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490 – Honda aims to drive down company car tax

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2 September 2010

 

HONDA – the car company can be a bit up and down sometimes. And recently, possibly more down than up.

They once made cars for your granny. Think old Civic. Brilliantly reliable, just rather dull and a bit grey. Then they pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the extraordinary space-age latest Civic, which still looks striking even though it’s been with us since 2003. Then they fall a bit silent.

And that’s possibly part of the issue. New, refreshed models don’t come often enough from Honda – or Honda lets them fade from the collective car consciousness even if they don’t require a bit of deft tinkering.

Here’s another typical Honda conundrum. After lots of hype about the new hatchback Insight – me included, because I thought the show cars looked stupendous – the actual model in the metal looks just a little, well, feeble somehow.

And then they do the CR-Z. Wow! Here’s a sports coupe that really does seem the real deal. And it’s a hybrid. At last, a hybrid car that didn’t look as if it was fed on lentils during its design stage. It’s a full-on car that really engages all your automotive senses. And makes no excuses for its hybrid power plant.

I was talking about this car with Honda’s corporate operations manager, Graham Avent. Thankfully, unlike some of his products, Mr Avent isn’t at all up and down. In fact, Graham is always engagingly refreshing to speak with.

Even when he’s spent the last month or so engaged in conversations with HMRC to try and get approval for his business special Honda Civic Ci.

I don’t want to bore you with all the regulatory approval detail. But anyway, the Honda Civic Ci is now with us. And a good thing too.

“You have two options. You can either reduce the company car tax burden for the business driver by lowering a car’s CO2 – although our diesel was a standard setter when we launched it, that’s not an option presently. Or, you can lower the P11d price. Both items work in tandem to balance out company car tax,” Graham explained about the new car.

“So we’re very pleased with the new Ci right now. It has all the right kit for business drivers – including added Bluetooth – but it has low company car tax rates. We receive a lot of feedback saying that what company car drivers are looking for is a lower rate of company car tax.

“With the Honda Civic Ci model, we’re delivering that.”

Unfortunately the model isn’t listed on Honda’s useful car comparator tool – check it out – and it’s not listed on our Business Car Manager Tax Calculator either – although it should be on both shortly. But Graham tells me the car can be ordered from Honda dealers now if you’re a business user, for delivery from 01 November.

On a separate note regarding Hondas, my business advisor, Max Felstead, who has come to driving a little later in life, is delighted with the Honda Jazz he and his wife drive. They have elderly parents and the magic seats, which flip up to liberate interior space, are brilliant for wheelchair access, Max reports. When it’s not being used for family life, Max says it’s a smart little car for business use, too.

Guess the CR-Z wouldn’t quite fit Max’s needs quite yet!

If you want further details about the new Honda Civic Ci, then read our news story Low company car tax Honda launched. If you want to know more about the Honda CR-Z, then read our news story The sports car that thinks it’s a hybrid.

Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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