Alright everyone?
I've dreamed of owning a Merc since I was literally a kid but wasn't sure it'd ever actually happen.
Recently I got an internship at a tech company that's since turned into a permanent job.
It comes with many benefits. One of which is the ability to lease an EV or PHEV super cheap with my net wages and pay low BiK.
I'll be honest, given the focus is EVs my first question was how much a Tesla Model 3 would run me. If you've ever heard the stereotype about tech nerds and Teslas... yeah, it's accurate, pre-Covid half the carpark at my office was pretty much a Tesla showroom.
They told me they cannot lease a Tesla to anyone under 30, but then cheered me up by letting me know they'd be more than happy to lease me a Mercedes A250e for around £300 a month. No deposit, it's effectively a tax break, and that cost includes insurance (big deal for a first time driver in his 20's!), servicing, repairs, MOTs, roadside assistance, the bloody lot. The only thing I'd have to cover myself is the petrol and electricity.
Well I could hardly say no to that, and in fact it's ideal because from literally everything I've seen and read, generic electric car chargers are still an unreliable nightmare in this country. A Tesla would have been decent because of the Supercharger network. But those generic ones in petrol stations... yeah I've only heard horror story after horror story about what a headache they are to get working, if you're lucky enough for them to work at all. Since we have a way go to before we get a proper EV charging infrastructure in place for non-Teslas a PHEV seems to me a perfect "transition car."
I'm also looking to buy my own place very soon and it could end up being a flat or a maisonette rather than my own house and while most of those have allotted parking I've got no idea if I could actually fit an EV charger at my spot. I'm sure it'd depend on if the landlord would allow it. Seems like a win/win to me (I'd basically be paying to upgrade their parking facilitates for the future) but it's not something I can take for granted.
Anyway point is the A250e seems like the ideal car for me at the moment. It's got some serious Mercedes luxury in that interior, it can be driven mainly by the petrol engine so no range anxiety, it's ULEZ so no worries there, and that almost too good to be true lease deal that'll be paid mostly by HMRC means I can lease a brand new Merc for my first car and not have to worry about insane insurance quotes or maintenance or even paying for my own MOTs.
So I'm jumping in here to see what's going on with you lot and particularly A250e owners. Also curious if anyone else here has nabbed a PHEV Merc through this company car scheme and if so what the experience was like.
Still need to finish my lessons since I did most of them in 2019 but then, you guessed it, Covid happened. Now lockdown's finally over I'm gonna book me some more and get my license ASAP then get this Merc on the way.
Sorry for my rambling, hopefully it was coherent
Happy to be here!
I've dreamed of owning a Merc since I was literally a kid but wasn't sure it'd ever actually happen.
Recently I got an internship at a tech company that's since turned into a permanent job.
It comes with many benefits. One of which is the ability to lease an EV or PHEV super cheap with my net wages and pay low BiK.
I'll be honest, given the focus is EVs my first question was how much a Tesla Model 3 would run me. If you've ever heard the stereotype about tech nerds and Teslas... yeah, it's accurate, pre-Covid half the carpark at my office was pretty much a Tesla showroom.
They told me they cannot lease a Tesla to anyone under 30, but then cheered me up by letting me know they'd be more than happy to lease me a Mercedes A250e for around £300 a month. No deposit, it's effectively a tax break, and that cost includes insurance (big deal for a first time driver in his 20's!), servicing, repairs, MOTs, roadside assistance, the bloody lot. The only thing I'd have to cover myself is the petrol and electricity.
Well I could hardly say no to that, and in fact it's ideal because from literally everything I've seen and read, generic electric car chargers are still an unreliable nightmare in this country. A Tesla would have been decent because of the Supercharger network. But those generic ones in petrol stations... yeah I've only heard horror story after horror story about what a headache they are to get working, if you're lucky enough for them to work at all. Since we have a way go to before we get a proper EV charging infrastructure in place for non-Teslas a PHEV seems to me a perfect "transition car."
I'm also looking to buy my own place very soon and it could end up being a flat or a maisonette rather than my own house and while most of those have allotted parking I've got no idea if I could actually fit an EV charger at my spot. I'm sure it'd depend on if the landlord would allow it. Seems like a win/win to me (I'd basically be paying to upgrade their parking facilitates for the future) but it's not something I can take for granted.
Anyway point is the A250e seems like the ideal car for me at the moment. It's got some serious Mercedes luxury in that interior, it can be driven mainly by the petrol engine so no range anxiety, it's ULEZ so no worries there, and that almost too good to be true lease deal that'll be paid mostly by HMRC means I can lease a brand new Merc for my first car and not have to worry about insane insurance quotes or maintenance or even paying for my own MOTs.
So I'm jumping in here to see what's going on with you lot and particularly A250e owners. Also curious if anyone else here has nabbed a PHEV Merc through this company car scheme and if so what the experience was like.
Still need to finish my lessons since I did most of them in 2019 but then, you guessed it, Covid happened. Now lockdown's finally over I'm gonna book me some more and get my license ASAP then get this Merc on the way.
Sorry for my rambling, hopefully it was coherent

Happy to be here!
