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My company is changing the way it does our car allowance for field employees. After a quick look through their plan summary, it appears I'll be getting less money each month and be required to maintain a vehicle <5 years old.

So... if a common new car loan is 60 months (5 years), and we're required to keep a car that's 5 years old or newer, is my company basically telling me that I must retain a requisite amount of consumer debt to qualify for their auto allowance program?

What about those of us who chose vehicles that reliably last 10 years/150K+ miles? Are we being penalized for being conservative consumers? And this minimum cost metric... What's up with that? It's more than I want to spend on a vehicle, period, at this point in my life.

Maybe I'm weird, but I don't expect or want to replace my car every five years. Having a new car increases most of the costs of ownership -- VLF goes up, insurance goes up, car payments -- while planned maintenance costs remain approximately the same. Right now I have maintenance costs associated with my car getting older, or long-term service items coming due, and I'm okay with that.

My car goes from point A to point B, dragging all my work-related tools along with me. When I was hired, the requirements were quite plainly that my car would go reliably from point A to point B, carry my tools, and I'd carry a certain amount of insurance coverage. In return, I'd get a lump sum each year to cover operating expenses. Now the rules seem to be that my car will be <5 years old, cost a particular amount (when new), be insured for a particular amount, and that I will do a lot more paperwork so that I can ultimately take home less. Furthermore, most of my accounts are in Southern California. Since I drive in a restricted area, I probably won't meet the annual mileage average, so I'll be on the short end of "variable cost reimbursement."

... Oh yeah, I'm thrilled. I doubt there's an "opt out and manage my own finances, thank you very much" option.

With M going back to school soon, and getting hit with the marriage tax penalty next fall, we simply can't take on a sizable car payment any time soon. We'd talked about replacing one of the cars in about a year and a half, but not within the month. Even if we replace one car, taking on increased insurance costs and a car payment, the other person fails to qualify for the plan. If we take on two car payments, we can't maintain them both when he goes back to school. We could buy one car outright, but that's the money we'd planned to spend on our wedding.

I'm totally going Black Mage on our regional meeting tomorrow.