New or used?

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New or used?

New
6
60%
Used/ex-demo
4
40%
 
Total votes: 10

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londiniumperson
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Post by londiniumperson »

Now that the Honda e has been available in the UK for over a year there's a good choice of low mileage used demo cars available.

Assume that you hadn't already bought a Honda e or for those that are yet to buy, would you buy new or used?

(As of Sept 2021 on Auto Trader there is a good choice below £26k for an Advance version when a new one at list is over £30k)
2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current

bossjohnc
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Post by bossjohnc »

Good question, but the answer can be circumstantial. I'm in a position to get a great deal with an EV with my business, lots of perks to be had, but this only applies to new cars. It's the first time I've been in this position and the first time I've had a brand new car.
FMIB
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Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:11 pm

Post by FMIB »

Having just purchased a new one, I am a sucker for new cars and have always purchased new over the past 30 years or so.
Maybe its from getting my first new company car at the age of 27, then every car since then, company or private has been new.

I would however be more comfortable buying a low mileage/demo electric car than a demo petrol/diesel car. Not sure you can thrash a new electric car like a new combustion engined car
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londiniumperson
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Post by londiniumperson »

bossjohnc wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 6:00 pm Good question, but the answer can be circumstantial. I'm in a position to get a great deal with an EV with my business, lots of perks to be had, but this only applies to new cars. It's the first time I've been in this position and the first time I've had a brand new car.
Is this is a salary sacrifice, or traditional company lease scheme (where BIK is currently very low in comparison to an ICE car)?
Last edited by londiniumperson on Wed Sep 08, 2021 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current
ZoeDave
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Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:26 pm

Post by ZoeDave »

I voted for new, both on the poll and with my wallet today. You get to spec the car however you want, and have the maximum amount of time before you need to deal with things like tyres, MOTs or the warranty ending. I also suspect that any demo miles are worth multiple of those on an owned car, with many more adjustments, prods and pokes as people rightly test everything out. Also, if (unlike myself, I promise!) you are considering going over a speed bump at twice the limit, or wondering what would happen if I... (insert stupid idea here), would you do it in your own car or a demo one?

But of course I'm spending a great deal on those privileges, so if you see a car that fits your criteria for a great deal, I'd snap it up. There is also an argument that a good dealer may have sorted out any initial rattles or issues highlighted by the aforementioned hooning.
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EEEE
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Post by EEEE »

I went with a demonstrator which came with a fair few optional extras. just under 6k miles but at least 7k off the list price and only 5 months old. There is a tiny paint chip, a small crack in the boot plastic trim, but i can forgive that for 7k discount.

I would agree however that there is definite risk with 1 or 2 year old approved Honda used cars. We bought 2 and 1 had to go back within the 30day no quibble period, and the other had issues which we persisted with. Quite disappointing overall with the supposed Honda quality/check guarantee. With 1 dealer being terrible and 1 dealer being great which we persisted on the 2nd incident to reach the right outcome. After those 2 instances, i swore i would never buy a car that was never brand new - but the E had been used personally by a member of staff outside of the test drive periods so i decided the risk was acceptable.
'21 e Advance - Charge Yellow - E1702RR alloys
'17 Civic Sport CVT
'00 Prelude 2.2VTi
bossjohnc
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Post by bossjohnc »

londiniumperson wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 6:35 pm Is this is a salary sacrifice, or traditional company lease scheme (where BIK is currently very low in comparison to an ICE car)?
Well, the BIK is one thing, that's 1% this year and 2 the next. So low it's not even a consideration.

Then, if purchasing the vehicle (with or without finance) the entire value can be written off against profits in year 1, which represents around 8k saving in corporation tax for the e. Then, consider how much income tax and NICs I would have paid had I bought the vehicle personally, and that approach really starts to make a lot of sense.

When applied to other cars, it's simple to understand why there's such a massive boom in relatively expensive EVs at the moment, particularly for contractors behind limited companies with large bank balances and no way to get the money out quickly without getting a big tax bill.
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londiniumperson
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Post by londiniumperson »

bossjohnc wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 7:31 pm
londiniumperson wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 6:35 pm Is this is a salary sacrifice, or traditional company lease scheme (where BIK is currently very low in comparison to an ICE car)?
Well, the BIK is one thing, that's 1% this year and 2 the next. So low it's not even a consideration.

Then, if purchasing the vehicle (with or without finance) the entire value can be written off against profits in year 1, which represents around 8k saving in corporation tax for the e. Then, consider how much income tax and NICs I would have paid had I bought the vehicle personally, and that approach really starts to make a lot of sense.

When applied to other cars, it's simple to understand why there's such a massive boom in relatively expensive EVs at the moment, particularly for contractors behind limited companies with large bank balances and no way to get the money out quickly without getting a big tax bill.
It's a shame that IR35 has now recently been enforced on IT contractors and in addition the job market is unstable, otherwise I would have seriously considered going back to contracting for a couple of years, especially with the advantages you've stated.

I'm waiting for the mis-selling of cars under salary sacrifice schemes, very few people think it's a no brainer however these schemes can have a disastrous impact to a pension especially those on a final salary scheme (it can save a company a fortune).
2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current
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