1994: secrets of the company car men

[Dobloseven]

6 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

All this went out the window when BIK was based on emissions. Everyone had to have a BMW320d. 
Then hybrids were briefly favoured. I’m guessing the company car of choice is a Tesla 3? 

Oldest son has had "company cars"continuously since the early noughties.Was thinking back as to all the different ones.Skoda Superb,Mazda  6,Volvo V50,Passat,several BMW 3s,a long run of Audi A4s.The only Ford/Vauxhall was an Astra H.Had plenty as hire cars though,and remember him saying back in the day,he wouldn't have minded a Mondeo.As said, it's all down to BIK.Current BMW 330e Tourer PHEV saves him a lot of tax compared to the A4 Avant diesel that it replaced.Bit of a strange thing.As an electric car, it's got a very short range.As a petrol car, it's not very economical,with a small tank as well.Get the engine and electric motor working together and it tries to kill you!Think the future will be a Tesla and coffee stops.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

I think company cars are out now in general, not really needed for a lot of jobs. The norm now seems to be car allowance, which sounds great if you work for a company that couldn’t give a shit what you drive.
 

Otherwise for a lot of people it means financing and taking responsibility for a vehicle to make your employer look good if they specify certain makes/no older than 5 years old etc. Fine if you were going to do that anyway but if you don’t want to/can’t finance another car then why should you have all the agg? What if you are laid off etc? 

My wife opted out of her company car scheme. Due to BIK rules, the choice had become quite limited (on her grade) and life’s too short to drive a car you hate just to save a few pounds a month. In theory it does away with having the liability for maintenance but the lease company made you deal with the likes of Kwikfit who refused to touch the tyres if there was a micron of tread above legal.

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, Metal Guru said:

My wife opted out of her company car scheme. Due to BIK rules, the choice had become quite limited (on her grade) and life’s too short to drive a car you hate just to save a few pounds a month. In theory it does away with having the liability for maintenance but the lease company made you deal with the likes of Kwikfit who refused to touch the tyres if there was a micron of tread above legal.

I’m quite anti-credit, I’m sure it works for some people but I’m not one of them. I’ve seen enough things that it’s not a road I’d ever go down apart from my mortgage because that’s a relatively safe bet. I’ve never had a loan, everything bought outright for cash and it’s served me well. I know that’s not the way these days but when I was growing up if we couldn’t buy it we didn’t have it hence there was always food on the table. 
 

For that reason I would not be borrowing money for a car on the say so of work because when all said and done work is a purely transactional process, once you’ve fulfilled your usefulness then you’ve got to go. And I would not want to be hanging on to a finance deal at the end of it. 

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

I’m quite anti-credit, I’m sure it works for some people but I’m not one of them. I’ve seen enough things that it’s not a road I’d ever go down apart from my mortgage because that’s a relatively safe bet. I’ve never had a loan, everything bought outright for cash and it’s served me well. I know that’s not the way these days but when I was growing up if we couldn’t buy it we didn’t have it hence there was always food on the table. 
 

For that reason I would not be borrowing money for a car on the say so of work because when all said and done work is a purely transactional process, once you’ve fulfilled your usefulness then you’ve got to go. And I would not want to be hanging on to a finance deal at the end of it. 

Never had a car loan. Never bought a car more than 3 years old. 

[Lord Sterling]

⚠️ BORING WRITINGS ALERT ⚠️

I've never had a company car, but I have driven a few. 

Many years ago in the mid 00s when I had my Mk1 Rover 827Si, I worked for a company whose carpark was over the road from a canal, which next to that was a small bushy/grassy hill and had paths running through it. As I worked nights and there were only ever 5 to 6 of us in a factory that normally had a hundred people or so, we would park our cars inside the Goods in depot. It was great because it generally meant that my car was at least "garaged" at night from the elements.

This also meant that the pool cars had to be put away too. They consisted of a couple of Audi A4 avants, a couple of Volvo S60 saloons, occasionally a mid 00s BMW 3er and my most favourite, a Volvo V50 estate WD55 LNO. Eventually I was passed the keys to do the task of parking them in the warehouse, which meant I occasionally took them for a blast around the industrial estate when no one was looking.

(Bera in mind, these weren't all taken at the same time. A lot of cars were taken home except silver Audi A4, Volvo V50 and silver S80 were generally here most of the time)

My cars at the time firstly; (Excuse the horrid pics, this was taken on a mid 00s camera phone)

Pool cars:

Out of this lot, only the BMW 320D and Mondeo survive. 

