Your inappropriate car choice for customer visits.
Discussion
I used to work for a company that gave quite a generous car allowance and fuel card but didn't put in place any restrictions on what you could have.
I had an E46 330i convertible, my boss had a TVR Tamora. Another colleague had an Elise and another lad a Caterham. There was also a Grand Cherokee Overland and a Honda Blackbird.
Not sure about inappropriate, but definitely different & certainly got comments!
More interesting than other places I've worked where you got a Vauxhall of some variety depending on your level.
I had an E46 330i convertible, my boss had a TVR Tamora. Another colleague had an Elise and another lad a Caterham. There was also a Grand Cherokee Overland and a Honda Blackbird.
Not sure about inappropriate, but definitely different & certainly got comments!
More interesting than other places I've worked where you got a Vauxhall of some variety depending on your level.
This is an interesting and very timely thread for me. I have to choose a car for business use visiting clients (allowance rather than company car makes more sense in my circumstances). It must be a 4 door but apart from that I don't yet know if there are any other restrictions. All the comments about how people react to your car are very pertinent and are restricting my choices to one of 3 (Jag XE, BMW 3 series or an Alfa Guilia).
We have had some fairly entertaining cars in the past that have been commented on by our colleagues, employers and neighbours. Most colleagues are positive and mainly just want to talk cars. Some employers have got their knickers in a right twist: their own fault for having kids and expensive holidays
(we did neither) and neighbours who we know were earning more than us but didn't speak to us for months after we gave a Ferrari 348 a home 
As a petrolhead, I am heavily leaning to the Alfa, simply because it's just lovely to drive. Unfortunately the one I am looking at is dog-cock red, so I dunno how well that will come across at client sites
We have had some fairly entertaining cars in the past that have been commented on by our colleagues, employers and neighbours. Most colleagues are positive and mainly just want to talk cars. Some employers have got their knickers in a right twist: their own fault for having kids and expensive holidays
(we did neither) and neighbours who we know were earning more than us but didn't speak to us for months after we gave a Ferrari 348 a home As a petrolhead, I am heavily leaning to the Alfa, simply because it's just lovely to drive. Unfortunately the one I am looking at is dog-cock red, so I dunno how well that will come across at client sites
I went self-employed in 1993(boring quality systems stuff) and had a Sierra LX. I only work for small companies, usually dealing with senior people. Once I’d sussed out the ones with motoring interest I’d go in my Elan S4 to the more local jobs. It didn’t help my workload when clients wanted to go out for a ride in the car and it was even worse when I changed the Elan for a Europa Twin Cam. Some of them were really disappointed if I turned up in the Sierra! They were always good for conversation and I converted a few to Lotus ownership over the years.
How times have changed! When I was 21 working at my first computer company the MD drove a Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2, the Sales Director a Lotus Esprit Essex Turbo, the Tech Director a Porsche 928 and the Finance Director a Reliant Scimitar. 
No attempt to drive mundane cars there.
No attempt to drive mundane cars there. Edited by RichB on Sunday 1st November 21:05
My mate worked for Tesla a few years ago out in California developing the Model S. Sent me a pic of the car park not what you would expect 
Pretty much all muscle cars comaro, corvettes he had an Exige. Not a single EV in sight.
I have picked up a customer in a Bentley 3 litre but he started it by letting me drive his GT4 from Munich airport to his house when I visited him. It has become a bit of a thing.
We where one of his first customers and now his company is huge so we have become quite close. We share our success because neither of us would have it without the other.
Pretty much all muscle cars comaro, corvettes he had an Exige. Not a single EV in sight.
I have picked up a customer in a Bentley 3 litre but he started it by letting me drive his GT4 from Munich airport to his house when I visited him. It has become a bit of a thing.
We where one of his first customers and now his company is huge so we have become quite close. We share our success because neither of us would have it without the other.
Good mate of mine visits private clients in his role as MD/salesman of his business. He worries about creating the wrong impression with his choice of car, so currently drives an Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio. To people who don't know cars and who might judge him for being too flash it looks like any unassuming saloon, but he's had some great conversations and nothing but positivity from customers who are into their cars and therefore recognise it.
) ... 
We had an auditor from our largest customer from LA. We were working late on site and when it came to getting a cab for him, there was nothing available for 40 minutes ( Isle of Wight in the summer!!)
So, squeezed him and his work case into my Smart Roadster for the 30 minute drive to his hotel. Luckily he saw the funny side!
Not particularly appropriate......
So, squeezed him and his work case into my Smart Roadster for the 30 minute drive to his hotel. Luckily he saw the funny side!
