Nicest Rep's car

chillin117

I know a rep who sells meds to vets and his company car is a 161D BMW 320d. He had a Passat before that. Things are picking up !

Damien360

chillin117 wrote: »

I know a rep who sells meds to vets and his company car is a 161D BMW 320d. He had a Passat before that. Things are picking up !

Very random post. What does it matter.

Good luck to him. Pays tax, pays BIK. Passat high line is not that far in price from a basic 3 series.

ba_barabus

This reminds me of a great programme made by the BBC during the 90s about rep drivers. It's on YouTube

ba_barabus

Here we are, Tales of Modern Motoring

https://youtu.be/CQsMFQZa8os

ted1

chillin117 wrote: »

I know a rep who sells meds to vets and his company car is a 161D BMW 320d. He had a Passat before that. Things are picking up !

Nothing unusual about that

maximum12

If I was doing high mileage I'd rather be in a well specced Passat then a three series. But I'm tall.

kirving

You could give me a Maybach and I'd still hate to be on the road all day long. Nothing unusual about a 320d really

kerry cow

He's paying for it in benifit in kind , so it his money really .
What ever floats your boat .

colm_mcm

Must be pretty good if they stuck him in a 320d over a 316d

coolbeans

ba_barabus wrote: »

Here we are, Tales of Modern Motoring

https://youtu.be/CQsMFQZa8os

It's great watching. Your man who cried with his wife when given an Austin Maestro as a company car was priceless.

166man

F30's are not a great car for comfort between the harder suspension, poor seats and the run flat tyres.

I'd sooner have a Mondeo or a Mazda 6 and pay less BIK.

secman

I know a rep who drives a jag xf..it costs him €140 a month in bik tax, it's a 151d full leather and high spec car.
Funny thing though he's not a car person!

Special Circumstances

coolbeans wrote: »

It's great watching. Your man who cried with his wife when given an Austin Maestro as a company car was priceless.

I'd watch it for that, not tonight though

2forjoy

chillin117 wrote: »

I know a rep who sells meds to vets and his company car is a 161D BMW 320d. He had a Passat before that. Things are picking up !

probably selling the auld growth hormones for cattle , sure he'll need a fast getaway car

coolbeans

Special Circumstances wrote: »

coolbeans wrote: »

It's great watching. Your man who cried with his wife when given an Austin Maestro as a company car was priceless.

I'd watch it for that, not tonight though

It's glorious. Treat yourself tomorrow night.

Special Circumstances

coolbeans wrote: »

It's glorious. Treat yourself tomorrow night.

This thread is a treat in itself, the sly digs and putdowns that will be thrown ; -)

Duke O Smiley

ba_barabus wrote: »

Here we are, Tales of Modern Motoring

https://youtu.be/CQsMFQZa8os

Absolute lol @ 2:20

"An Astra CDI 1.6......saloon........new shape"

coolbeans

Special Circumstances wrote: »

coolbeans wrote: »

It's glorious. Treat yourself tomorrow night.

This thread is a treat in itself, the sly digs and putdowns that will be thrown ; -)

An aul Passat or an A4 would be a nice enough if one had to drive for a living. The A4s are ten a penny though. Hard to argue that a middlin' diesel model A4 is a prestige motor these days.

Stoogie

ba_barabus wrote: »

Here we are, Tales of Modern Motoring

https://youtu.be/CQsMFQZa8os

That was awesome
Any more?

_Kaiser_

coolbeans wrote: »

An aul Passat or an A4 would be a nice enough if one had to drive for a living. The A4s are ten a penny though. Hard to argue that a middlin' diesel model A4 is a prestige motor these days.

A6 FTW.. I do a lot of miles in mine each week and it's a very comfortable place to be. The extra power of the V6 and lots of toys helps though

I considered an A4 at one point, but thought they were tiny by comparison.

colm_mcm

Stoogie wrote: »

That was awesome
Any more?

There's a whole series of those programmes, that ones the best though.

bear1

coolbeans wrote: »

It's great watching. Your man who cried with his wife when given an Austin Maestro as a company car was priceless.

