Company Car

[Dunkeld1962]

I have the chance to take a W204 C Class 200 cdi in my company car scheme, is there any feedback on this model, the other options are Audi, Lexus and BMW no other mercs without a contribution by myself.

 

[jberks]

The 204 is a lot nicer and better built than your 203 but the 200cdi may be a bit asthmatic, compared to a C320 so I'd suggest taking one out first to see if you could live with it. Also, what model - if it's a basic one then again, you may miss your old one.
Personally I'd take the cash alternative and get a used 320cdi! New cars are remarkably poor value compared to used. I've just bought an ex demo LR Freelander 2 to replace the Mrs's Jeep. It's basically as new but just12 months old so, new price inc all the extras (its loaded) would be over £31k, cost to me - less than £21k.

Give me an ex demo every time.

 

[st13phil]

I suspect that after a C320 the W204 C200cdi will feel a bit on the s-l-o-w side. It felt very sluggish after my PD 150 Golf, so I went for the C220cdi which performs much better and for me represented the best mix of price/performance/economy.

A friend of mine has recently bought a Lexus 220d (not the sport model) and while he's generally pleased with the car he's commented on more than one occasion that a) it's very high geared and thus 6th is useless below 60-70mph and b) mix the high gearing with the not-that-flexible diesel engine and it's relatively difficult to get the best out of it. As a Company Car its emissions push up the BIK charge quite considerably too.

Is it a 318d or a 320d you can get in the BMW range? Both drive well and are well liked by the motoring press. The new stop-start technology improves fuel consumption and lowers the emissions (and BIK charge) too. I didn't want a BMW, though.

Is the Audi on offer the outgoing or the new A4? The old one is still a good car but is showing it's age a bit. The new one looks good and has had some good "first impressions" reviews in the press but it's quite a bit bigger than the outgoing model and has limited choice of spec's for the first UK cars as well, as I understand it.

Can you get the W204 C200K as an option? That's another possibility. Higher CO2 band and worse fuel consumption though, but if it has to be a diesel then you may have to look at a personal contribution if you want a W204 and performance is important to you.

If best fuel economy + lowest BIK charge is high on your priority list then the 3-series or perhaps the Audi may be a better bet.

Hope that helps!

 

[Dunkeld1962]

Thanks for the replies, the only merc is the 200cdi SE unless i make a substantial contibution.I opted out the company car scheme hence the c320 but I am doing around 40000 miles pa so I really need to opt back in to the scheme. The Audi would be the 2008 model and the BMW either the 318dSE or the 320 se petrol.

 

[st13phil]

If you're doing 40k miles pa then I'm guessing that the fuel costs are covered by expenses, so fuel consumption probably isn't as important as if you were doing mainly private miles (as I do). As such, the main cost difference will be the BIK charge but the higher cost of running a petrol car like the 320 SE vs the 318d probably isn't that much.

I'm also guessing that the list of options that you'll be able to get is going to be pretty short, so as you're going to be spending a long time in the thing you want the interior to be a nice place to be. I suspect that the new A4 may be the better bet in that respect unless you go for the 320 SE as the standard equipment level on the 3-series is still a bit meagre. Looking at the Merc, although the SE spec on the W204 is pretty good you won't get things like auto-dimming mirrors and auto wipers which I know make a differnce to me and I only drive 15k miles pa.

Overall, I think you need to try all the alternatives out to see what you're happy with, just like jberks suggested. In reality, whichever one you go for will be a nice car - it's just that you need to select the one that you can live with.