A look back to 1993 and company car attitudes...

[Lifeisalemon]

This was a blast from the 90s past...

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

The Maestro man and his wife physically crying after being downgraded from a Cavalier was a particular highlight

45 minutes of a time capsule of 90s life as a company car driver.

[SS427 Camaro]

I had a white C plate Orion ( not new ) that I really liked, then when I joined an absolutely Dire Japanese Pen company, a black Sierra E97 JOL ) then a brand new red Sierra 1.6LX
H273 ELH that wouldn’t pull the skin off of a rice pudding and then a s/h dark met blue Cavalier J943BEX, which I really liked apart from its seats of concrete.

[ClaphamGT3]

I was going through some work related papers a couple of months back and found the company car list for the company I was working for in the mid 90s. It was a large surveying practice. At my grade (Associate) you could choose from;
Ford Mondeo 2.0GLX (saloon or estate)
Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 GLS (saloon or estate)
Rover 600 Si
Rover 420 Touring
Peugeot 405 SLDT (saloon or estate)
Golf GTi 8v 3 door

Directors (2 grades higher) could choose;
Rover Sterling (saloon or hatchback)
Ford Granada Scorpio
Vauxhall Omega (saloon or estate)
BMW 318i Saloon
BMW 316i Touring
Mercedes C180 Classic

You had to be a board director before you could choose whatever you wanted to a budget.

[williamp]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Ford Mondeo 2.0GLX (saloon or estate)
Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 GLS (saloon or estate)
Rover 600 Si
Rover 420 Touring
Peugeot 405 SLDT (saloon or estate)
Golf GTi 8v 3 door

Got to be the Rover 600. i stands for important, afterall...

[Dapster]

Company car one upmanship was totally a thing. That looks like such a parody mokumntary but I can totally imagine that it is absolutely true

Back in 1992 I started work in my graduate job in my new double breasted Next for Men suit. I did loads of miles but was too junior to get a co car so hired loads. I eventually became quite friendly with the local Hertz office and used to sweet talk the girl on the desk. I worked out if I booked absolutely last minute, they never had any cars but were obliged to fulfil the request so I would always get upgraded 2 or 3 grades. Lots of colleagues complained to my boss that the new boy was turning up to meetings in a Granada or Rover 800, or Calibra or something and Hertz were eventually told to either supply me with the correct grade or if nothing was available, do DOWNGRADE me!!!

[Puzzles]

Such a different age. I lol'd over the trim levels.

I remember the lady down the street having a 911 as a company car, which seems incredible now!

[Missy Charm]

ClaphamGT3 said:

I was going through some work related papers a couple of months back and found the company car list for the company I was working for in the mid 90s. It was a large surveying practice. At my grade (Associate) you could choose from;
Ford Mondeo 2.0GLX (saloon or estate)
Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 GLS (saloon or estate)
Rover 600 Si
Rover 420 Touring
Peugeot 405 SLDT (saloon or estate)
Golf GTi 8v 3 door

Directors (2 grades higher) could choose;
Rover Sterling (saloon or hatchback)
Ford Granada Scorpio
Vauxhall Omega (saloon or estate)
BMW 318i Saloon
BMW 316i Touring
Mercedes C180 Classic

You had to be a board director before you could choose whatever you wanted to a budget.

The cars on the 'Associate' grade list are far better, by and large, than those available to the directors. All right, the upper-crust got the 'premium' badges, but they certainly weren't getting the horsepower. The C180 and 318i were sluggardly and the 316 barely capable of moving under its own power. I'd bet, too, that anyone plumping for the Rover, Omega or Scorpio would be limited to the four cylinder cars. They were slightly better, but again not quick.

A 2.0 Mondeo, Rover 600 or Vectra would feel like a rocket-ship in comparison to the Bavarian base models, and would handle better too. The Associate would, therefore, actually be able to keep up with the Jones's whilst his boss would be forced to eat their dust whilst plaintively braying 'it's a Mercedes, you know'...

[agent006]

I remember watching this on TV, I would've been ten. Strong memories of thinking these guys were just utter idiots for complaining about being given a FREE CAR!! A free car, to a ten year old, regardless of what absolute crapheap it ight be was just the most amazing thing.

But then I suppose I was in the relative ivory tower of my dad's company Rover 800 at the time, though he did have to work his way there via a Montego 1.6L and Renault 21.

[Mr Tidy]

I got my one and only Company car in February 1992.

I should have realised things weren't going great when I got offered three pre-used options from 1991, a Rover 214SLi or a couple of 1.8LX Sierras.

I chose the Rover because it was probably as quick but in a cheaper BIK tax bracket and when I got it felt a bit better put together.

But by the end of 1992 the writing was on the wall. The office closed and I had to give it back and start job hunting.

Next time I qualified for one I took the cash allowance so if things didn't work out at least I'd still have a car!

[Fusion777]

A Rover 600 would handle better than an E36? Really?

[Rob 131 Sport]

ClaphamGT3 said:

I was going through some work related papers a couple of months back and found the company car list for the company I was working for in the mid 90s. It was a large surveying practice. At my grade (Associate) you could choose from;
Ford Mondeo 2.0GLX (saloon or estate)
Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 GLS (saloon or estate)
Rover 600 Si
Rover 420 Touring
Peugeot 405 SLDT (saloon or estate)
Golf GTi 8v 3 door

Directors (2 grades higher) could choose;
Rover Sterling (saloon or hatchback)
Ford Granada Scorpio
Vauxhall Omega (saloon or estate)
BMW 318i Saloon
BMW 316i Touring
Mercedes C180 Classic

You had to be a board director before you could choose whatever you wanted to a budget.

For me it would be the 2.0 Vectra. I had one back in the day and it was a very rapid, quiet comfortable motorway cruiser. I was doing a lot of miles back in the 90’s and this fitted the bill perfectly.

