Scumbag

Mrs S has just been promoted and offered the usual cash or car option. Like me, and most other people I know, we thought that taking the cash option (£5500 pa), and buying a decent 3 year old car, and running it for a couple of years would be fine.

But no

Her company insists that if she takes the cash option then she must buy/lease a car that is a maximum of 12 months old. She can then keep it up until it is 6 years old. So it is perfectly acceptable to drive a 5 year old car, but only if you acquired it when it was less than 12 months old.

All companies that I have heard about have some restrictions on what car you can have when taking the cash option...usually things like: No soft-tops; no 2-seaters; no 4x4s; no car older than 6 years etc. But I have never come across a restriction that says how old it must be when it is first acquired.

I am sending her in on Monday to push back on this, and see if she can have have a 3 year old car for a couple of years. To back her up, I'd be dead grateful if anyone else has come across such a draconian cash option restriction.

If any of you good people could let me know the number of different companies where you know their policies, and whether any of them had such a stupid restriction on the cash option cars, I'd be dead grateful

Many thanks

SB

Petem95

Having to buy a car under 12months old sounds a bit harsh, especially if you are allowed to keep it until its 6years old!

If you take the cash with my firm you have to have a car which is under 4years old, so you could buy a 2year old car and keep it for 2years, and so on.

I dont think they are totally strict on it either - couple of people with M3's which are now 5years old. As long its something smart and not an old banger basically.

douglasb

At my place the only age restriction is that the car must be under 7 years old.

There were other restrictions such as no soft tops, no 4x4s, max 2.5 litre engine, and any proposed car had to be approved by Fleet Admin, but most of the restrictions have now been dropped as we've taken on people who (eg) were currently running their own car and it was a Land Rover Discovery. It would have been a bit harsh to say "If you want to work here, you need to sell the car", however that then makes it difficult to say to anyone else that they can't have an X5.

sti-04!!

The rules at my company are that :-

The car must be under 4 years old.
Not a 4x4 unless you have a viable business case for having one.
Under Group 18 insurance, unless you pay the remainder yourself

No other restrictions apply.

I save a fortune with it to be honest.

Burt

had the same very tight restriction where you took the car or the cash. Very harsh when it was your own car.

Phil

No restriction for me

Phil

sorry any excuse for posting a pic

OllyK

Only limitation we have is the car must be less than 6 years old, other than that you do as you like, hence why we have a things like Lotus Exige's, Honda S2000's, merc SL's, Range Rovers and a Noble in the car park.

NotoriousREV

I suppose it depend on why you have a company car. If you're visiting clients then obviously they want you in something smart and reliable. Tell them you don't want a car, you'll just have a £5500 pay rise