Value of Company Car?

[snatchel]

RJ Gold & Sig

Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to place a dollar amount on it right now. I'm thinking about option 1-- I have no intention of selling my own car, and like you said, keeping it clean will be impossible.

They aren't going to be real picky about personal miles. If I stop by the store on the way home, not a big deal.

I guess I'll figure it about $600/month for salary purposes. I can always change at the 1/4 year mark if need be.

[RPBrown]

I can only tell you what my experience was/is. In my previous job I was driving a company truck in which they furnished insurance, gas, toll tags, maintenance and repairs. In my new job, I was offered the same or given the option to use my own vehicle and be given a truck allowance of $1000.00 a month. Even though I could have used the company truck for personel use, I feel kind of funny driving a bill board around on my off time. Therefore I elected to use my own truck. The company still provides fuel and toll tags but it is my responsibility to provide insurance (has to meet the minimums of the company insurance as required by our customers), and all maitenance and repairs.

What this did was allowed me to purchase a new truck. and the allowance made the payments, insurance and maintenance until the truck was paid for. Then for a couple of years it was free money so to speak and now it pays for any needed repairs. It is now 7 years old, has 200k miles and am starting to think about a new one again.

[RJGold]

RJ Gold & Sig

Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to place a dollar amount on it right now. I'm thinking about option 1-- I have no intention of selling my own car, and like you said, keeping it clean will be impossible.

They aren't going to be real picky about personal miles. If I stop by the store on the way home, not a big deal.

I guess I'll figure it about $600/month for salary purposes. I can always change at the 1/4 year mark if need be.

If you've got a way to make a change down the road (so to speak), it's a pretty low risk decision...

Good luck.

[karder]

I have had a company vehicle for about 20 years, so I can speak with a little experience. I have never to take a salary ding for using the company vehicle though. My very general advice is that it is probably not worth taking a salary hit to use a company vehicle as a take home unit. Perhaps if you have a very long commute, or you have a very old and rundown car it might be worth taking a slight reduction in pay to get the company wheels, but to make it worth your pay cut, you would probably have to mothball any other vehicles you have, including canceling insurance.
Because you have a new car, you will still be stuck with car payments and insurance, so the only thing you are saving is wear and tear on your Toyota and fuel costs. The pay reduction would have to be really small to be worth that. Take my word for it, when you have a take home truck, you are the guy who gets called for all those middle of the night emergencies and that can get old too. I don't know about your wife, but mine is not too keen on going to church or dinner in my F250 with tools, hard hat, climbing rig, etc. in the back. I just got a new work truck and it is the first one in my career that is not plastered in company logos so that is another thing you have to deal with.
Basically, the company is letting you take a truck home because it is a good deal for them, not so much because it is a good deal for you. At least that has been my experience, but your company may be different.

[snatchel]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Turns out that I don't need to worry about it... today I received a promotion that pretty much makes me exempt from any vehicle regulations regarding pay-- so it's a moot point.

Thanks anyway!

[hpcatx]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Turns out that I don't need to worry about it... today I received a promotion that pretty much makes me exempt from any vehicle regulations regarding pay-- so it's a moot point.

Thanks anyway!

Congrats on the promotion!

[n5wd]

Another thing to consider if you do take the company car for travel to/from work only - if you're using your personal vehicle for "pleasure only", that'll drop your insurance rates, sometimes considerably. Be sure and check with your agent if you're driving your company truck to/from work all the time.

[RoyGBiv]

Forget about xxxx "loss of salary"... You need to put real numbers on things and compare that to net take home pay.
Remember, if you "pay" say $1,000/year in salary, you "save" 25% or so in taxes, so, the net out-of-pocket cost to you is only $750.

I had a company car for about 10 years, and it's difficult to imagine a scenario where it makes sense to pass that up and keep your own car. Just run the numbers.

How many personal miles do you expect to use per year? How will you be expected to track that? Generally there should be a "worst case" option where your company assumes you use their truck for 50% of the time as "personal use"... or maybe it's a different percentage but still they should be able to identify a worst case number they will dock your pay... take that number, back out the tax savings, and ask yourself if your personal car, plus insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc will cost you more or less.. I'd be blown away if you came up with a scenario where a company car was a bad deal, but, I've been wrong before (just don't tell my wife )

I saved sooooo much money having a company car that the few years when they gave us Taurus station wagons, and my dates ALL were checking the back seat for child-safety seats, it still was a great deal. . I bought/sold several motorcycles and two Italian convertibles (JUNK!!) with the money I saved.