A company car can provide convenience and motivation for employees, especially those that are mobile and need the car to reach to prospective clients and vendors. Having a company provided car can help them focus on the business without having to worry about putting miles on their personal car. At the same time, as a business owner you need to be careful about balancing the needs of employees and the cost of providing the company car. Obviously, you cannot provide the car to all your employees lest you will run out of cash pretty soon. With the right balance of employee needs and expense management you can come up with a practical solution that will be win-win for all. Here are three factors you should look into when striking this balance.
Fuel Economy
Manufacturers have made great leaps in recent years to make cars more fuel efficient, and you can now pick from the cars that get truly incredible mileage. If your car is going to be covering thousands of miles each year, you’ll want something that isn’t going to cost you a fortune in fuel. There are also strong tax incentives to having a car that doesn’t emit lot of CO2. It’s worthwhile doing research beyond official figures though, and the smaller the engine, the more optimistic they usually are. CO2 emissions can be easily found when browsing for cars on places like Exchange and Mart.
Reliability
If you’re using the car for business purposes, then you’re going to be relying on it to get the job done. You do not want batteries to die on the way to important client meeting. Time in the garage could cost you more money than just for the repairs, so that flash sports car you’ve had your eye on might not be the perfect choice. It’s worth checking out reliability indexes and the like – too often people have an idea of what is and is not reliable, and it might not always be accurate. The Germans have a reputation for quality, but this doesn’t always extend to the mechanical reliability under the bonnet.
Practicality
Again, if this is a business vehicle then you can’t just go for what you like the look of. A Porsche may well be within your budget, but if you need to ferry clients about too, then it’s not going to be any good for getting the job done. Think about all of the things that you need from the vehicle, and then consider only the cars that will be able to tick the boxes. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stick with something boring – the big German marques make some practical wagons with strong diesel engines that are both quick and efficient.
