£62k 2.0 Audi..... Company Car madness
Discussion
I would 'like' to be able to buy a new car. It's not necessarily the financials holding me back, it's the principle of spending say £60K on a car and having to spec (and pay £2K extra) for a sat nav when you can buy a mid spec nissan and it's included in the price. Why not just include it in the price and make the car £62k?
MC Bodge said:
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At the large engineering consultancy that I work for, people in all roles are encouraged to travel by train to clients. They drive in whatever taxi they catch at the airport...
The car park at our main office site is behind trees - most people wouldn't know what car a visitor (or colleague) was driving.
It depends a lot on the industry and what you do and the industry you work in. I know this is a really extreme example but at a previous company somebody got a guy in to run a management team building and training exercise, he turned up in a Y reg Renault Scenic. A 10+ year old Renault MPV does not say 'I'm a successful guy and really good at training business leaders' and it transpired that he was indeed hopeless and we wasted a whole day of the management team's time with him.jamiebae said:
'Park it round the corner' isn't really practical in a lot of situations. If you're the MD, CEO, FD or similar of a medium or large company and turn up in a 3 series it doesn't give the impression that you're working for a successful company. If you arrive in a 5 year old Mondeo it says 'my business is in trouble' (albeit subconsciously) to some people and this matters when dealing with suppliers who you want to give you 90 day payment terms on six figure sums.
This is over-exaggerated by many people. It means almost nothing to a large number of people. Deliverables and value for money are what count, not somebody's chosen vehicle.At the large engineering consultancy that I work for, people in all roles are encouraged to travel by train to clients. They drive in whatever taxi they catch at the airport...
The car park at our main office site is behind trees - most people wouldn't know what car a visitor (or colleague) was driving.
Maybe it's better to use the Jeremy Clarkson explanation - someone asks 'what do you drive' and you say 'a Nissan' even though it's a GT-R then it's not cool. If you're at a conference, meeting, networking event or whatever and the subject of cars comes up then you don't want to tell everyone you drive an Insignia diesel. A car is a symbol of success to some people, in the same way as a nice watch, a good suit and a decent haircut - if you talk the talk but are wearing head-to-toe 'George' with a shiny polyester tie and bleached hair people will take this into account when forming opinions of you. Yes, it's shallow, yes, it shouldn't happen, but it does. If you're paying someone £100k+ in a senior role an extra £300 a month to give them a decent car is frankly immaterial anyway and if it fractionally helps land one £500k p.a. deal then it's paid for itself anyway^.
jamiebae said:
It depends a lot on the industry and what you do and the industry you work in. I know this is a really extreme example but at a previous company somebody got a guy in to run a management team building and training exercise, he turned up in a Y reg Renault Scenic. A 10+ year old Renault MPV does not say 'I'm a successful guy and really good at training business leaders' and it transpired that he was indeed hopeless and we wasted a whole day of the management team's time with him.
Maybe it's better to use the Jeremy Clarkson explanation - someone asks 'what do you drive' and you say 'a Nissan' even though it's a GT-R then it's not cool. If you're at a conference, meeting, networking event or whatever and the subject of cars comes up then you don't want to tell everyone you drive an Insignia diesel. A car is a symbol of success to some people, in the same way as a nice watch, a good suit and a decent haircut - if you talk the talk but are wearing head-to-toe 'George' with a shiny polyester tie and bleached hair people will take this into account when forming opinions of you. Yes, it's shallow, yes, it shouldn't happen, but it does. If you're paying someone £100k+ in a senior role an extra £300 a month to give them a decent car is frankly immaterial anyway and if it fractionally helps land one £500k p.a. deal then it's paid for itself anyway^.
