When we worked out in Germany the cars model type was removed - we were told they would be company cars and it was often a closely guarded secret 1976 - 1979.

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I think the British sense of position in life/aspiration as evidenced by the car they drive is often overstated. Whilst my Father along with all his siblings worked in the family building business, he never had a problem with collecting building supplies like bags of cement and dropping them off at the various building sites in his Rolls Royce Phantom III.

That's the first time I have ever heard of that, whilst working for a US Conglomerate, we had access to company cars across the world. I drove a German registered company Ford Taunus on the Bodensee in southern Germany for 6 months in the late 70's and it had all the model markings on it. I believe it was same for the local management company cars, in fact most senior managers always drove alone, in armour plated cars, especially in Italy because of the Mafia.

The real problems we experienced were having a northern German registered car crossing into Switzerland (to catch weekly flights to and from the UK from Zurich) at Constance in southern Germany when Baader- Meinof terrorist group where very active. With each crossing we were attracting more and more attention ,all the documents checked on both the German and Swiss sides. Then on one occasion the Swiss border guard accepted our passports were valid, the company car documents were valid, but what proof did we have that we should be driving the company car. Bloody good question, fortunately we had TWA credit cards we charged our flights to, that had our company name and our names on, that was a very tense few moments. Rather farcical, as every morning and evening the border was open to local registered cars passing completely unchecked at peak commuter times. If I was Baader- Meinof I would just buy a locally registered car and cross the border at those unchecked times! A few weeks later, a German border guard shot someone that jumped out of a car and tried to leg it, about a dozen cars in front of us. That kind of focused us!

Very sensible, I remember back in the late 70's a friend worked for Brown Brothers motor factors. One year at a UK sales meeting there was a near riot when one of the salesman's company Cortina's was spotted sporting a GL badge in the car park. Everyone else had Cortina L's, he'd simply added a G to the rear badge. Not sure of the differences, probably deeper velour upholstery, but letters of resignation were threatened!

When I worked in the reinsurance industry, the company I worked for in the 80s and early 90s was incredibly status-driven, right down to whether you were allowed two draw pods in your desk or two arms on your office chair. When I qualified for a company car I was issued with a very strict list of vehicles I was permitted. As far as I could see the selection wasn't based around actual cost or performance, it was all about perceived status, mostly around the badging. Very strange. I took the cash option instead, I already had an MGB and a Land Rover IIa, I didn't need another car on the driveway.

It was also linked up with where your space in the car park was - the nearer the door, the higher up the hierarchy. Once you got to Assistant Manager status, you were allocated a numbered space which was yours as long as it was used a certain number of days a week. I was quite pally with an AM who usually walked to work but didn't want to lose his space, so he leant it to me. Caused a bit of a stir but as it wasn't actually against any rules. So among the lines of Audis and BMWs, was usually a scabby old IIa Landy. I occasionally was asked if I shouldn't get something more appropriate, but I had a great excuse: "I live out in the sticks and need to be certain that I can get into work to fulfil my duties, If I had something less capable I might not make it to work!"

And Ford were the experts at exploiting the status conscious company car drivers. IIRC, Mk 3 Cortinas were available in Base, L, GL, GT, GXL and Ghia with multiple engine options at each badge level. I cannot remember if all the engines were available across the range - I don't remember seeing a 1.3 Ghia or a 2.0 Base model.

Excellent!

I always reversed into a parking space at work, ready for the dragstrip exit after a days hard graft...then I moved Co, and on the first day got a bo**ocking off the company Secretary as it left exhaust marks on the office brickwork , it was funny because lot's of people came for a chat with the 'newbie' and commented on my neat parking, they obviously knew what was going to happen

I like that one

When I was nearing the end of my Company car era I delighted in confusing the company Accountant by always choosing a car well below my grade so as to limit my tax liability, we had full paid for family BUPA cover and Vodaphone all of which were taxable, so you did what you could to limit the damage.