Company Car GRM Peeps - Learn Me Motus - Company reimbursed personal car

The new job I'm taking utilizes Motus company car reimbursement vs a company fleet or a flat reimbursement, unfortunately.  The job is great and the money is as well so I'll tolerate it.  

Effectively everything is paid by the employee and then the company reimburses, tax free.  The reimbursement is two part with the first being a fixed component that is annual and specific to your area, insurance, cost of living.  The second component is a monthly updated per mile reimbursement.

The bonus is drive whatever you like as long as it meets their specs, mid size sedan but as yet no details.  The downside is it appears you are never more than breaking even with a bottom of the barrel ~26K vehicle.  The vehicle retention period is unfortunately only 4 years old or less, meaning it needs to be sold at 4 years of age and replaced.

One one hand I am looking at something stupid fun like a one of the blackwing caddies, M car, AMG car, or S car.  On the other I am trying to figure out how not to loose too much on it as I would never be driving a vehicle that new unless forced...

I would expect mileage to be high and unfortunately my standard one way commute will be ~350 miles ruling out EV's unfortunately, would have been the easy button.

Anyone have any first hand experience?

That's.... a LOT of mileage.

First idea: Buy a new Honda Clarity for $25k out the door, enjoy a big comfy 45-50mpg car for your drive (or higher if you charge at home), and don't waste money on the company car. It'll be a great mobile living room to enjoy your podcasts/music/etc.

Second idea: You only live once. You're spending lots of time in your car. Time to go get a big Cadillac/Hyundai/German car. The V8 fuel economy will sting less if work is paying for half your gas.

84FSP said:

my standard one way commute will be ~350 miles.

A plane or train ticket? You're talking about 5hrs each way @ 70mph. Spend that time riding so you can do something else, like sleep.

Common commute will be Cincinnati to Detroit for 3-5 days at a shot.  The rest of the time will be 1-2day trips to customers a variety of other places in more like 150mile range.  Only option for public transport is flights which still end up needing a car for the rest of the trip.  The flight time is in general longer than the commute and does not allow me to do call etc on bluetooth while traveling.  I typically fly outside of a 6hr radius for trips as it makes sense then.

I'm torn between something super eco, 40-50mpg, and decently comfy and the twin turbo 6cylinder sport sedans that will get me lots of smiles despite only mid 20's mpg's.

A lot of what you're saying points to long-range Tesla. I'd spend some time with their supercharger trip planner thingy before I completely ruled out that option. In theory a Model S would give you the best of both worlds: Big, cool, fast and comfy without the fuel bill.

In reply to 84FSP :

What about something in the middle? For example my four banger Giulia has more than enough oomph and happily returns over 30mpg on longer trips. 

Everything Toyota sells is offered in a Hybrid version. I'd go with the largest version that makes economic sense. 

Or, the Honda Tom recommended. 

Ask what the reimbursement is for something older than 4 years. 

Big German cars are expensive and within 4 years depreciate ALOT.  Especially given the amount of mileage you'll be putting on them.  Not sure that makes a ton of economic sense...

Can you still utilize something that is more than 4 years old for commuting and purchase something that is within the 4 year window and never drive it? 

If so get a Tesla and put it on Turo and have them reimburse you on the card that you're renting out to others. 

If they want to play stupid games regarding vehicle reimbursement with stupid rules then let them win stupid prizes and allow yourself to profit. They created a broken system, so exploit it to maximum benefit if your able to via loopholes. 

If they complain, cry or threaten action against you, let them know that you weren't the idiot that set up the policy and that maybe you should have their position and compensation package. 

I feel like I wouldn't be doing my duty if I didn't post this. Will your reimbursement be more or less than $919/month?

84FSP said:

Common commute will be Cincinnati to Detroit for 3-5 days at a shot.  The rest of the time will be 1-2day trips to customers a variety of other places in more like 150mile range.  Only option for public transport is flights which still end up needing a car for the rest of the trip.  The flight time is in general longer than the commute and does not allow me to do call etc on bluetooth while traveling.  I typically fly outside of a 6hr radius for trips as it makes sense then.

I'm torn between something super eco, 40-50mpg, and decently comfy and the twin turbo 6cylinder sport sedans that will get me lots of smiles despite only mid 20's mpg's.

A really tiny econobox would make for pretty miserable long trips. A Prius or similar midsized hybrid shouldn't be too bad though. Or what about splitting the difference with an Ecoboost Mustang?

Can you get something you want, have work take the depreciation hit, then buy it at the end of the term?

