5.0 wrote:

Unfortunately it is not a nice 6 cylinder from BMW. It’s a home grown JLR Ingenium 6 that has be given the hybrid treatment. Regardless of how good this unit may or may not prove to be in time, I would not personally choose to beta test it for JLR in a brand new platform. It’s got hard shoulder of the motorway waiting for a flatbed written all over it.

You can’t claim VAT back on cars unless they are solely for business use.

You can if the company buys it outright can't you?

And then allocates it to myself as a company car, hence the BIK?

aja500 wrote:

5.0 wrote:

Unfortunately it is not a nice 6 cylinder from BMW. It’s a home grown JLR Ingenium 6 that has be given the hybrid treatment. Regardless of how good this unit may or may not prove to be in time, I would not personally choose to beta test it for JLR in a brand new platform. It’s got hard shoulder of the motorway waiting for a flatbed written all over it.

You make a good point 5.0, but do you not think it'll be much quieter and smoother under acceleration than that of the outgoing 4 cylinder?

I still think with all the significant financial benefits, compared to buying outright myself, I'm still going to have to take the chance.

aja500 wrote:

You can if the company buys it outright can't you?

And then allocates it to myself as a company car, hence the BIK?

Just Googled and it seems you're right 5.0

That said, as my home is a Registered Office, and we have offices elsewhere in the country which I travel too, this should be seen as travel between offices, rather than from home. Combine this with the fact that I can show I have additional vehicles for personal use, could be worth a shot?

Actually, I think you're right and this is a no go 5.0......

From memory, we had this conversation with our accountant before. It has to be shown as a pool car, made available to other staff, not kept at my home address, etc, etc.

Accountant said it's highly unlikely we'd get away with it, although it was previously against a new Cullinan and I didn't want to pay the circa £50k per annum BIK, as well as the vat.

Still, even without the vat recovery, I still think it'll be a significantly more cost effective way to buy, compared to what I normally do, which is to buy myself.

Yes it would still be better to have the PHEV through the business without a doubt.

5.0 wrote:

Unfortunately it is not a nice 6 cylinder from BMW. It’s a home grown JLR Ingenium 6 that has be given the hybrid treatment.

A Cullinan as a pool car?

The LRUK website "Help me choose" section says that the PHEVs are good for people who do mainly short urban journeys and who have their own charging infrastructure, at home or at work. The petrol MHEVs are good for people who do the same sort of journeys but don't have the infrastructure. The diesels are good for people who do large motorway mileages and want the best towing experience. There is nothing about the target audience for the P530.

Looking at aja500's intended uses, might the D350 be the "head" choice and the P530 the "heart" one? I don't have charging infrastructure so the PHEVs would be no use to me, but I'd worry that they would be like a P400 but with the extra weight of the batteries to lug about, worth it on journeys that can be done on electric only, but not otherwise.

Having had a bad experience with the BMW 4.4 in my first 322, I'm a bit put off the P530 due to its BMW engine, and there are plenty of reports of problems with that engine series online. Maybe that is less of a concern to aja500 who is (a) used to a BMW engine in the Cullinan, presumably with no issues, and (b) may change cars more frequently so would not have the problems associated with an older engine.

If the L460 came with the 5.0SC I'd be happy to choose that, but with the choices we have, I might try the D350 and see how I like it before deciding. That said I'm not a fan of diesel, oily pump handles, the faff of AdBlue etc, so it would need to be pretty good. Only Range Rovers since 1988

HMRC always get you one way or another......

No doubt over time, as more and more people switch to electric / hybrid, I suspect they'll also withdraw the majority of these associated benefits. We should make the most of them while we can!

CS wrote:

Having had a bad experience with the BMW 4.4 in my first 322, I'm a bit put off the P530 due to its BMW engine, and there are plenty of reports of problems with that engine series online. .

Sorry CS, our messages crossed.

Yes, I explored the possibility of putting the Cullinan down as a Pool Car, but our accountant said No!!

It wasn't so much that I wanted to claim it was a Pool Car, just a car I genuinely was going to use solely for business purposes, but even then I was told no. There are so many different criteria you have to meet. To say it's purely for business use is not enough. As previously mentioned, it has to be made available to other staff, kept overnight at your place of business, which cannot be your home address, etc, etc.

The Cullinan has actually gone now, so I can't really comment on reliability. I only covered about 200 miles in it. While it was very nice, it just didn't feel special enough for what I paid for it, and it certainly wasn't worth the price of 2-3 Range Rovers, so unfortunately it went. To be honest, I try not to think about it. While I got all my money back at 2 months old, if I'd kept it another 6-9 months, I could have easily commanded a £50k premium as there's now a 2 year waiting list, so not a good move on my part

As for the diesel, I used to have a very nice 2016 Autobiography, 4.4 V8 diesel (which again I sold far too cheaply last February, just before all the semi conductor issues came to light - Not doing well am I). While I really liked it, I always wanted it to be petrol, as that's what I've become used to.

I do have another Rolls-Royce which of course is petrol and extremely quiet, but I only drive that when the sun is shining. My daily driver and the car I do most of my mileage in is my old 2007 L322 4.4 V8 petrol, which is the later Jaguar engine and 6 speed box, quite a rare thing.

It's only worth about £7k, but I wouldn't sell it for anything. I've never been so attached to any other car. It's extremely quiet and supremely comfortable.

So, while the D350 does kind of make sense, I have become so used to the quietness of petrol engines, that I don't really want to move away from that again. Also, I'm hoping that the quiet of the electric power is something I can enjoy on the shorter journey's.

5.0 wrote:

CS wrote:

Having had a bad experience with the BMW 4.4 in my first 322, I'm a bit put off the P530 due to its BMW engine, and there are plenty of reports of problems with that engine series online. .

The L322 BMW V8 is a completely different engine.

The more recent hot vee V8 had issues in earlier incarnations but it has been heavily revised over it’s lifetime and the current N63 version is considered to be pretty good. The 5.0 SC has not been without issues over its lifetime either. Although I am on my third fault free one.

5.0 wrote:

Unfortunately it is not a nice 6 cylinder from BMW. It’s a home grown JLR Ingenium 6 that has be given the hybrid treatment. Regardless of how good this unit may or may not prove to be in time, I would not personally choose to beta test it for JLR in a brand new platform. It’s got hard shoulder of the motorway waiting for a flatbed written all over it.

Aren’t we all beta testers for JLR ? 😂😂 our last L405 was new in 2017 on a 5 year supposedly sorted platform and we still had issues with it…..it’s part of the JLR thing. Trouble is we’ve had an new X5, Merc and Taycan since it went and none of them compare to a Rangey