Clarkson on the Clubsport GTi 40.

[fredgroves]

On the BIK... well, its at least 5k more worth of car (lease price increases), the fuel costs more (and even if you are actually doing business miles, there is a HMRC cap on the amount you can claim per mile...) and the BIK difference is £1500 per annum (GTD 3 door manual base car vs R 3 door DSG base (the lowest emmission and priced R)).

I reckon thats about £250 quid a month easily you are out of pocket by (extra lease costs and BIK) and thats assuming that you aren't doing thousands of miles and getting short changed on your company mileage because of HMRC fuel expense rates. Certainly by 2019 tax year you will be.

Currently its 13 pence per mile for petrol...its what, £5.49 a gallon for petrol now? I reckon you are out of pocket by at least £2 per 30 miles in an R... and of course the figure will jump massively by the time petrol prices head back to £1.40 a litre.

Personally, I won't want to be driving for work and paying for the privilege.

[phope]

Yeah, I had in my head that an R is approx £1500 more in tax a year than a comparable GTD for me, and that's before taking the cost of fuelling into account over my mileage, circa 18k miles

[kalimon]

I love watching Clarkson's shows and I'm eager for the GT premier this week but that's because he's a hilarious person to listen to talking about cars, more like a stand-up comedian, and not due to his deep appreciation or understanding of car tech or driving thrills. It's rather obvious after all these years that he does not know or understand better than the average Top Gear audience guy (even that is debatable), he has even admitted it a few times, and that's fine because it makes it even more amusing. Still remember the GTI vs 135i test where the BMW clearly bettered the Golf in every area but since it could not carry a nuclear head and then "tried to kill him in a straight line" the GTI was nominated the winner - epic!  ). That's the level of in-depth car analysis and seriousness (!) you can expect from him, and I hope he stays that way because not many can do that.

As a result, and as much as I am a fun of him, I couldn't have disagreed more with several of his reviews over the years. But then again, he is not the sort of serious car journalist with the ability to pick up all sorts of particularities on a chassis, take the car near its limits and give an accurate picture of what it feels like when driven there. There are other much more suitable people to follow on these matters. Which, for some of us, are infinitely more important than being able to dump all the throttle during a launch or in the wet (things that Clarkson loves among other silly stuff in general  )

Amazing! Your take on him and his show are the polar opposite of mine.
The people who stand in the audience howling with laughter at his every word must be either pissed or mentally challenged.
It's all about oipinions I suppose 

[monkeyhanger]

An R as a fleet car? You mean for someone to have as a company car?

Only if you have stupid money to burn. You will get crucified on your P11D for that amount of CO2!

I think the assumption has been made there yhat because there were some good lease deals, they're a fleet friendly car.

Of course we know that yhere were so many leased Rs because initial GFVs were so high, the depreciation was very low and the monthlies were miles cheaper than the GTI. VW allowed the lease companies to order these wholesale rather than restricting to retail sales only. Most of these leases are likely to be private, for provate miles. Having a company car isn't much of a perk these days, especially if the CO2 is over 109g/km.