motor vehicle allowance vs fully maintained Nissan Tida

[Flo_Jo]

Hi all,

Trust all of you are doing well. I have recently changed roles and I have been offered a $14K motor vehicle allowance, or a fully maintained Tida. I have nothing against the Tida but I would much rather drive my camry instead.

Now not being knowledgable in the taxation implications, I am wondering if any of you have any insight into which option is better financially for my hip pocket.

My car is 2004 Sportivo V6, and I have around $8K in loan repayments to go.

Any info from people who have MVA would be helpful.

Thanks in advance

[MT]

ignoring FBT implications, my thoughts purely are...

option 1 - 14k a year in your pocket, which you can spend on your car. After the contract period is up (i will assume 3 yrs) you still have your car which is worth some $$

option 2 - fully maintained tiida (incl fuel and maintenance) for 3 yrs, at the end you have nothing.

Depends how much you drive, and how much a nice car is worth to you. I'd be going with option 1, but thats just me.

[CME-LFT]

I dont know what sort of job you do, but depending on what your average kilometers a week are, maybe its worth going the tida, u dont have to worry about clocking up the ks on your sportivo and general wear and tear.

Plus with the tida as u get mainantence and petrol included, nothing stops you using the tida for shopping (short trips at least so the boss doesnt realise youve used the fuel card 5 times in the same week.lol) Maintanence is all covered so if u drive it like ******* it doesnt really matter.

The money you save on petrol (whats your yearly average like $3-4k of petrol a year) plus oil, filter and such, like i said it all depends on how much your going to drive for work.

My 2 cent worth at least

[Leroy]

Normally I would be inclined to take the tiida... fuel, tyres, insurance, services, car washes etc etc all paid for.

And at the end of it you can probably renew the package and have another brand new car all paid for for another 3 yrs.

BUUUTTT.... 14k seems to me much more than would be spent on the tiida in a year.

Do you have a spouse who you could let loose in the tiida instead of using yours all the time?

Edited December 14, 2008 by Leroy

[Whip Cracker]

If it were me, I'd be hittin up the Tiida... I reckon they look like crap, but who cares... everything's paid for :)

You'll save on not having to drive your car, or service as much... and can put that money back into the ol' Camma mate.

[STYLSH]

I might take the 14k just to be opposite of you Shannon ahaha. This is because there isnt anyway you'd spend 14k on the car in a year! 3 years = 42k + residue value of your camry! you'd probably still be ahead if you used the money to buy a corolla for $25k (better than a tiida) for work since servicing is like $130 for the first 6 services. And that car would still be worth something after 3 years :)

Unless of course your work involves driving interstate and stuff because even if you need to drive 200km a day = roughly $20/d = $100 a week = $5200 a year if you work without holidays which still leaves 9k for maintainence, upgrades and turbos a year :P

This is all taking without consideration of FBT tho.

Edited January 1, 2009 by STYLSH