Company car downgrade

[Bonzo1930]

Hi looking for some opinions as to whether I am being oversensitive.
For the last 18 months been running Seat Ibizas as company cars with the 1 litre turbo engine had 4 of them changed regularly as the company I work for owns a garage group.
Had an email today saying they are changing my car again but this time it's staying for 3 years oh & it's the non turbo mpi which according to a colleague who got lumbered with one a while back wouldn't pull you out of bed!
I've kicked off about it but it looks like I might be stuck with it!
Do I A put up with it?
Or B tell them to stuff the car and take some extra money if they will do that
Or C tell them to stuff there job!
Any opinions?

[f1nn]

D. Get a grip...people living are in poverty and you’ve got the arse about a company car.

[Trailhead]

f1nn said:

D. Get a grip...people living are in poverty and you’ve got the arse about a company car.

This.

You’re fortunate to get a car at all.

[Wacky Racer]

f1nn said:

D. Get a grip...people living are in poverty and you’ve got the arse about a company car.

This.

Most people have to pay for their cars.

[DanT86]

First world problems

[scjgreen]

Get a Better Job that comes with a Better Car

[Plate spinner]

scjgreen said:

Get a Better Job that comes with a Better Car

This.

[Matt-il77s]

Bonzo1930 said:

Hi looking for some opinions as to whether I am being oversensitive.
For the last 18 months been running Seat Ibizas as company cars with the 1 litre turbo engine had 4 of them changed regularly as the company I work for owns a garage group.
Had an email today saying they are changing my car again but this time it's staying for 3 years oh & it's the non turbo mpi which according to a colleague who got lumbered with one a while back wouldn't pull you out of bed!
I've kicked off about it but it looks like I might be stuck with it!
Do I A put up with it?
Or B tell them to stuff the car and take some extra money if they will do that
Or C tell them to stuff there job!
Any opinions?

Ask if they would consider an allowance? what is your job? you can't be doing many miles in Seat Ibizas

Why not just use it for work and buy a fun weekend car?

[SAS Tom]

I’ve got a 1.2tsi Fabia and recently hired a 1.0mpi on holiday in Italy. The 1.0 is very slow compared to the tsi with 40bhp less however, it’s not bad. First impressions are crap but once you get used to it, it’s perfectly acceptable. You don’t need to rag it everywhere to get it to move and it’s pretty good on fuel. The gearbox is miles behind though, it feels crap in comparison.

[South tdf]

Is there the option of an allowance?

I took this option and brought a two year old BMW as I only need to get to a from the office and it will pay for itself in under two years.

[softtop]

I've changed jobs when they offered stty cars

[Poppiecock]

Wacky Racer said:

f1nn said:

D. Get a grip...people living are in poverty and you’ve got the arse about a company car.

This.

Most people have to pay for their cars.

I'm going out on a limb here, but perhaps the company car is to enable him to do his job and he begrudgingly pays the tax on it anyway.

If you spend a lot of hours driving on company business, stuff like this makes a difference - and remember, the car is part of the overall package, very often companies give a car in lieu of salary.

We don't know what the OP earns, but the BIK he pays could be a fairly significant amount to him for something he hates.

Company cars are an emotive subject, especially when the business downgrades you from what you've been used to having.

[Rewe]

Actually, I can see why you are feeling a bit undervalued. It’s not the car I bet, it’s the fact that your overall package has reduced slightly without any discussion with you? It would be a bit like telling someone, via email and without explanation, that their salary will go down by £20 a month.

Rubbish communication considering how hard it is to keep a workforce motivated and energetic at the best of times!

[Bonzo1930]

Thanks for your opinions I think quite a few of you get it the car is needed but is also part of my salary, obviously there's a few out there that think a company car is free unfortunately the tax man takes his cut!
So a downgrade feels like a pay cut and who wants one of those?
Will wait and see if I can opt out if I can't I suppose I will just have to leave earlier!

[Poppiecock]

Bonzo1930 said:

Thanks for your opinions I think quite a few of you get it the car is needed but is also part of my salary, obviously there's a few out there that think a company car is free unfortunately the tax man takes his cut!
So a downgrade feels like a pay cut and who wants one of those?
Will wait and see if I can opt out if I can't I suppose I will just have to leave earlier!

Been there, done that with cars myself!

Worked for a business which replaced Mk2 Toyota Prius with Mk2 Focus 1.6TDCi Econetics because someone in head office had one for a weekend and liked it... then earlier this year, we got a revised car list in my current role that dropped most of the sales team from cars like the BMW 520d to a 1-series or Lexus CT200h. You can imagine how that went down!

We appealed via our employee forum and got our allowance re-set using some benchmark cars.

Good luck with whatever you do. It's never nice when a company removes or downgrades a benefit.

[Vee]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Very funny . . Actually the cretin is the person who’s been here 10 years jumping to conclusions because they’ve posted 22k times so automatically know everything.

OP, if you are being charged for it and it comes with your job you can try to have a moan about it. If it is company that deals in cars they may have got a good deal on these, alternatively they may have more flexibility in what they can give you.

[RDMcG]

Reminds me of the brilliant old documentary about company cars and status which is hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsMFQZa8os

[Countdown]

RDMcG said:

Reminds me of the brilliant old documentary about company cars and status which is hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsMFQZa8os

That’s as good as any David Attenborough wildlife documentary.

[StevieBee]

Bonzo1930 said:

there's a few out there that think a company car is free unfortunately the tax man takes his cut!
So a downgrade feels like a pay cut and who wants one of those?

It's likely that the downgrade may well be balanced out with a more favourable tax rate so you should end up with more cash in the bank at the end of the month.

I understand your feelings but a company car is a tool and nothing more. A nice one is nice but it is nothing more than a means to do your job.

[Jasandjules]

Are you paying the BIK tax on it?