The other half and cars

Lostgear

Lostgear

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Adam
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Am I un-justified in being really ****ed off here? I have had the fortune of having a company car for most of my working career, the last one being a really nice A4. Now the company I work for has changed its car policy to only offer a car allowance and leave its employees to sort out suitable vehicles for themselves. So to the crux of the matter, the allowance will cover the lease cost, insurance, maintenance etc for an equivelent replacement, but..... the Mrs has insisted we dont need anything expensive and will only allow me to get somthing for £2500 out of savings :eek: and put the car allowance in the joint account for household expenses etc.

WTF......
 
Lostgear said:
Am I un-justified in being really ****ed off here? ......
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Nope I would be too!

If you cover a lot of miles you will need something reliable and comfortable
after all its your mobile office ( I guess?)
 
""and will only allow me to get something ""............:thinking:

if you use the car during the day to drive to/from sites/appointments et al; then its part of your daily working environment and must suit you - i drive 40,000 miles pa - the car HAS to be my choice not a budget consideration
 
*** must type faster......****
 
Lostgear said:
Am I un-justified in being really ****ed off here?
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No. It's you who has to do all the driving, last thing you want is to be uncomfortable
 
It depends. :)

First thing to do is look at how much tax that nice Audi cost you in BIK.

If you have a car allowance that will save you the amount you used to be taxed.

Soooo you can spend more of your car allowance on a decent car.

Having said all that, it depends what you need the car for. If you live 2 miles down the road and the car is not really needed for work then you may have to compromise on that one.

Our car allowance does stipulate that it has to be suitable and muct be less than 7 years old.
 
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Nothing tires you out more than driving an underpowered uncomfortable vehicle long distances, you need to be fit to do the job when you arrive at it.

Consider too that buying a cheap second hand car is not cost effective, it's unlikely to be reliable and will cost more to run both in fuel and servicing.
 
Get very drunk and threaten to change the present Mrs Lostgear?

BTW I'm a divorced SAAB driver so perhaps not the best person to give advice on either wives or cars!
 
just an aside - watch out on your income tax

why do you think the Company has suddenly changed - cos it's good for THEM !

you may find that the "allowance" they give you is charged at a higher Tax than the "benefit " they attached to your salary

paranoid - me ? well you would be too if they were all after you too............
 
So the chep car breaks down on the way to the meeting that gets you the month/quarter/annual bonus, and you don't hit it. That'll cost mroe that the lease would....

don't forget safety, economy and comfort..As well as the right image to the customer. Can you not buy the old lease car?
 
Why don't you tell SWMBO that the company has stipulated that the car must be of a certain marquee, less than 2 years old <amend to suit circumstances>


I know how you feel - I have a cash allowance and want to change my car but SWMBO is saying that I can't have this, can't have that and I drive 1,000+ miles per week :(
 
Buck said:
............and want to change my car but SWMBO is saying that I can't have this, can't have that and I drive 1,000+ miles per week :(
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...just keep driving and dont turn around ......:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
Tell her that the company stipulated that the entire car allowance must be spent on the car - otherwise you're in breach of the rules and will be fired...tell her the Fleet Manager is a complete Nazi about this and knows to the penny what cars cost (and cost to run) and does spot-checks on employees' transport to ensure they're not breaking the rules...
Tell her failure to comply may result in disciplinary measures being taken and forfeiture of the allowance altogether.

C'mon...man-up, Lie to her like a 'proper' bloke and get a decent motor - are you a man or what?
 
Lostgear said:
the Mrs has insisted we dont need anything expensive and will only allow me to get somthing for £2500 out of savings :eek: and put the car allowance in the joint account for household expenses etc.

WTF......
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Will only allow :eek: Like i'd put up with that :annoyed:

If the allowance is sufficient to lease a new car, pick something in a low tax bracket I hear the BMW 1 series diesel is pretty good, £35 a year road tax and 60 odd to the gallon.

A £2500 car can easily become a hole to throw money in, the first thing you'll need to do is get a cambelt fitted as it's unlikely to have any history so it's a £3000 car before you even start.
 
