Company cars experts

I wouldn't, if I didn't need to do 150 plus miles in it.

Heh.

That's what the L&M International Panda 4x4 and Lancia Y10 ie were
called.

 

heheh. I work for an incredibly successful company and nobody has
company cars or car allowances. Not even the directors/owners, and we
have no trouble recruiting some of the best people in Europe for our
jobs.

And everyone in the company drives a hell of a lot.

 

My car is leased via leaseplan, and they don't service it via a main
dealer at all. They use an independent Bosch service centre who collect
it, service, then return it, same day.

 

Yeah, some of my colleagues get that service - but I don't have any
local authorised service centres - so I'm stuck with franchised dealers.

 

A car is an accepted part of the package in retail area management roles
- mainly because you can't do the job without one.

 

SteveH says...

'A car'

A car can be a 1.2 Polo, or a 4.2 V8 Jaguar. Both will get you from A to
B. What's the big fucking deal about the level of trim or the size of
the car? It's not like you have to carry a shitload of tools or ladders
on the roof in your job.

 

My boot is full of all sorts of bits and pieces - I keep a 'float' of
spare store equipment to save the hassle and delay of ordering stuff
from Germany.

I also take more senior managers / directors from both my company and
the partner companies out in my car - it wouldn't look very good if I
picked up a director in a Polo.

 

SteveH says...

The directors of my old firm were quite happy to be driven around by us
in base model Golfs. But then again, my old bosses wouldn't have
employed someone who thought his company car's badge was important to
the job he was doing.

 

And it looks *really* professional when you wedge a director of <instert
one of the big 4 supermarkets here> into some poverty spec hatch.

Anyway, it's not about the badge it's about the capability of the car to
do the job I want it to do. Which means something bigger and more
powerful than the cheapest diesel Golf.

 

No, and out of those I only have the turbo. Non-turbo diesels just don't
cut it when hauling around modern cars. I could have had the slightly
cheaper 1.9TDI, but the few quid a month extra it costs for an extra
35bhp is money well spent when you want to overtake someone doing 40mph
on a narrow single-carriageway road in mid Wales.

The point being that a poverty spec small hatch isn't really suitable
from either a load carrying point of view or an entertaining clients
point of view.

 

Says the man who's previously owned quite an impressive set of penis
extensions over recent years.

 

SteveH says...

You do talk some shit at times. How will having a more powerful car than
a Golf Sdi help you to do your job better. The Golf will do 70mph, the
maximum legal speed limit on mainland Britain, it will also accelerate
smartly enough to keep up with 90% of traffic floow situations. Do you
tow a large trailer, or carry extremely heavy loads? IIRC, you managed
quite nicely running back and forth to work on a bike when you were a
retail manager. Has the law changed as to manager's vehicles recently?

Please explain, Steve, I'm really intrigued as to why it is vital that
you have to have a big powerful car to do an area retail manager's job.

 

As I've said, I need the boot space to carry a load of crap around. Also
useful for stock transfers, given there's no other way to get stuff
from, say, Aberystwyth to Chepstow. As for having something with decent
power - I'd prefer not to have to row the car along using the gearstick,
given that most of my stores are in the arse end of nowhere. OK, it's
perhaps not essential, but I arrive feeling more relaxed if I can stick
the car in 4th and let the engine do the work - when I had a Golf Plus
with the 1.8 petrol lump I seemed to be forever changing gear on the
Llandovery to Aberystwyth via Lampeter road.

 

They may have been slightly shonky old barges, but did you not own a Jag
and a 540 recently?

Surely a 1.6 Mondeo would have done the job just as well?

 

SteveH says...

Important word you used there , Steve - "owned".

If I'm buying a car for my own personal use then I buy the best spec
available for the cash I have to spend. I even went to the lengths of
fitting leather trim and electric windows to a Combo van because it
suited me better. I'm sure Bear feels the same.

If it's a company car, the cheaper and more economical the better
because the tax liability is lower.

 

The saving in tax is perhaps 20 or 30 quid per month in taking something
with 74bhp and no toys against something with 138bhp and a lot of toys.

Given that it's replaced my own car, that's a price I'm more than happy
to pay.

 

The way I see it is that it's a benefit in lieu of salary.

If I wanted to finance something similar I'd be looking at a good few
hundred quid a month.

Yes, there's a measure of worth involved - but it's a measure of how the
company values you - hence directors get A8s / Q7s, regional managers
get A6s. It's also party how you're perceived by the people you meet.
Golf SDI = sales rep / merchandiser, Passat = area manager, A6 =
regional manager. First impressions count for a lot - the car you pick
someone up in is all part of the first impression they have of you
before they get to know you.

 

You really aren't looking at true figures. Here's mine, roughly: based on
forty percent tax.

Car allowance of 450 a month, which is 270 after tax. 3240 quid a year.

Let's say 30K miles a year, paid at 20 pence a mile and not taxable. That's
tax relief of 2000 quid for the first 10K, and a grand for the next 20K.
Equates to a tax rebate of 1200 quid at forty percent tax.

I also reckoned I made a profit on the mileage - it actually costs me about
12p a mile for the Avensis, at worst. So, that is another 2400 quid a year.

A total of..... 6840, yes? Plus, not paying tax on the company car, of
course. Now, I know it's a decent car allowance and mileage rate, and one
may not be on top rate tax. But them's the maths. (It also had the side
benefit of allowing me to pay slightly more into my pension, before the
rules changed.)

Ali

 

SteveH says...

My old colleagues picked up new Passats this week. They all wanted
Jettas but the boss bought them something bigger and better. They'd
still rather have had Jettas though, not for any reason other than the
boot on a Jetta is marginally bigger than the Passat.

 

Car stuff

I think it's really sad that value is linked to consumer commodities.

I don't think I'd like to spend time with someone who based their
perceptions of me as a person on the consumer goods I owned/was given
by work to use.

I'm sure there's a bit in a book or an old comedy show about workers
arguing about the extra letters on company cars. Anyone got a better
memory than me?

I think that's a bit sad really. Hey ho, time for that quote again

"'it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick
society"