Re: Would you lot laugh.....

I *could* take the money. It's around £475 / month.

However, I'm a bit nervous of doing the kind of mileage I do without the full backing of fleet management.

Is that plus or including the tax saving ?

You have to count that into the equation. That could easily be another £100 a month if you're a 22% tax payer. More if you're in the 40% tax bracket obviously.

That saving can be your breakdown cover / servicing budget.

I imagine they have certain 'standards' though, so no trousering the money and running a selection of old nails. (For old nail, I mean anything over 3 years obviously, seeing as it's corporate standards mentality we're talking here.)

Ignore the tax saving, 'cos that's a gross figure.

Yup.

I'm going to ask for a quote on the 520d SE, 'cos the quoted lease costs on those are within a couple of quid a month of the 318d SE, so it may well be worth doing.

Noooooooooo, it's an underpowered lump of shit.

177bhp isn't *that* bad, you know.

I really wanted the new shape A4, but the auto box is CVT.... *shudder*

I agree. The torque will be quite lazy in nature too. Having said all of that I do drive a woefully underpowered and gutless car and do miss the low down grunt of a decent diesel.

There, I've said it.

Why is that a bad thing ? (The CVT)

My experience is that they're unreliable and they don't suit my driving style.

Mind you, as Doug pointed out, none of the torque-converter autos would, either.

Which leaves me with Sillyspeed / DSG type boxes, in reality.

[snip]

And everyone will point at the silly man in the repmobile.

You've driven a B0.5 Passat, right? :)

I agree, it seems the only 9-3 you see anywhere is either a convertible which tends to be a private car or upper management, or a Tid which must be a rep car. I don't care how good an engine is, when there is a choice between a 2.3 full pressure turbo model (even with the oil sludge reliability issues) and a 1.9 Tid, no Saab enthusiast is going to go for a brand new car with a Derv engine unless

1) The company provides it. 2) They do lots of miles and don't get fuel expense for all of them.

I was on the border of buying a 9-3 2.2 diesel, but for half that I got a slightly shabby(again) 9000 aero full pressure turbo with less miles and better history and a slightly more fun drive, stunning seats and a years ticket. But I only do 200-250 a week. And less than 50 of those is town/business miles.

Only one flaw in your argument.

If you were sad enough to do one of those side of the road surveys, you would probably find that everyone 'is' the silly man in the repmobile. I know that you and I are rugged individuals ;-) but most of the rest are in something mid sized and diesel powered. It's the law.

More to the point, what kind of loser drives along going "Haha look, he's in a repmobile!" - I mean, seriously?

Well, obviously, the kind of people who drive s**te old Merkin 4x4s.....

Ah, I see, it's an envy thing. Gotcha. I saw an M5 yesterday, a new one, I was jealous of it, is that something to be ashamed of?

Yes.

It's a BMW 5-series.

Therefore it's a repmobile.

Pull yourself together, man.

I have to say, I had a bit of a drool session when I saw a new M5 Touring and an E34 M5 Touring having a bit of a mini-duel on the M62 this morning.

They ain't no repmobiles.

Haha, Clio, that's repmobile innit?

Never knew that. I thought the new M5 touring was the first estate M car...

Nope - they did it in E34 guise, but only in LHD form, so on most of the continent, at a guess.