Oliver Keating wrote:
"Andrew P Smith" wrote in message
news
In article ,
Mikael Armstrong writes

Which would mean that companies would just give employees they
currently provide with company cars, allowances to buy private cars
with, on a contract hire arrangement! I'm surprised more don't do
it as the company car tax regime removes most financial advantages
anyway.

Mikael

I've had a company car for a number of years (currently got a Saab
9-5 which goes in 6 weeks). The company has reduced the amount of
money we get to spend on our cars to 16K in these austere times and
we now have to make the cars last 3.5 years as opposed to 3.

This really p****s me off about company cars, its such a wasteful
policy to throw away cars that are 3 years old.

They are sold, not thrown away. I think you'll find that the discounts
offered by the manufacturers make it very cost-effective to buy or lease
cars for 3 years, given that maintenance costs would be low over that
period.

I reckon company cars should have a minimum life cycle of 10 years,
maybe 20.

The last company car that I drove for 3 years clocked up over 100,000
miles. After 10 years, do you really think it would be economical and
reliable enough to justify its retention, let alone sufficiently
presentable to represent the company?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)