Until recently i've always had uneconomical cars such as the Zed or the RRS etc, and i've always *just* broken even with my business mileage allowance (25p per mile).
All my colleagues drive diesels and were pocketing quite a few £££ a year in profit from the extra they made on their journeys. Around 6 months ago the number of miles i was doing increased due to a number of new clients, and so i decided to join the diesel club buying a BMW 320d, pocketing roughly £100 a month in profit!
However, we were informed last week that our company has now changed it's business mileage policy (in line with the HMRC), and from now on will only be paying 14ppm for <2000cc Diesels (mine is 1995cc), and 17ppm for > 2000cc. Alternatively, if i have a >2000cc Petrol car they will pay 24ppm.
So what that boils down to is i must own a diesel which achieves approx 46mpg in order to break even on a work trip, or a 26mpg petrol car (assuming using regular unleaded, not super, and dependent on the price of fuel of course).
So to me this is a no brainer.... i should ditch the derv and get a fun petrol again! A zed would almost work, except for needing super unleaded, but this is a negligible difference.
Also the sweetener - the company gave me an £800 increase to my car allowance to cover the shortfall in 'profit'... so essentially they've just leveled the playing field between owning a petrol and a diesel, and given me an £800 a year bonus too!
The only downside is that i cant get another Diesel RRS as i'll be massively out of pocket owning that... but stupidly i might be better off if i got a petrol one, but i need to go away and check the sums...