least on paper. That way I get the benefit of an extra years depreciation.

[David McDonald]

It’s very easy to build a compelling business case either way on this one. If you speak to anyone from a leasing company they will come up with the following reasons:-

Makes your payments revenue rather than capital with the associated tax benefits. Takes assets off the books – makes the finaces look stronger.
Allows you to invest in new equipment in the absence of any up front capital expenditure (either you haven’t got the money or you want to preserve capital / leverage your money elsewhere) – This investment might be unavoidable ie. you have to have a van to work, or alternatively you want to invest to grow ie. get a wide format printer etc. Can off set future residual values against the rental to take into account depreciation etc. etc. etc.

My general rule of thumb is if you are buying a replacement for something that is a fundamental asset to allow you to stay in business then buy it (comfort factor and all that) – if it’s an investment to grow your business than finance it. If you finance it then keep financing it, ie. when the lease is up after 3-years then upgrades/replace the kit and start again. If you get a competitive rate per £1000 then you can usually prove that financing an asset is effectively cost neutral over the term and you get all the other benefits listed.

These are just my opinions. Remember your home is at risk if you don’t keep up payments on loans secured against it!!

Cheers
Macky D

[Michael Lafferty]

I would look for a second hand van, probably ex lease.

Makro seem to have reasonable prices on their monthly flyer’s, but you don’t see the van first. Arnold Clark is another, apparently they don’t put a large mark up on their vehicles.

Put a private plate on it, get it logo’d up, nobody will know what year it is.

Cheers
Michael

[Cookster]

£3,300 is nothing compared to what you will lose on a new van, in 3 years it will probably half it’s value ie: if you buy a new van for say £10,000 you will be lucky to get £5,000 back after 3 years.

I would buy a low mileage nearly new van around a year old when it has already lost probably 25% if you do some research and buy wisely you will save yourself a lot of dosh.

I know it’s temping but do not lease! there are loads of pitfalls such as mil age restrictions & if there is any damage to the vehicle when you hand it back you will be caned big time. I got a bill of £178 for a slight scratch & £50 for having a factory hands free kit fitted & I was way under the recommended mileage, that was Citroen Leasing so I won’t fall for that again

That’s my advice anyway.

John

[Mark Candlin]

i recently went through the same deliberations when my renault espace went bang when coming off the A3….

I looked at buying a second hand van or large car. I have to use my works vehicle as a car as well to transport my kids around on school runs etc. So a van wasnt practical, I looked at getting another espace…you can get 8x 4 sheets inside at a push. The trouble with cars is that they are not clasified as commercial so you do not get good tax breaks.

I went for a mitsabushi warrior pick up.Its a double cab so i can still do the school run and still get big sheets in the back.Best of all its classified as commercial so I get the full amount written off each month.

Leasing is a good way to buy/rent a vehicle, ask any accountant.
I pay £240 per month for my brand new truck….
I dont have to worry about Mot’s or anything going wrong with it for the next 3 years, its all covered.

I think the idea of ownership is something i care less about now, I dont want the hassle of buying second hand and then selling the thing eventually. I know see it as a £60 a week business expense with out all the hassles of vehicle ownership. Plus like i said that £240 comes off my books every month.

I know a very good vehicle broker if you need one. Tell him the vehicle you are after and he will find the best deal for you. He saved me £2000 off the asking price just by using him as a broker.

[Brian Hays]

£240 seems a good price for a L200 Warrior Mark. Was looking at those myself I was being quoted £270 ish though. Would have gone for it at £240+vat 🙁

[ukterry]

Hi,

I work for Renault selling vans, i have recently started stickering the company cars and all the Vans.

If You would like any advise on vans new or second hand you are welcome to email me or call me at work on 01932 855021, I work for Herds Renault based in Weybridge.

I hope this helps

Regards

Terry Emment

[Carrie Brown]

Same as Sticky Mark ….. we lease a van …. £200+vat per month, 3 year lease ….. no mot worries etc. We decided it was the route to take for us basically as we didnt have a lump of cash to purchase a new or second hand vehicle at the time and a couple of local businesses were having a few problems with their vans that they had purchased …. one was going to cost a fair bit to repair etc so choose to lease a ????? …. do you know what I cant for the life of me remember what van we have 😳 :lol1: .. hang on …… Vauxhall Vivaro … nope sorry Renault thingy that is exactly same shape …. Oh Im such a moomin …. sorry!!

Anyway, back to the point .. we lease, we pay monthly, we like it that way.

😀

[Paul Goodwin]

quote :

Anyway, back to the point .. we lease, we pay monthly, we like it that way.

do you know how to get into this van carrie?

And you play a better game of BF2 than Frijj :lol1:

Sorry just back from the pub and couldn’t resist

[Carrie Brown]

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

Mort you nutter!!!

Our van is easy to get into much more simpler than army vehicles 😉 …… anyway I didnt really want to get in the BF2 vehicle I was just checking the bodywork on it …. thats the only reason I was running round and round and round it and running into it again and again 😳 ……… :lol1: Well no-one told me I had to press “E”

I think I did quite well for a first timer?? and I never thought I would say this ….. but I had a fab time ….. it was great fun!!! Im itching to have another go but will have to send Steve out working late or tie him to the shed or something to get on there ….. my laptop wont run it ….. time for him to build me a pc I think 😉 :lol1: