Your next car could be a tax write off

The federal government is offering small businesses an opportunity to pick up a motor vehicle for work purposes and write off the depreciation in the first 12 months.

And that's great, but you won't get much of a 'tradie ute' or van for $30,000, not new at least. But the incentive does open up an opportunity for a small business owner to buy a lightly-used pick-up or van for that sort of money.

Of course, once the business owner commits to a used vehicle, he or she needs to check out the warranty situation to make sure it's covered for any unexpected mechanical issues further down the track.

The owner of the vehicle may have sold his or her business, changed jobs or just plain decided the vehicle isn't fit for purpose – for whatever reason. Critically, the owner may be selling because the vehicle has been unreliable and the factory warranty has now expired.

If your heart is set on a dual-cab Toyota HiLux 4x4 with turbo-diesel and automatic – and specifically one that hasn't been to the moon and back – you'll be very lucky indeed to score a vehicle still covered by factory warranty for $30,000.

Naturally, the better outcome is to buy something like a one-year old Mitsubishi Triton for $30,000 and rest easy in the knowledge that it's still covered by four years of factory warranty. But if it should happen that you're buying a vehicle without a year or three of unexpired factory warranty, carsales Warranty can shoulder that burden.