The Family Fleet...........

Part of what I do is helping businesses get their people mobile, selling stuff, fixing things and providing a 'perk' of employment in the form of a nice car/van to get the best for their budget or company policy. Of course we also need to ensure the driver has some satisfaction in their reward for a hard days work as well as the 'function' of the vehicle itself.

Strangely these conversations transfer fairly well to families. Lets face it the 'requirements' of most drivers are dictated not by the amount of stock, samples or tools they carry but how many kids, dogs, bikes, tents, bags of rubbish. Of course they ALSO need to feel they are getting some emotional value for the vehicle, whether it's' vanity for appearances or just a simple piece of personal satisfaction of getting the best perceived value for their prized vehicle which a few days after delivery is covered in chocolate, half eaten breakfast bars and empty coffee cups strewn across multiple luggage pockets from it's overly tired drivers

Many of these clients tend to have decent jobs or small businesses, mortgages to pay, kids to get to school, an occasional weekend break, some trips to the local tip......as well as their mate Dave whos just rocked up in a brand new car telling them they should get something similar.....arrghh the pressure! Forget the mortgage listen to Dave!

I thought I would share my own story of how myself and my wife went about our most recent car leases. If this works for some of you learned readers then I'm glad to have been assistance....…….....so...…….

My Family Fleet Policy is pretty simple...……….

2 Adults working and 2 small kids. No pets, We both work locally, have a child at a local primary school and another at a nursery in opposite directions. Living in North Manchester cars are the main source of business and leisure travel. It would be 'possible' but difficult to have one car. Would love a premium brand if the right deal came about BUT decided due to factors such as a) working in the turbulent motor trade b) having taken some financial education and c) a feeling that having two brand new cars of any description is a luxury we decided to define what we wanted, compare to what we need and came up with:

1) Team Bus for school, weekends, soon to be bikes, trips to the tip,

2) Urban run about for my job, meeting clients. Big enough for kids and a bit of shopping.

Neither my wife or I are precious about who drives what so in most cases whoever is busing the kids about is in the 'team bus' and us both being happy to jump in either car depending on what we are doing, where and with who.

For the team bus this is what we considered and where we ended up

Mercedes GLC - top of the list, Audi Q5, Volvo XC60, Nissan X-Trail, Land Rover Discovery. I'd had the XC60 previously and would happily have had another, however a new model had been launched and was proving expensive. The GLC was the best priced of the others but just seemed a little out of reach for what we needed the car for. Taking kids to school, football classes and days out.

We settled on the Nissan X-Trail as a fantastic stock offer came up which I took on 30 month, 12k/year Personal Contract Hire for just under ￡255/month inc VAT. Initially I hated this car as I can't quite shake the "for ￡150/month more I could be in a GLC" mindset. It has no sat nav, no DAB radio and standard wheels BUT weirdly has a retractable glass roof! Fuel consumption is so bad I tried to send it back. However when I get my clarity back its the right vehicle for what we need.

For the daily business car it was slightly different picture......

Requirement: 5 door hatch. Thats it!

VW Golf, Ford Focus, Hyundai i30, Skoda Octavia, BMW 1-series, Mercedes A-Class were all chucking various deals ou. The German brands just under ￡300 I got an enquiry on Volvo V40 and finally settling on the petrol 150 horse power T3 engine. The 'work' car came equipped with sat nav, DAB and enough room for the child seats, my gym gear and some shopping.

This is a 24 month deal at c￡220inc VAT/month again at 12,000/year.

Concluding.……..

So for ￡470 inc VAT we feel we have 2 affordable cars for the price of one premium SUV. Leaving us with all our commitments fulfilled and rarely having to consider other transport options. Can it be done cheaper? Yes of course- pick a different combination of cars. Of course if you have a larger budget lets look at more expensive options......or even try just one car to share and juggling some other aspects of life around with the spare ￡220/month you have to play with...…...

If we were choosing again today we'd be exploring electric options for one of the cars - we'll cross that bridge next time.

What do you think?