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Our novated lease customers are a practical lot

Fleetcare's novated lease customers are a practical lot judging by the popularity of dual cab utes and family-focused SUVs amongst them in 2017. Of the 10 most popular vehicle choices for novated leases last year there are four dual cab utes and four SUVs. Making up the remainder of the top 10 are Mazda's stylish, safe and well-equipped Mazda 3 and the sole traditional sedan in the list, the Holden Commodore.

Those numbers reflect the demise of the traditional sedans like the Commodore and Ford Falcon that dominated Australia's car market for decades. Today's buyers are opting for practicality and versatility in their vehicles and Fleetcare's novated lease customers are obviously no exception.

It's not surprising that the Australian designed and engineered Ford Ranger heads the list. Like all the dual cab utes it offers the last word in family practicality. During the working week you can load it up with your tools of trade, take it to the shops for some retail therapy on the weekends then throw in the camping gear and head off to the bush for the long weekend. The Ford Ranger does it all and does it exceptionally well.

As do the other dual cab utes in the top 10: the Holden Colorado, the Nissan Navara and the Mitsubishi Triton. Aussies are increasingly seeing these dual cab utes as the Swiss Army Knife of vehicles.

But for many of our novated lease customers SUVs ticked all their boxes as the perfect vehicle choice. The Mazda CX5 and its stable mate, the CX9, the Toyota Landcruiser and the Hyundai Tucson all made the top 10. They offer comfort, safety, car-like handling and the ability to cart round a load of stuff. These days many of them are even quite stylish.

2018

So what's in store for novated lease customers in 2018? Well one thing that's unlikely to change is the popularity of dual cab utes and SUVs. But in an intensely competitive market like Australia's car market you might expect a bit of movement in the models making up that list.

It would be surprising if the Ford Ranger isn't still up there in the top 10 with the introduction of the Ford Ranger Raptor, a beefed-up, high performance off-road version of the popular ute. Toyota also has a rugged off-road version of its ever-popular HiLux waiting in the wings, while Holden plans to keep Colorado sales on the boil by introducing a sporty HSV or "Walkinshaw" version of its ute.

New Euro Commodore

What novated lease customers will make of one of Holden's other offerings, its new European Commodore, remains to be seen. With its front wheel drive and entry-level 2.0 litre turbo engine it's a radical departure from previous Commodores. Even its high performance all-wheel drive V6 Commodore VXR is a very different beast to the previous rear-drive V8 Commodore SS.

The new Commodore variants are getting generally positive reviews and Holden is almost begging buyers to suspend their judgement until they've actually driven one.

Hyundai is a late entry to the small SUV market. It hopes that its well-reviewed Kona model will emulate its i30 and Tucson models and sell in big numbers but at this stage it's just too early to tell. About the only market segment the Korean giant has yet to enter is utes. Hyundai has one in the pipeline, but it's still a long way off.

Save with a novated lease

If you're in the market for a new car in 2018 then you owe it to yourself to check out the many advantages of getting it through a Fleetcare Novated Lease.

It's the perfect way to save money on that new car because the total cost of owning and running it comes out of your pre-tax salary, keeping more money in your pocket each pay day. It's one of the few tax perks available to wage and salary earners and you'd be mad not to take advantage of it.

Need to know more about the benefits of a novated lease? Call Fleetcare today on 134 333.

Written by
Mark Schneider

Mark is a successful copywriter with over 20 years of professional writing experience.

We welcome him as a guest blogger to Fleettorque.

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