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There seems to be a move back to company cars from cash for car alternatives. A few years ago when the Government changed the way the benefit in kind tax was calculated to a CO2 based system there was a big move to cash for car alternatives. Drivers liked the idea of driving a 3 year old BMW rather than a new Ford Mondeo but BMW’s are Read more »

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One of the smaller changes to the benefit in kind tax rules following the budget was the removal of the upper limit when applied to company run prestige cars. In the past there was a limit placed on the list price used when calculating personal benefit in kind tax of £80,000. This has now been removed so taking a Bentley Flying Spur as an example with Read more »

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The first case brought under the Corporate Manslaughter Act has given businesses of all sizes cause for concern. Especially as the new Health and Safety at Work Act makes it even easier to bring prosecutions. In the first case Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings were convicted of the death of 27 year old geologist Alex Wright who died in Read more »

As the economy bumps along showing minimal signs of recovery the CVO Survey shows that large companies continue to actively use contract hire as its main method of financing its company cars whilst SME’s continue to blindly use cash, loans and overdrafts. Why should this be? I would suggest out of ignorance. Far too little is understood about leasing for SME’s to make a considered choice so they end up Read more »

You can forget going green with your next car in order to save fuel and kick out fewer CO2’s according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM – is it me or does that sound like a cat food?). They suggest that drivers and businesses could save much more by simply using better, more efficient driving techniques, such as advanced anticipation, intelligent route planning and speed control which if used together could Read more »

The key is – well, in the key, according to some road safety experts. We already have keys that chat away to the car’s engine management systems and record service information then transmit it to your local dealer. We now have an Alco-Lock which requires the driver to blow into the key and if they are over the limit the key won’t allow them to drive by locking up the immobiliser. Until the reading drops below the Read more »

As companies look at various ways to raise money, as we slowly emerge from recession, some are now looking at their company cars as a possible way to raise funds for expansion. For those that don’t want to approach their bank to increase their borrowings this could be a good alternative. The scheme, known as sale and leaseback, is an arrangement between a leasing company and the customer whereby the leasing Read more »

Oh dear I’m not sure how this is going to go down with employees but it seems that there has been a bit of an upsurge in the provision of logos for company cars. In the past companies that run vans and trucks would use them as a mobile advertisements for their business but very few, other than estate agents and letting agents, adorn their cars with advertising logos. But just recently employees have been Read more »

Who are EuroNCAP? Do you know? Well it turns out that far too few people do so they are on a mission to become more visible. They are a group formed in 1997 by the Transport Research Laboratory and they are the organisation that crash tests every new car to award it safety stars from the driver’s perspective, passenger perspective and pedestrian perspective. Over the years many companies have insisted upon Read more »

I’ve spoken about back problems before and mentioned the potential dangers faced by employers who choose cars for employees, considered unfit for purpose, in my book ‘An Insider Guide To Car Finance.’ However the University of Loughborough, whose research into driver back problems I mentioned recently, have issued some guidance for drivers and employers when selecting cars that will be used for Read more »