I am self employed and l repair domestic appliances.
I have had two vans both bought new. The first was a Kangoo bought in 2000 for £10,500 and sold in 2008 for £2,000
The second a Transit Connect bought in 2008 for £14,000 and sold in 2014 for £4,000
I was going to get a Caddy in 2014 as the Connect had started to cost money.
But the Caddy was £20,000 so instead we sold our Defender 90 and l bought a nine year old 110 TD5 for £14,000
Yesterday l did some accounting and over four years/45,000 miles my total spend on the Defender is £20,000 (not including the purchase price!)
That sounds like a lot....and it is....but it includes £9,000 estimate fuel usage (calculated at 25mpg although it does a bit more) and £3,000 on tax/insurance.
The rest is on spares/repairs. At least £3,000 of that is money l spent that was not necessary such as dog guards, rev counter, new wheels, side steps, minor paintwork etc.
Even with that it comes out at around 40p per mile, no more than running a small van.
Depreciation, or the lack of it, makes up for higher running costs.
The 110 is worth more than l paid for it in 2014 despite the 45,000 extra miles.
For the figures l put the depreciation at zero rather than it being worth more.
So the conclusion is that running a Defender as a work vehicle makes financial sense, if you like Defenders that is.
I have had two vans both bought new. The first was a Kangoo bought in 2000 for £10,500 and sold in 2008 for £2,000
The second a Transit Connect bought in 2008 for £14,000 and sold in 2014 for £4,000
I was going to get a Caddy in 2014 as the Connect had started to cost money.
But the Caddy was £20,000 so instead we sold our Defender 90 and l bought a nine year old 110 TD5 for £14,000
Yesterday l did some accounting and over four years/45,000 miles my total spend on the Defender is £20,000 (not including the purchase price!)
That sounds like a lot....and it is....but it includes £9,000 estimate fuel usage (calculated at 25mpg although it does a bit more) and £3,000 on tax/insurance.
The rest is on spares/repairs. At least £3,000 of that is money l spent that was not necessary such as dog guards, rev counter, new wheels, side steps, minor paintwork etc.
Even with that it comes out at around 40p per mile, no more than running a small van.
Depreciation, or the lack of it, makes up for higher running costs.
The 110 is worth more than l paid for it in 2014 despite the 45,000 extra miles.
For the figures l put the depreciation at zero rather than it being worth more.
So the conclusion is that running a Defender as a work vehicle makes financial sense, if you like Defenders that is.
