Alex, car allowance is usually only good for a dealership not private sale in case anyone is suggesting privates.
Not true at all.... A car allowance lets you do whatever you like with the money. e.g. Buy new, buy used (dealer or private), keep current car and use the remaining car allowance as extra income and enjoy the little perk of a pre-tax influx of $X's each month....
Having been in the auto industry and now in the finance/leasing space, here's some info for you....
If you're doing high k's (the ATO deems anything over 30,000 k's a year as a high k driver), then go for a corporate hire purchase (CHP). Keep a log book of your k's for the first 3 months, working out your percentage of business use versus personal. You would want to be doing 60% or more in business travel to get the most gain out of this method. This log book recording last for 5 years (from memory)
come tax time, claim everything and anything you've spent money on.... fuel, tyres, servicing, washing, maintenance, interest on the CHP, depreciation.
For a high k driver, this is the most cost effective method. The fact that you're getting a car allowance just makes the repayments a little less painful. Keep in mind though that you will have a residual payout at the end of the CHP term. So, if your car has high k's, there's potential that you wont' be able to cover the residual through the sell off of the car, meaning that you will have to cover the gap out of your own pocket or in a new finance package.
A good thing here is that you can place a deposit and use a trade in to lower the finance amount, making a more expensive car seem cheaper.
Novated is primarily designed for "private use", however if you're doing lower k's then it's a good way to get some "hip-pocket" savings. A portion of your repayments should come out of your payroll in both pre-tax and post-tax $'s.
Pre-tax contributions lower your taxable income, giving you more money in your pocket (compared to regular finance on the same cost base over the same term). All of your fuel, maintenance, rego and insurance will be paid for each month through your Novated accaount balance, meaning that you never have to put into your own pocket to pay for anything.
Also, any purchase on a used or new car removes GST from the picture, so you save a bit more money at intital purchase too.
There's plenty of options at the end of lease too, re-novate the same car for another X amount of years, pay out the residual and keep the car, sell it pay out the residual and get a new car....
A bit of a pain here is that you can't build equity into a novated lease, due to FBT & GST regulations... So there's no deposit, no trade in, no extra repayments e.t.c. to go against the purchase price or ongoing lease repayments. You can also only get a novated lease if your employer has a corporate account with a leasing company.
Anyway mate, I know that you need to be able to tow the boat, so the Landcruiser will do that, but it's a costly beast. I'll be intersted to hear what you think of the test drive. Good news is that being a Landcruiser it retains it's value well, so any potential residuals through whatever leasing method you choose should be a bit less painful.
I still reckon you should have a look at the Touareg.. 3.5T towing capacity, economical diesels, very comfortable, roomy, friendly to your lady, more toys than you can poke a stick at, easy around town and great as a tow pig/cruiser and cheaper than Landcruiser. As far as value for money goes, the Touareg is pretty unbeatable in the prestige SUV market, especially in the base model 150 spec.