I was in a similar situation almost 4 years ago, got promotion at work needed to fund my own car. My company currently uses the government scheme where I get 40 pence per mile for the first 10,000 miles per year then 25 pence for the rest of the tax year, for all my business mileage . (all tax free but I have to pay for everything car, insurance, servicing, fuel etc.) Not having anything to base my mileage on had to have guess at what mileage I would do and finance the car based on that.
I am currently looking at replacing my car having done 120,000 in my current car. Whilst I was paying off the car I didn't make any money. now I have finished the actual loan off then I am, but that will be the deposit I use for the next car something I didn't have when I got the first car.
I also had a 70% NCD as I had previously had a company van and my "family car" was not deemed suitable it doesn't have ABS (company car policy says it must have that) something the OP may find difficult to get is more than 30% discount on his policy.

Having said that with the weather these last few months I would have struggled if I had still got the loan to pay off.

Another thing for the OP needs to look at is how the loan is financed as I use the car for personnel use (for tax purposes two and from your regular place of work is deemed private mileage, so you can't claim that mileage )I didn't have to take out a business loan.
 
Get yourself a nice Car Adam, we need something good to get us up to Scotland safely!!!!!!!!!

As for dealing with the Mrs..........Well i will leave that to you ;)

Thought you wanted to get a cheap car anyway, and the spare money is yours not hers.

You shouldnt have told her about it. Set up a secret bank account and shove the money in that :P

Alternatively just borrow Mums new motor :D
 
I'm not sure what you know so I will pass on a few of my experiences.

Make sure you do all the maths before going out spending your full allowance on the car especially a lease car, insurance needs to be business use and that is quite a bit more than non business use and budget for some running costs, the company will pay you the mileage you do for business but you will discover that you do a lot of personal miles that they won't pay for, the 40p and 25p per mile is there to cover the cost of fuel, tyres, maintenance and depreciation now I know leases can be got that cover all but fuel. But as your using it for personal use as well it won't cover them all. So make use of the payments for some of it.

Every place I worked at stipulated that cars on their schemes had to be less than 5 years old and 4 doors in case you transport customers. I stayed on the company cars just for ease and insurance costs as a 20 year old were expensive but those that went over to the allowance didn't actually make anything on it even thought they thought they would as they bought or leased new cars and the depreciation killed them. The 2 that bought some really nice 6 month old or ex demo cars made a killing as they saved £6k+ on the purchase price 4 years down the line finished paying the finance and then had 6 months of free motoring pocketing the allowance building a deposit for another car so then paid the car up in 3 years not 4 so went on a holiday for a month to Australia. The saving the allowance also allowed them to put bigger deposits down so paid the finance off in 36 months or bought a better/bigger or more expensive car.

Do it smart and you can make a fair whack and be driving a nice car, cock it up and it will bite you on the ass. If you do any highish mileage buy diesel and you will make money on the mileage allowance as well, but don't scrimp go for something that will deal with the mileage easily not a 1.3CDTi corsa and make sure its comfy nothing worse than a car with junk seats that you sit in for 3 hours at a time.
 
Just a metal box with four wheels and I totally agree with your missus

Majority of modern cars are comfortable,reliable and easily do the legally allowed speed limit, sounds more like a status thing to me
 
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Lostgear said:
the Mrs has insisted
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The word "insist" has no place in a relationship between adults, nor anything else where one party dictates what the other will do. Fix that first, then think about what car.

(this may not be popular advice :lol: )
 
How secure is your job, how long have you been there? your wife could just be concerned about you committing to a 4 year lease, when there's a chance you could be unemployed next month?
 
tijuana taxi said:
Just a metal box with four wheels and I totally agree with your missus

Majority of modern cars are comfortable,reliable and easily do the legally allowed speed limit, sounds more like a status thing to me
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It's just some glass and a CCD / CMOS sensor, the majority of mobile phones can easily take photographs. DSLRs sound more like a status thing to me.

Or not?...
 
You really shouldn't let women (wife or not) dictate your finances - now two people in this thread have said, "the missus won't let me..." C'mon guys, grow a pair, FFS. :bonk:

Alternatively, put your money in the joint bank account and watch the eBay, ASOS and Next parcels drop through the door while you spend half your days standing in some garage watching your pride and joy get fixed!

Learned my lesson with joint accounts about 25 years ago... never again! :D
 
don't forget... once you come out of the company car scheme your normal income will go up anyway as you won't be getting taxed on a benefit in kind... ask the payroll people what it's going to be after the change, that'll give you a true figure on how much £££ you've got to play with on top of the car allowance.
To be honest, i've done the car thing over the years with BMW, Mercs, Audi's etc.. and now i'd rather have a mid range car (currently a Golf) and the wonga in my back pocket if i'm honest. Even so, the missus has got her own car so she has no say whatsover on what i drive :thinking: don't think she knows my login to TP!!
 