Tom Suddard said:

I feel like I wouldn't be doing my duty if I didn't post this. Will your reimbursement be more or less than $919/month?

that won't be 919 a month when you count up all the 350 mile days done over 36 months...

but yeah, 350 mile one way commute is nuts, unless you drive there on monday and home on friday or something like that. 

It's not a 350 per day commute, it's drive 350 miles and then stay there for 3 days then drive 350 miles home. 

Still looks like 1000 miles per week or 50k per year. That's lots! 

Turbo small engine full size truck maybe. Good resale will be important. 

We discuss this topic a lot.  I've done two exact plans.  First car was a base model Accord - you break even and it runs and runs    

Second car is a Silverado truck and I pay for it.  Sucks but I'm almost 60 years old and tired of wrestling crap into a car.  A truck makes my job easier.  

We got 5 years plus the model year so you really get 6 years.   You burn through a car so if you can get a car get a basic reliable vehicle that eats miles cheaply.  Accord, Camry, Impala....you get the drill.  

I have customers that call and need stuff right away - good commission dollars if I jump fast.  

1. Miles to the office and personal miles understandably are not covered so I really drove 26,000 miles last year. Higher yearly business miles bumps the "fixed" column to a higher dollar amount.  

2. As gas goes up or down so does the variable reimbursement.   Last month it was at .2425 per mile.  In theory living in Chicago pays higher than a rural place that has generally cheaper gas.   The variable covers gas, oil, maintenance......yeah, right .

3. Below  is 2020 - a 2016 Silverado with 112,000 miles and a rebuilt trans does not break even   There was a guy that mentioned he drove to 80,000 miles and dumped his cars   

BoxheadTim said:

In reply to 84FSP :

What about something in the middle? For example my four banger Giulia has more than enough oomph and happily returns over 30mpg on longer trips. 

Definitely thinking of this as there are now a ton of sub 300hp 4cyl turbos that should give a smiles per mile happy median.  I am literally just spoiled by finally having an 11.5sec daily and everything feels slow now.  I also like the idea of the model 3 long range as a middle ground...

Datsun310Guy said:

1. Miles to the office and personal miles understandably are not covered so I really drove 26,000 miles last year. Higher yearly business miles bumps the "fixed" column to a higher dollar amount.  

2. As gas goes up or down so does the variable reimbursement.   Last month it was at .2425 per mile.  In theory living in Chicago pays higher than a rural place that has generally cheaper gas.   The variable covers gas, oil, maintenance......yeah, right .

3. Below  is 2020 - a 2016 Silverado with 112,000 miles and a rebuilt trans does not break even   There was a guy that mentioned he drove to 80,000 miles and dumped his cars   

Is there a forum where folks are talking this situation thru?  This has to be a common-ish conundrum for folks in the biz to try and solve.  

I'll leave this here:

100k warranty and a hatchback 

I plugged Cincinatti to Detroit into the Tesla trip planner. With a Model 3 Long Range, you've got one 15 minute stop right in the middle of the trip. Perfect time to pee and stretch your legs. Then, if the hotel you use while away from home has a destination charger, you get free "fuel" for the first half of the trip home. They're good highway cars because they're quiet and have a good stereo in my experience. So it's a plausible option. Depreciation has also shown itself to be quite low so far and TCO is low because of much reduced maintenance costs.

My wife's been under a similar plan for some time, only they forgot to check the age of her car. She was driving a well-maintained 2000 Jeep up until a couple of years ago and making a nice profit because of course it had been paid off for years and years and it just never had mechanical problems. Now she's got a car payment for the Tesla but the fuel payment goes pretty much straight into her pocket. And she gets a nice car to drive.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I wonder what the reliability of that charge and the timing are generally.  I may stop at the lima charging station on my run there Tuesday.  It would be perfect but didn't have much faith in the charger network or charge time yet.  Also need to test drive one... New would certainly be the way to go there.

Reliability is pretty strong in my experience. I have come across inoperative chargers (twice) but only one at a time so the rest of the cluster was still operative. The Tesla network is pretty well established by this point and EA is building out as fast as they can. So I wouldn't consider the charger to be a concern. You're more likely to have trouble due to congestion and/or accidents, I expect that's a pretty busy corridor.

Looks like there are also Superchargers in Dayton and the Toledo area as well as one coming in Findlay. It'll be pretty well serviced by the end of the year.

There may be alternative charging options for other vehicles like VWs or Fords but it's easy for me to check the Tesla one because I know the site.

Apprecaite the input, no hunting long range performance model 3's new and used.  It looks like ~66K new and ~50K used for 19's.  Will be test driving next week following signing the offer letters.

If you test drive a dual motor (long range is implied there) vs a Performance I'd be interested in your thoughts on the differences.