Got a job but I now need a car for it.

Lum

droopsnoot wrote: »

Sorry for dragging this off-topic, but how did a private plate alter your insurance company's rule about the age of the car? Given that a private or cherished plate can never make the car look newer than it is, only older, and leaving aside that they want the year of first registration of the car, not the plate it's wearing, I am puzzled by this. Or was it because they felt you were more trustworthy because you spent some money on a plate, implying you would look after the car? Just asking.

It was a small company, and the car I had was one of the earliest models of that particular body style, they carried on making it for another 4 years after mine was sold. I also looked after it, kept it nice and clean and shiny.

My boss agreed that it didn't look as old as it really was, but the V plate gave it away.

So a brief discussion of options and an outlay of £400 for one obvious private plate (related to the model of car) later and I got to keep using my car for another 4 years.

droopsnoot

Thanks for that. Seems a little strange they'd have a policy about car ages but not stick to it, but that's sometimes the advantage of using a small company - flexibility. I can't think I've ever run across a company that has an age limit on the car (other than a "must be older than" rule for a classic policy) but then I haven't really been looking, and if it ruled my car out of course I'd look elsewhere.

colino

A lot of companies have blanket rules, including age of "company" cars that were laid down with good reason but the logic appears lost in time. If you are customer-facing and representing your company they expect you to portray a successful, dynamic image. Turning up in a dog-eared, 15 year old, 10 owner family heap doesn't cut the mustard.
The rules are there to be challenged though! An Edinburgh legal firm had its >3y.o., 4-door, executive car rules changed when a new partner bought one of the first Exiges built.

Lum

Yes that was the whole point of the rule, it was about impressions given to the customer. It was the same reason they wouldn't let me buy a Subaru Impreza of any age. They said it looked like something that would be driven by the local drug dealer's son.

They would have preferred that I go for a diesel 3-series but I really didn't want to do that, didn't suit my style at all, so ended up with an imported Subaru Legacy B4 in a rather nice violet colour. I think it looked quite nice.

droopsnoot

Ah, my mistake. By "company", I thought you meant the insurance company, not the company you work for LUM. It sounded unusually flexible for an insurance company, and of course my comment about looking elsewhere doesn't make any sense now.

It's a difficult one - sometimes customers see a flash new car and assume they must be being charged too much to be able to pay for flash cars, sometimes they see a flash new car and assume you must be good at what you do and successful, and therefore good to deal with.