Buy something like this and offer to run her over to see her pals in it....

skoda.jpg


she'll have you round at the Audi dealer before you can say ABS...:naughty:
 
out of interest do you do any serious milage regularly?
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Only by train or plane, can't stand the hassle of driving

What type of car is necessary for serious mileage, would have thought comfortable and reliable, anything else?
 
tijuana taxi said:
Just a metal box with four wheels and I totally agree with your missus

Majority of modern cars are comfortable,reliable and easily do the legally allowed speed limit, sounds more like a status thing to me
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A metal box with four wheels? :cuckoo::bonk:
 
Grow a pair and get the car YOU want. It's your job and your car allowance so don't let your wife have a say in it.

Your car allowance isn't a salary increase, it is given to you to spend on a car for business use. Does your wife get a say in any other things you do at work? Does she get to approve the photocopier you get in the office? No, so don't give her a say in this.
 
Seems as though the OP has gone into hiding since the opening post
Do you think his Mrs reads TP and has strung him up :shrug: :D
 
My company has always been mileage only.
Never had a problem and my cars have usually paid for themselves fairly quickly.

Just sold my last chariot
Y-reg Saab 95 estate - leather, cruise, climate, quiet, spacious, safe
Big comfortable long distance load lugger
Some of the best seats available - period
Last big run was 9 hours with one loo stop - no aches or numb bums
Only 90K miles, sold for £1000 - he's got a real bargain......
For some reason you can buy a decent Saab for peanuts.
 
Cobra said:
Seems as though the OP has gone into hiding since the opening post
Do you think his Mrs reads TP and has strung him up :shrug: :D
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No, still here, not as ****ed off as yesterday though. I spoke to the Boss at work about running around in an old banger (8 year old Focus), he agreed this was OK:lol: so long as I used the Mrs's car for any really long journeys (200 mile +). So I cant rely on the car allowance policy stipulating a new motor, but I will have a stack of cash at the end of each month, i'm not sure what to do with. :thinking:

Somthing fast and long - 400mm F2.8:D

FYI I ranted on TZ-UK as well :-http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=110263
 
Lostgear said:
Somthing fast and long -
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A tall leggy blond maybe :shrug:


Glad to hear the Mrs hadn't cut off your nads
Mind if you follow my advice as above, she just might :D
 
Lostgear said:
No, still here, not as ****ed off as yesterday though. I spoke to the Boss at work about running around in an old banger (8 year old Focus), he agreed this was OK:lol: so long as I used the Mrs's car for any really long journeys (200 mile +). So I cant rely on the car allowance policy stipulating a new motor, but I will have a stack of cash at the end of each month, i'm not sure what to do with. :thinking:

Somthing fast and long - 400mm F2.8:D

FYI I ranted on TZ-UK as well :-http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=110263
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An 8 yr old Focus should manage 200 mile + easy, I have a 12 yr old Mondeo with 237,000 miles on the clock and I'd trust that to any length of journey.
 
tijuana taxi said:
Just a metal box with four wheels and I totally agree with your missus

Majority of modern cars are comfortable,reliable and easily do the legally allowed speed limit, sounds more like a status thing to me
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Something that feels comfortable when you test drive it can be incredibly tiring after driving any distance.

Take 4 'daily driver' cars from my history.
1. Fiat Brava (I know...). Was new & cheap but fitted into the comfortable and reliable catagory very well. Until I drove it up to the lakes. Got there with back pain, and serious ankle ache the first time. Long journeys were a chore.
2. Vauxhall Vectra. More powerful motor, agan very comfortable. Fairly reliable. Same thing on long journeys.
3. Saab 9-5. Very confortable, long drives were generally a breeze got there with minimal tiredness. Probably the best value for mony car I ever owned.
4. BMW 325ci. Incredibly comfortable, smooth & quiet. I can do a long trip and get there feeling incredibly relaxed. Most expensive car I have ever owned but feels worth it.

Comfortable is good when you sit in it. When you drive it a long way you will appreciate smooth & quiet too. This is something that the quality marques do so much better.
 
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