Sounds like 1986. I think in the old days a company car showed your status, but with the opt out allowance becoming more popular it's pretty dangerous to judge a book by its cover. For the example you give above we had a consultant in the other day - we actually politely told him at lunchtime he'd get his full day rate but would not be required any longer, he was worse than useless. I noticed he was driving a 63 plate Audi S5. Maybe it's better to use the Jeremy Clarkson explanation - someone asks 'what do you drive' and you say 'a Nissan' even though it's a GT-R then it's not cool. If you're at a conference, meeting, networking event or whatever and the subject of cars comes up then you don't want to tell everyone you drive an Insignia diesel. A car is a symbol of success to some people, in the same way as a nice watch, a good suit and a decent haircut - if you talk the talk but are wearing head-to-toe 'George' with a shiny polyester tie and bleached hair people will take this into account when forming opinions of you. Yes, it's shallow, yes, it shouldn't happen, but it does. If you're paying someone £100k+ in a senior role an extra £300 a month to give them a decent car is frankly immaterial anyway and if it fractionally helps land one £500k p.a. deal then it's paid for itself anyway^.
We've got reps who IMO haven't learnt to tie their shoe laces properly ordering BMW 520d M Sport company cars. And directors with 25 years experience and industry acclaim who don't even own a car - use a bike to pedal in and planes / trains / taxis for travel. Also a fair few driving hum drum snotters most of the year, but then some very nice stuff turns up in the summer when the hot days bring the toys out of the garage. Others drive snotters all year, get to know them and turns out they have holiday homes abroad.
Demonstrated ability, experience, value, personality. What they drive? Not even on the list of considerations.
Appreciate we all move in different circles though
Edited by Matt UK on Tuesday 8th September 09:32
Matt UK said:
Sounds like 1986. I think in the old days a company car showed your status, but with the opt out allowance becoming more popular it's pretty dangerous to judge a book by its cover. For the example you give above we had a consultant in the other day - we actually politely told him at lunchtime he'd get his full day rate but would not be required any longer, he was worse than useless. I noticed he was driving a 63 plate Audi S5.
We've got reps who IMO haven't learnt to tie their shoe laces properly ordering BMW 520d M Sport company cars. And directors with 25 years experience and industry acclaim who don't even own a car - use a bike to pedal in and planes / trains / taxis for travel. Also a fair few driving hum drum snotters most of the year, but then some very nice stuff turns up in the summer when the hot days bring the toys out of the garage. Others drive snotters all year, get to know them and turns out they have holiday homes abroad.
Demonstrated ability, experience, value, personality. What they drive? Not even on the list of considerations.
Appreciate we all move in different circles though
I agree with all of that We've got reps who IMO haven't learnt to tie their shoe laces properly ordering BMW 520d M Sport company cars. And directors with 25 years experience and industry acclaim who don't even own a car - use a bike to pedal in and planes / trains / taxis for travel. Also a fair few driving hum drum snotters most of the year, but then some very nice stuff turns up in the summer when the hot days bring the toys out of the garage. Others drive snotters all year, get to know them and turns out they have holiday homes abroad.
Demonstrated ability, experience, value, personality. What they drive? Not even on the list of considerations.
Appreciate we all move in different circles though
Having no car and using public transport is fine, and I do agree that opt-outs have changed things slightly but even with an opt-out most companies will have some kind of 'catch all' clause that the car should be suitable and portray the right image which allows them to stop people who, say, spend their allowance on a Lotus and drive a 10 year old Clio for work (I may have done this in the past...).
At the end of the day it usually comes down to the man (or woman) at the top of the company and what they say or think is what goes. I've seen policies where you can drop one grade of car but no more (3 Series to Mondeo, or XF to C Class but not XF to Mondeo), a 'prestige brands only' policy (but a Golf GTD was OK, a Mazda CX-5 not though) and a car allowance free-for-all where people ran all kinds of unsuitable rubbish because the rules imposed were deemed unfair (company cars taken away, drivers refused to take finance out to run their own).
Back to the OP, leasing an A6 with a boat full of extras and a small engine is not that unusual, over 90% of BMW 5 series sold now are the 4 pot diesel, and it's not likely to be spending £62k of actual cash but is more like paying £800 a month to lease it. For the company paying the bill this is buttons, and as the driver would you rather have the car with the extras or without them?
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