Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
I HAD chat with John Wallace from Volvo today.
John looks after Volvo’s corporate sales and the dealers who sell to small businesses.
I wanted to talk to John because I thought it was fascinating how Volvo could get two large executive cars – the S80 saloon and V70 estate – under 120g/km of CO2. Which means you’ll face a tax band benefit-in-kind rate of…just 13%. Wow!
“Well, you have to remember they have smaller 1.6-litre engines, but then that’s the way it’s going, isn’t it? Engines all round are getting smaller and more efficient,” John said (see our news story Volvo’s executive cars break new tax ground).
The driving dynamics of the new S60 have been a huge focus – we’ve even got John Cleland, the former touring car champion, refining the chassis
It’s quite clear the longer you talk to John that he’s quietly pleased that Volvo has got such a story on low emissions with the company’s DRIVe models.
“Interestingly,” said John, “it’s not the low spec models that customers are going for. Our SME customers are opting for SE and Lux spec. And of the DRIVe models that are ordered, 85% are with start-stop fuel-saving technology that qualify for 100% first year writing down allowance.”
It hasn’t just been the success of the low-emission DRIVe Volvos that has been lighting John’s fire.
“Scrappage worked well for us,” John explained. “We had quite a few people where the existing car was doing the job but with scrappage they took advantage of the £2000 to get a new car.
” The most popular model was the C30 coupe, but the scrappage exchange range went right up to the big seven-seater XC90, too – see our news story Big Volvo for small money.
The conversation wandered off to maintenance, John wondering why more small businesses didn’t take up the option of maintenance.
