New Company Car......Which To Choose.

Mr. Fancypants

So, i know very little about cars but have just been told that i am to get a new company car and have a choice between an Alfa Romeo 147 and a Mistubishi Lancer Sports. Not sure if there are different types of those cars but the ones that i have a choice of both sell for around €22-€23 grand.
Anyone have experiences/views on them? The only thing that is swaying me at the moment is that i know the Alfa is quite a bit smaller than the Lancer and is a 2 door. Although i dont have more than 2 people in the car very often i would like the extra space.

So, anyone any views?

homerzero

not the alfa . i have yet to meet a rep who was happy with one

mike65

I'd love to know how a company ends up presenting an employee with such a strange choice...I'd ask if I could just take cash and buy something I fancy second hand!
Trouble is it don't work that way...take the Mitsubishi. It'll never make you smile but it wont make you cry either.

Mike.

Seth Brundle

you would be better off getting yourself a 2nd hand car that you like rather than choose from a limited list.
Then claim mileage!

unkel

Exactly which Mitsubishi Lancer is that? Surely it is not the €50k EVO

Strange that you can only choose between two cars :dunno:

I would definitely go for the Alfa Romeo 147 as a company car. Alfa's are the absolute perfect company cars from an employee's point of view - you'll get all the pleasure and your employer gets all the (potential) pain (higher than average depreciation, higher than average repairs, fuel consumption higher than average)

You might convince the company to get you a diesel engine. The 147 1.9 JTD has a superb engine with loads of torque

Could you post back here if you do have more choices?

leeroybrown

He'll still get BIK'ed by the Revenue.

Borzoi

Originally posted by mike65
I'd ask if I could just take cash and buy something I fancy second hand!

Trouble is you pay the BIK on the NEW value of the car, so you get screwed by the revenue. From the company point new car reiliability is important to keep garage time down, and servicing costs too. Reps in my place do 30-40K a year - car's knackered after 2 years, trade in buy new again. Otherwise those large service bills come in - oh, and the reps start to whinge.

Fudger

stay away from Alfa, had one myself, not worth a s*te. The guys above are right BIK will kill you my place let us either buy the car or get our own with the money, no doubt i got my own.

unkel

Originally posted by Fudger
The guys above are right BIK will kill you

BIK you pay net on a car like above two is lower than total running costs of owning and driving a similar 3 year old vehicle yourself

Also no risks so you have total piece of mind

Fudger

true but there's the factor that if you loose your job or the company goes bust you loose your wheels. Also I don't think company insurance no claims covers you if you go private. IE you buy a private car and uh oh your scratch for your premium. (well thats our impression of the situation)......

not all company cars are new Audi A4's some would be a slight step up from a go cart so overall BIK is second choice to owning your own car now that's piece of mind.

unkel

Originally posted by Fudger
true but there's the factor that if you loose your job or the company goes bust you loose your wheels.

Yep there's that and indeed you do not build up no claims bonus while driving a company car

Also you are restricted to whatever choice you are given

Still the peace of mind and cheaply driving a new well maintained car for very little money is nice

If you are given the OPTION of getting a company car, you'll have to do the sums (monetary and other)

I have no choice and get mileage and own my old luxobarge - I would hate to drive a company Golf or similar, but that's just my opinion...

Mr. Fancypants

Thanks for the replies lads. Here's links with the two cars that i have a choice of.


Alfa Romeo 147

Mistubishi Lancer Sportsback

I drove one of the lads Alfas yesterday and it seemed quite nice although a little small. Havent had a chance to drive one of the Lancers but they seem huge in comparison. Both of them are hatchbacks which is a bit of a concern as i would tend to have lots of computery bits in the car and would prefer not to have them on display.

sirlinux

Hum that car choice seems familiar to the one a friend of mine recently got, dont work for a certain IT firm that begins with d and end in c, and whose parent company own some fiat/alfa & mits garages.

Victor

Get a bike. Tell the boss you won't need to take up a parking space. Ask can you have the money equal to car + parking space.

Mr. Fancypants

Originally posted by sirlinux
Hum that car choice seems familiar to the one a friend of mine recently got, dont work for a certain IT firm that begins with d and end in c, and whose parent company own some fiat/alfa & mits garages.

Get a bike. Tell the boss you won't need to take up a parking space. Ask can you have the money equal to car + parking space.

Would pose something of problem in my line of work.

unkel

Get the 147 - no brainer imho

That Lancer looks horrible....

alias no.9

Don't put too much faith in japanese reliability with mitsubishi, they're in serious trouble for covering up defects, so much so that some of the company directors look like they'll end up doing time. Apart from access to the back seat on the 3 door 147, the only place there'll be any noticeable difference in space other than in the boot as theres probably only an inch or two difference in the wheelbase. Go for the 147, the pleasure will far outweigh the pain.

leeroybrown

For a company car, reliability ultimately means that any problems you encounter are fixed hassle free. Your employer covers the cost of the repairs. If it were my choice (for a company car) I'd take the 147.

The issue of insurance was mentioned above. Afaik, most company insurance policies work on a fleet basis with a list of cars (each with authorised drivers) on one policy. My father had a company cars for years, which had the rather nice bonus that I was comprehensively insured (for free) by his employer in his car for about five years. Seeing as it was a 1.8l car and I was the first named driver, insurance would have been seriously expensive for me otherwise. The problem came when he retired and ended up paying almost €1500 TPFT to insure himself as he had zero no claims bonus after years of company motoring. He still hasn't reduced his policy to a reasonably low cost yet.

Ironically, the a few weeks after he paid the large premium he was added to a friend's policy (conprehensive) as the first named driver for free except for a small admin fee. She rang up and complained about having to pay an admin fee after years with the same insurer and they waived it. So free on one car and almost €1500 on another.