I literally ****ing lol'd at that.
When he starts saying that the company took a **** on him or when the staff knew what he was getting and ripped the piss out of him had me in stitches.
Then the BMW segment just after must have feckin killed him

"So I see a key to a Rover and I'm thinking hmm maybe a 216?"
"Then I go outside and see the car... A Rover Metro... clubman diesel".

maximum12

One of those reps was 20 years ahead of his time talking about Diesels: https://youtu.be/CQsMFQZa8os?t=29m7s

ba_barabus

It was a great time to be alive!

youtheman

coolbeans wrote: »

It's great watching. Your man who cried with his wife when given an Austin Maestro as a company car was priceless.

I remember that part of the programme vividly. He said he used to park it around the corner and remove his tie when he went in for lunch as nobody would believe that a white collar worker would drive such a POS.

chillin117

Some real airheads in that video. The i on the back is so important ! Idiots !

monkeysnapper

coolbeans wrote: »

It's great watching. Your man who cried with his wife when given an Austin Maestro as a company car was priceless.

Wow!!!! I remember watching that ha ha , my sister had a red maestro at time and I thought it was a lovely looking yolk.

What I always remember the most about that program was they were all hoping to have the Mazda . I loved Mazda's and said I'm going to own a Mazda one day .

A few years later I bought a Mazda 323f pop up lights . I bloody loved that car .

I have to watch that documentary again as It stayed with me since .

coolbeans

colm_mcm wrote: »

Stoogie wrote: »

That was awesome
Any more?

There's a whole series of those programmes, that ones the best though.

There's some gems in there too. Like the guy who considers his white five door Vitara equal in image to a Range Rover.
Or the pair of absolute tossers who remortgaged the house for a Land Rover Defender.
Most of the characters in the entire series are also obsessed with status and image which makes for cringeworthy viewing.

Blazer

But that's how life was back then. No social media, and your symbol of status was your car as very few people would see your house.
For salesmen your car was a symbol of how successful you were.
Look how many of them mentioned 'i'.
I remember as a kid if we saw a car with an 'i' we were in awe..wow injection
And there was a lot fewer cars on the road then.
Great times

testicles

This post has been deleted.

grogi

ba_barabus wrote: »

Here we are, Tales of Modern Motoring

Great watch.

I usually don't have problem figuring it out, bit this time I am in complete darkness.

Are they serious or having a piss?

ba_barabus

grogi wrote: »

Great watch.

I usually don't have problem figuring it out, bit this time I am in complete darkness.

Are they serious or having a piss?

It's completely serious.

mickdw

Interesting show.
I remember the time myself where the i was big news. 'Is she injection' you might be asked.
The bit where there is a whole gang of blokes using the bank of phone boxes shows how things are changing. There seemed to be one guy on a mobile but still standing right by the phone box.
W124 mercedes was the only thing on the show to stand the test of time.

maddness

To answer the original question, the best reps car is always going to be the nicest one your company allows you order.

pajor

coolbeans wrote: »

It's glorious. Treat yourself tomorrow night.

Only managed to get around watching it now. What a time to be alive..

I laughed hard about the lad in the Merc. Taking the badges off the back so people wouldn't know it was "only" a 200E. Pffft.

Was it ever like that in Ireland though? Obviously you're going to have been chuffed if you got the Merc or BMW over the Ford (or the Passat these days), but the pettiness about the i badges and trim levels..?

ba_barabus

Haven't you heard of a red D red i TDIIIIIIII

Blazer

The worst I've seen was a guy in a 320D having his car rebadged as a 335D.
Its a spectacular fail because
a) Joe Soap doesn't have a clue what a 335D is or capable of.
b) Anyone that knows what a 335D is straight away knows the poor sad sap just rebadged his car as the 335D have a dual exhaust and not the exhaust from a 320D.

vintagevrs

Blazer wrote: »

The worst I've seen was a guy in a 320D having his car rebadged as a 335D.
Its a spectacular fail because
a) Joe Soap doesn't have a clue what a 335D is or capable of.
b) Anyone that knows what a 335D is straight away knows the poor sad sap just rebadged his car as the 335D have a dual exhaust and not the exhaust from a 320D.

