That sounds awesome and rather comprehensive. I’m guessing where the first year VED is over 5 grand that the VAT saving is rather significant. Saving on servicing and everything else will be an added bonus and, more importantly, you’ve found one of the good salespeople, which can be a Godsend when dealing with unusual purchases like this one.
Exactly. In truth, I hadn’t got my head around the first year VED rates (they have been introduced since we last bought a new car privately) and I had no idea how much they were. I also hadn’t appreciated that the ‘on the road’ prices that manufacturers quote included these sums so, if you are exempt from them, it can make a substantial difference. Obviously the more expensive the car the bigger the VAT saving, but also the discounts that you can negotiate (on top of the VAT exemptions) vary a lot depending on the model. When you finally factor in the VED exemption, the top of the range model, which for a retail customer liable for VAT and VED would cost around £20k more than the model I was looking at (so wasn’t even remotely on my radar) could potentially only cost me £5k more. That’s peaked my interest, so test drives have been arranged for both!