I replaced it with an E36 325i SE Coupe. Whilst it was faster and handled better, the overall refinement in the Vectra was far superior as was the interior quality.

[fourstardan]

I love nostalgia and will have to watch this documentary and the next parts I've seen recommended. "It's more expensive for us but we'll save the money on fuel so you can have it Colin"...lol

I used to have pool cars in the early 2000's when I was early 20's and took some whips about for my age, the best one was an A6, it was insane to drive for me and rather punchy on the m6 once. I wrote an astra SRi off once where I'd got cut up in Nottingham gyratory where it bends under bridge sections, I just couldn't recover it in time and scraped half the side off, I never had a blemish on any insurance and you just wouldn't get away with that now.

[Ian Geary]

"Dead donkey"- classic! Not heard that in ages.

So e foreshadowing at 29 mins in "these environmentalists can't tell you driving a diesel is better for the environment..."


I was 15 when this came out, and I remember seeing it, though don't recall if I realised it was a mockumentary or real - I'm still not entirely sure?

My folks were a teacher and council officer, so no sniff of a company car in our household. I think I'm past the trauma of our family car being a Renault 4 (gtl)

Amazing how clear the roads are, and evidence of actual lane discipline! (apart from the car being filmed)

[Rob 131 Sport]

Ian Geary said:

"Dead donkey"- classic! Not heard that in ages.

So e foreshadowing at 29 mins in "these environmentalists can't tell you driving a diesel is better for the environment..."


I was 15 when this came out, and I remember seeing it, though don't recall if I realised it was a mockumentary or real - I'm still not entirely sure?

My folks were a teacher and council officer, so no sniff of a company car in our household. I think I'm past the trauma of our family car being a Renault 4 (gtl)

Amazing how clear the roads are, and evidence of actual lane discipline! (apart from the car being filmed)

Don’t ever convince yourself that your past the trauma of a Renault 4 (even if it was the GTL Model). You may require further therapy.
I would imagine that you’ve always bought decent cars and wouldn’t do such a cruel thing to your children.

[ClaphamGT3]

Rob 131 Sport said:

Don’t ever convince yourself that your past the trauma of a Renault 4 (even if it was the GTL Model). You may require further therapy.
I would imagine that you’ve always bought decent cars and wouldn’t do such a cruel thing to your children.

How very dare you - a loaf-tin is a noble steed, far better than the much better known 2CV.

My Great Aunt Yvonne had two R4s - keeping the last until well into her dotage when she managed her diminishing reaction time and visio-spatial awareness behind the wheel by the effective yet devastatingly simple technique of only ever turning left.....

[Nyloc20]

Great thread. In the early Nineties my three year old Orion Ghia Injection was due for change after 100k miles(great car btw). I had the choice of another Orion, Sierra GLS, Cavalier CD or Rover 216 GSI. I remember poring over the brochures for days deciding which to get.
I opted for the Rover, loved it for the six weeks I had it then I got ran off the road on the way home from work one evening on a backroad stretch I used. Car was written off, other driver didn’t stop and was never traced.
Work was quiet around that time so next car was a well used Sierra LX!

[Monkeylegend]

Puzzles said:

Such a different age. I lol'd over the trim levels.

I remember the lady down the street having a 911 as a company car, which seems incredible now!

Our Finance Director was a car nut and he had a Saab 9000 Turbo and a Ford Sapphire Cosworth as company cars.

I had four starting, with a BMW 320i, then a Saab 900 Turbo, a Golf VR6 and finally a Subaru Imprezza Turbo, We basically had a free choice of car up to a budget.

Not sure that sort of freedom applies nowadays.

All my cars were fully financed for both business and private use so didn't cost me a penny to run, averaging around 30k miles a year, and for that privilege I paid around £60 a month tax, and they were changed every 3 years or 60k miles, whichever came sooner.

Salary sacrifice.....................what was that

[Missy Charm]

Fusion777 said:

A Rover 600 would handle better than an E36? Really?

The Rover 600 was based on the Honda Accord, so was equipped with double wishbone suspension front and rear, and anti-roll bars at both ends. It really was quite well specified in the handling department and remains more sophisticated than stuff on the road today. The BMW, by contrast, had standard-issue MacPherson struts at the front and a well-engineered, if complicated semi-semi A-arm trailing-arm thingy at the back. As with most rear-wheel drive road cars, they were engineered to have a benign handling balance, which in practice meant putting in enough tendency to understeer to cancel out the live rear. That resulted in a car which failed, somewhat to live up to its potential - don't forget the 316i wasn't a sporting variant, so would have had the softest setup then available in the Three Series.

Front-wheel drive cars tended to get away with it, rather, on the basis that nobody was trying to clip their wings in the same way. Owing to that, one sometimes encountered more aggressive setups in them. My own view is that, were the Rover and the BMW to go head-to-head, there wouldn't be a great deal in it. I've owned a BMW of that vintage, as well as a succession of contemporaneous front-wheel drive bangers - never a Rover, mind - and have never thought that the 'pushers' had any great advantage over the 'pullers'.

Edited by Missy Charm on Saturday 13th January 16:48

[fourstardan]

Boring question but how did tax work with Company vehicles in this era?

[ClaphamGT3]

fourstardan said:

Boring question but how did tax work with Company vehicles in this era?

If I recall correctly it was related to the engine size of the car and the business mileage you did.

The engine size bands were iirc, up to 1.4, 1.4 - 2.0, 2.0 - 3.0 and 3.0+ and the mileage bands were 0 - 2,500, 2,501 - 18,000 and over 18,000.

Thus, if you were doing 18,001 miles in a 1,300cc car you paid least and if you never used your Bentley for work you paid most