Fast forward a few years, some may remember me having an incident with black Mercedes E280 S124. The wheel basically fell off on a roundabout due to a ball joint failure. As my then workplace was around the corner from the garage and a local mosque I wanted to attend, I was given the keys to a pool car VW Passat:

Althoigh I could pop to thebgarage and mosque locally, I couldn't take it home as it was being used by another member of staff who was ferrying bits up and down to various customers around the country, so generally he'd be heading out of home to a customer occasionally popping into the office. 

I actually got this washed for them if I recall correctly as a thank you to them for trusting me with it. Again, this Passat hasn't seen tax since 2020.

[sierraman]

30 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

*** BORING WRITINGS ALERT ⚠️

I've never had a company car, but I have driven a few. 

Many years ago in the mid 00s when I had my Mk1 Rover 827Si, I worked for a company whose carpark was over the road from a canal, which next to that was a small bushy/grassy hill and had paths running through it. As I worked nights and there were only ever 5 to 6 of us in a factory that normally had a hundred people or so, we would park our cars inside the Goods in depot. It was great because it generally meant that my car was at least "garaged" at night from the elements.

This also meant that the pool cars had to be put away too. They consisted of a couple of Audi A4 avants, a couple of Volvo S60 saloons, occasionally a mid 00s BMW 3er and my most favourite, a Volvo V50 estate WD55 LNO. Eventually I was passed the keys to do the task of parking them in the warehouse, which meant I occasionally took them for a blast around the industrial estate when no one was looking.

(Bera in mind, these weren't all taken at the same time. A lot of cars were taken home except silver Audi A4, Volvo V50 and silver S80 were generally here most of the time)

My cars at the time firstly; (Excuse the horrid pics, this was taken on a mid 00s camera phone)

Pool cars:

Out of this lot, only the BMW 320D and Mondeo survive. 

Fast forward a few years, some may remember me having an incident with black Mercedes E280 S124. The wheel basically fell off on a roundabout due to a ball joint failure. As my then workplace was around the corner from the garage and a local mosque I wanted to attend, I was given the keys to a pool car VW Passat:

Althoigh I could pop to thebgarage and mosque locally, I couldn't take it home as it was being used by another member of staff who was ferrying bits up and down to various customers around the country, so generally he'd be heading out of home to a customer occasionally popping into the office. 

I actually got this washed for them if I recall correctly as a thank you to them for trusting me with it. Again, this Passat hasn't seen tax since 2020.

The Passat is probably still on the road but it’ll be outside a concrete block of flats in a country somewhere in the Eastern Bloc where everything is grey and it’s snowing or pissing it down constantly. 

[Lord Sterling]

29 minutes ago, sierraman said:

The Passat is probably still on the road but it’ll be outside a concrete block of flats in a country somewhere in the Eastern Bloc where everything is grey and it’s snowing or pissing it down constantly. 

Oddly enough, some years back when I was trade-plating. I picked up a quite nice BMW 420d in blue. I had it over the weekend to drop off to BCA in Derby for the following Monday. 

A a couple of months ago, I happened upon an old pic of it I took and did a reg check, its now out in Romania for sale! It had new alloys and a deeper front bumper fitted:

When I had it:

Now in Romania:

[iand]

I still have a company car, and it has gone electric due to BIK but the cost of having one is so low compared to the car allowance given. 

I was paying over £400 a month in deductions on a 2017 Audi A4 Avant, and then the next car was a BMW iX3 which cost me £45 a month so it makes sense if you can charge at home. The iX3 went last March as I had done 95k miles in it in 3 years. Currently have a BMW i4 M50 as a temporary car, (it is unnecessarily fast) and have an BMW i4 40 on order.

The job banding is a funny thing, and still there, our company offers very good cars overall, but it is sometimes the next trim model up between bands, going from an Msport to an Msport Pro in BMW's.  

[sierraman]

Can you register RHD cars in Romania? 

[Lord Sterling]

On 16/01/2026 at 10:34, sierraman said:

Can you register RHD cars in Romania? 

Officially probably not due to it being an RHD.

However, I suppose someone could buy it and just drive it about without official papers until caught. Loads of UK reg'd cars in places like Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal running about illegally. There's even a few in Brussels that I know of.

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, Lord Sterling said:

I think officially no due to it being an RHD.

However, I suppose someone would buy it and just drive it about withoit official papers until your caught. Loads of UK reg'd cars in places like Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. 

If a Romanian Customs Officer can’t be bribed I’ll eat my hat.

