When I was a little boy, I remember waiting outside for my father to get home from work. He did not drive the car my mother used to run errands or go to the grocery store; he drove his company's business vehicle.
It was a blue station wagon with the company's name plastered along the side of the passenger door, and it always made me so proud to see him driving it because, in my mind, it made my father more important.
He never worried about the car breaking down, because the company would fix it. His supervisor supported him bringing the business vehicle home, because he felt that his was a form of free advertising for the company.
We even drove the car over 1,400 miles on an out-of-state vacation and grew to love it so much that when it was time for the company to replace the vehicle, we actually bought it to keep it in the family.
Fast forward 25 years, and it is a slightly different story. A friend of mine who worked as the executive editor of a local sports magazine was given his own business vehicle, a Hummer, with the magazine's name on both sides of the car, along with a web site address printed on the rear windshield and a phone number below the company's logo just below the spoiler in the back.
He was proud as he could be of the vehicle, but added that it was more of a headache than he had imagined it would be. He had to keep exact gas mileage, and only use it for company-related activities. He could drive it around during the day, but in the evening, he parked it in the office parking lot and drove home in his old pick up truck.
He also said that it was hard to park, and that he had to justify every trip he made to his superiors. He had to make sure it was gassed up on a regular basis and said he often washed it himself.
"Having a company vehicle is not all that it is cracked up to be," he once said just after he had finished checking the oil.
I have never had the opportunity to have a business vehicle of my own, and as I grew up and my priorities changed, it no longer seemed as important to me as it once did.
The Hummer is rather large in comparison to most vehicles, and perhaps my friend faced a unique set of circumstances, but as for whether I would ever want to have one, I think it would have to be the right kind of business vehicle.