Van : offsetting cost against capital expenditure

[JAMdisco]

i have a knack of picking topics that are likely to whip up trouble and spark debate!

Well, there's nothing better than a good argu... sorry, debate

[ppentertainments]

I do

Me Too !!! My work mobile is now 13 years old and worth about £500

Gets me and my kit from A to B, has been 100% reliable, so unless I need to purchase a van to help with tax, which is unlikely, the next owner will be the scrapman.

Sorry,

[Excalibur]

I do

No arguments there.

i have a knack of picking topics that are likely to whip up trouble and spark debate!

i am taking all points on board, and appreciate the continued debate.

As do we who contribute our thoughts. Keep us posted.

[geoffrey]

I would like to add my comments on this matter of buying a new van at £14,000.


I’m sure most of us have had some fairly big loans in the past that seem a good idea at the time with all the excitement but 3 months down the line we kick ourselves for being a little too hasty.

Please don’t think just because the van is new you will get trouble free motoring as Darren stated, because the odd few give more problems than second hand motors.

I was given some advise once and I truly believe it to be true. If your thinking of buying a new motor buy one that’s 2-3 years old because all the teething problems from new would have been ironed out.

I ignored this advice and purchased a new van 4 years ago at a cost of £24,000 as I was not vat registered and for the first year it was in and out of the garage every other week. In fact it spent a whopping 6 weeks in the garage as they could not find an electrical fault. I had a new diesel pump fitted as well as various little switches, the suspension broke, the gear box would be hell to get it in reverse. The dam thing was falling apart from new. Anyway after the six weeks getting it totally rewired it drove like a dream and still does.

Now, I could of saved a lot of pain and especially money if I had brought my van after it had reached two years old.

Don’t forget that some gigs you will encounter the odd drunk falling asleep against it or the odd couple having some fun behind it as well as a few drunk idiots play fighting around it. The thing about any new motor is it seems to be a magnet for dents and scratches to appear when you next give it a wash!

My advise as your asking would be to consider the pros and cons and be sensible with your decision buddy.

Another note for you is, sure you can claim for it in your accounts. So if you say made say £6,000 in your first year, all it means is you will not have to pay any tax for that year but you will pay for that van. The inland revenue will not reimburse you any losses you make nor will they carry any losses on to the next year. So please don’t think the Inland revenue will sort of pay for your van because they wont they will only let you off from paying your tax which is a mere 20% of any losses.

So to sum it up, if you buy a van for £14,000 plus vat you will be paying that whole sum and you will receive nothing back from the tax man unless you pay full rate tax in advance.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I ignored this advice and purchased a new van 4 years ago at a cost of £24,000

Wow! What did you get for £24K Geoff?

[geoffrey]

A Mercedes sprinter. I also have a Mitsubishi L200 and a Ford Fiesta Zetec for the wife.

I have spent a flipping fortune in the last four years on motors even the Mitsubishi cost me £19,000 and the Fiesta which is a great little motor £9,500 Now she wants an ST model fiesta and hers only has 13,000 miles on it.

Please don’t think these purchases were from the proceeds of DJ’ing as if they were I would be running around in an ex british telecom van !

[rob1963]

I was given some advise once and I truly believe it to be true. If your thinking of buying a new motor buy one that’s 2-3 years old because all the teething problems from new would have been ironed out.

Spot on...that's exactly what I always do.

It also avoids your van losing £1000 or more off its value by the time you get it home.

[Vectis]

My van cost me £1500 almost 3 years ago.

1.9 diesel Pug Partner with about 75k miles on the clock, no discernable service history but had just had a full going over, new brakes, couple of new tyres etc..

Since then has cost me under £200 in repairs (new lump of exhaust, tracking and a battery), two oil-change services and 3 MOTs.

Mind you it's only cost me about £200 in fuel too in that time as I only do about 1200 miles a year in it But it starts 1st time every time and there's very little wrong with it apart from being a 12-year-old ex-builders van.

For that sort of money I took a chance off of eBay. Had my lad look it over (he's got a city & guilds type qualification in basic motor mechanics - enough to be able to spot major issues) but that was all. Guy had the logbook and last two MOTs so I went for it.

Could probably get £1k for it if I sold it tomorrow.

Now that's a good level of depreciation!

[ppentertainments]

1.9 diesel Pug Partner with about 75k miles on the clock,

I would imagine that to be one of the highest mileage vehicles on the island

I bought 2 different cars from the Isle of Wight (had an uncle who lived there) and although they were a few years old, had next to no mileage on them.