[warren t claim]

 

[kevins]

The current thing with company cars is a lease on salary sacrifice, comes off you highest tax rate so up to 60% off and if you go EV no BIK (for the moment).

Because I worked in the motor industry I've for many years had a subsidised company lease car,  probably about 50% of the price of buying and running it yourself,  I'm even able to keep it in retirement,  it falls under the motor industry ecos scheme so no BIK,  thankfully one of this governments many U turns was to push including these in BIK out into the long grass!

[davehedgehog31]

There was an accompanying photobook to this programme by the photographer Martin Parr, who sadly passed away just last month. He was definitely a divisive figure, but I'd love to get my hands on this book.

Some photos of the books launch in an unidentified Welcome Break service station, 1994:

More generally, cars seemed to feature quite heavily in his other work:

[Wibble]

18 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

There was an accompanying photobook to this programme by the photographer Martin Parr, who sadly passed away just last month. He was definitely a divisive figure, but I'd love to get my hands on this book.

Some photos of the books launch in an unidentified Welcome Break service station, 1994:

More generally, cars seemed to feature quite heavily in his other work:

https://ebay.us/m/T7grFU

Pricey!

[Essex V6]

On 13/01/2026 at 14:43, Marm Toastsmith said:

Does depend on the context and the exact car. The Primera is happy to cruise at 90, it’s also fairly conspicuously old. I find that on the motorway/dual carriageway people speed up if you overtake them. It’s a signal that they’re not going fast enough.

I also find everyone tries to race me in the 106, lots of white vans tailgating on B roads etc. I think it’s because it was such a popular learners car, lots of people remember them as their 1st car, which they were glad to move on from.

In a scruffy banger you can throw your weight around a bit though, if it’s obvious that you don’t give a fuck about your paintwork. 

Try overtaking folk in. 1966 Mini - they hate it!

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, Essex V6 said:

Try overtaking folk in. 1966 Mini - they hate it!

For some strange reason, the only cars that want to race an Impreza are diesel BMWs.

[vaughant]

On 13/01/2026 at 08:27, cobblers said:

It's weird isn't it. I'm very into cars, but if I worked for a company and they gave me the most miserable peasant car imaginable (Vauxhall Grandland) I would still say "nice one, free car that will get me about". I'd hate it and I'd thrash it mercilessly, but I wouldn't be upset. But this pair seem to hinge their entire self worth around what free car her feller gets as a tax dodge through his job. I suppose it was a different time. 

 

It's really funny how (relatively ) small things in a job really grate on people isn't it? 

Quite right it was different times I agree but I still think job principles are the same now, ie employees fucking detest it if someone else is seen to be getting even a morsel more than they are. 

Have I been guilty of this myself?

Fuck aye 🤣🤣🤣.

I must admit though going contracting/owning my own business did open up my eyes to a lot of the bollox people get hung up on is just that, bollox, however some of it is so mind blowingly trivial I really can't get my head around it. 

When we worked in the mill, dayshift engineering were allowed to go at 3:57pm so as not to cause a traffic jam when leaving. To be fair, this rule was invented was the mill had something like 2000 workers and now we were down to about 500, more like about 300 at any one time, this became a huge bone of contention within production Vs maintenance and fit really catty as some people in maintenance, weren't actually maintenance, rather production cleaners etc that were based in the maintenance building. 

I believe in the end it got as far as the union being asked to dock the wages of these people by 2hrs a year 🙄🙄🙄🙄. They didn't push it in the end thankfully as it was such a weak union but that would have flown in Ford... 

Misery loves company and all that 🙄🙄.

[grogee]

I remember my Dad's company car choice circa 1986:

Astra 1.6 L estate

Escort 1.6 L Estate

Sierra 1.6 bASe Estate

Cavalier 1.6 bASe Estate

Possibly Montego bASe Estate as well. 

He chose the Astra again and again, they were great and much better than the rest of the list IMO. 

He borrowed a Sierra 1.6 for some reason, it was a wheezy, gutless POS. And hired a Sierra XR4x4 that we both thought was broken because it vibrated so much. 

GM Family II for the win. 

[Metal Guru]

My brother had a company car in the 80s. Most of the people on his grade had 1.6 Cavaliers or Sierras. There was no list to choose from, just given a budget and find your own deal. So my brother and another colleague spotted that a Renault 5 Gordini was within budget and they were duly bought.

After not many months, they’d gone through the front tyres and replacements were nearly £100 ea (around 1985 £300 in today’s money.). Needless to say, no else was allowed one.