Not particularly appropriate......
Stanleysdad said:
I once picked my German boss up from Manchester airport, in my VX220 turbo. Only problem was that she's a size 24 and weighs about 20 stone. 1st and 3rd where interesting, it was a tight squeeze ??????
That sounds like the opening scene from one of those films that I believe you can find on the internet.....Google [bot] said:
Pre-COVID I’d visit clients semi-regularly in this. It actually surprised me how few commented on it.
I used to drive a Chevy Caprice daily, similar size, good fun but realllly not great for parking in 1960s multi-storey car parks. I remember one time getting stuck in the one in Waitrose, Southsea.One time I had a meeting at Dorset Police HQ, I turned up in a Chevy Camaro IROC-Z which had an exhaust loud enough to shake window panes...
A few years ago we had a fleet of identikit silver diesel VW Passats and Audi A4s. I was a bit of a dogsbody back then so I used to turn up to all sorts of posh meetings in our car uniform, but the next day might be in overalls driving a van around collecting engineering parts.
On one trip back I remember running some kit in a Luton van down to a supplier, the M5 was shut so I didn't get back towards home until about 10pm. Given that work was another 80-minute round trip and I had to be on the road at 7am the next day to see the supplier's head office, I just took the van home and used it to commute the next day - work were fine with it.
I remember getting a call from my boss after the meeting saying that it wasn't appreciated that I brought a commercial vehicle to some posh little compound where everybody had 530ds or E320s, as it lowered the tone of the car park.
Subsequently I used our scabbiest vans every f
king time to go and see them. I knew they were pissed off but they couldn't really do much unless they dropped their contract with us.
On one trip back I remember running some kit in a Luton van down to a supplier, the M5 was shut so I didn't get back towards home until about 10pm. Given that work was another 80-minute round trip and I had to be on the road at 7am the next day to see the supplier's head office, I just took the van home and used it to commute the next day - work were fine with it.
I remember getting a call from my boss after the meeting saying that it wasn't appreciated that I brought a commercial vehicle to some posh little compound where everybody had 530ds or E320s, as it lowered the tone of the car park.
Subsequently I used our scabbiest vans every f
king time to go and see them. I knew they were pissed off but they couldn't really do much unless they dropped their contract with us.A few years ago, we took on a chap at work. When he finally left six years later he had succeeded in irritating pretty much the entire company, plus destroyed the goodwill between the shop floor and the engineering department. He had also introduced a long-winded set of spectacularly useless production handover procedures, written from the perspective of a non-engineer who clearly didn't have a clue, which took us another couple of years to undo.
The ironic thing is that a good few of us knew he'd be a tosser as he turned up for his interview in a Ferrari 355.
The ironic thing is that a good few of us knew he'd be a tosser as he turned up for his interview in a Ferrari 355.
Only one customer of mine has seen this car, purely because I know he "gets it".
I keep it secret from ALL my other customers, employees have been warned not to mention my cars to customers as well.
All through bitter experience of green eyed monsters in some of our household names I now keep my garage firmly under wraps
It seems there are a few of that type lurking in this thread
This is one area we can learn from the US, celebrate hard work and the achievements because it!
Don't put it down out of jealousy.
I now to site visits is a very dirty, tuned but debadged Merc C43AMG estate
2018-10-25_01-46-19 by Mikey K 675LT, on Flickr
I keep it secret from ALL my other customers, employees have been warned not to mention my cars to customers as well.
All through bitter experience of green eyed monsters in some of our household names I now keep my garage firmly under wraps
It seems there are a few of that type lurking in this thread
This is one area we can learn from the US, celebrate hard work and the achievements because it!
Don't put it down out of jealousy.
I now to site visits is a very dirty, tuned but debadged Merc C43AMG estate
2018-10-25_01-46-19 by Mikey K 675LT, on FlickrEdited by mikey k on Monday 2nd November 11:18
Seem to recall a similar thread to this recently. I used to think this whole theory was total BS but I now realise that I was coming at this from the point of view of a car nerd. If a supplier turned up in a Lambo I'd be delighted but you absolutely do see the toxic/negative side coming out from others. Where we see car enthusiast enjoying their pride and joy, others see a show off flashing their wealth at others. Being self employed now myself, I never use my Lotus to visit client sites. It's not a particularly expensive car but at the same time it is definitely not inconspicuous and for every car enthusiast there there will be 20 others who think I'm a knobhead where as turning up in something more anonymous won't even register. If I get to know clients well and they're car people it can be different but in the meantime, sadly it stays under wraps.
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