Probably couldn't justify an M3 badge with the miles he's doing

ongarite

Blazer wrote: »

The worst I've seen was a guy in a 320D having his car rebadged as a 335D.
Its a spectacular fail because
a) Joe Soap doesn't have a clue what a 335D is or capable of.
b) Anyone that knows what a 335D is straight away knows the poor sad sap just rebadged his car as the 335D have a dual exhaust and not the exhaust from a 320D.

Guy like that in my workplace.
Has a white f10 520d with full m-sport bodykit, 20" alloys badged as 535d.

Special Circumstances

ongarite wrote: »

Guy like that in my workplace.
Has a white f10 520d with full m-sport bodykit, 20" alloys badged as 535d.

2.0 on da book laaaaaaaad

pajor

ba_barabus wrote: »

Haven't you heard of a red D red i TDIIIIIIII

Forget that diesel nonsense. FSI is where it's at. :P

Blazer

ongarite wrote: »

Guy like that in my workplace.
Has a white f10 520d with full m-sport bodykit, 20" alloys badged as 535d.

does he have the dual exhausts or the basic set?

maximum12

The 518D comes de-badged. It's not an option.

I actually prefer the de-badged look on most exec cars. The look is much cleaner.

vintagevrs

Just watched that video. I watched a couple mins the last day and assumed it was just a piss take. It's brilliant. Thanks for sharing

landmarkjohn

testicles wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Absolutely not. I drove company cars for about 16 years and for 6 months coming up to renewal it was an obsession to look through the brochures to match specs... some guys could tell you how many butts would fit in the ash tray

The base Cavalier (Envoy trim, 1995) was on our list and a tall colleague threw all the arguments he could to get the next one up, the LS, as it had a height adjustable seat (big thing with the LS was it had alloys as opposed to trims)..... so what management did was a special order Envoy with height adjustable seat for him. Cracked me up! (it would have been a killer if he'd have got the LS!)

Best result I had was when they made some sales guys redundant and I inherited a Sierra 1.8 LX..... good car that!

Another time I could never really understand a guy who chose a Citroen hatchback (model eludes me) over a Cavalier or Rover 214 or 414..:D

Ah yes... the things that used to bother us!:D:D

R.O.R

ongarite wrote: »

Guy like that in my workplace.
Has a white f10 520d with full m-sport bodykit, 20" alloys badged as 535d.

I had a customer who re-badged his 520d as a 535d. Was a short while before full details on the F10 535d were available, so he wasn't aware of the different exhaust set up on the 535d. That was promptly de-badged again when it came back...

Have another customer who put 4x4 badges on the back of his last 2 Superb Combi's, so I suspect the new one has a 4x4 badge as well. At least they all have the Rough Road Pack so are riding at the right height for the 4x4 version, just don't have the prop shaft.

vintagevrs

People are strange

galvo_clare

I remember watching that when it was originally broadcast.
Great to see it again.

vintagevrs wrote: »

Just watched that video. I watched a couple mins the last day and assumed it was just a piss take. It's brilliant. Thanks for sharing

coolbeans

galvo_clare wrote: »

I remember watching that when it was originally broadcast.
Great to see it again.

vintagevrs wrote: »

Just watched that video. I watched a couple mins the last day and assumed it was just a piss take. It's brilliant. Thanks for sharing

Did they seem like such bellends when you saw it back in the early nineties or has time been very unkind to them?

galvo_clare

coolbeans wrote: »

Did they seem like such bellends when you saw it back in the early nineties or has time been very unkind to them?

Complete bellends, even then. I still vividly remembered your man going on about the 'i factor'.
I'd forgotten about the young fella in the XR2 that wouldn't let anyone past him if they had a 'lesser' car. What a tool.

carsfan2

Just watched that programme again and brought back memories of seeing it the first time. Great insight into the mind of the British rep alright.
Would love to see what they are driving now and what their subsequent car history was.
Love the guy who pulls over if the cavalier has headlight washers as it's higher spec than his!
Do Irish reps care to the same extent what they drive and do they get much say anyway?
Has bik tax killed the company car here?
I rarely hear of people getting a car with a job nowadays.