How new does a car need to be for it to be considered reliable and dependable? There are as many answers to that as there are cars and drivers. Modern cars are largely reliable for decades if well-kept, but deferred maintenance and sloppy upkeep can make a car look like it’s gone through hell in less than ten years. Clearly, not-new-car reliability depends on the car in question, but nonetheless, a British woman got a hard-and-fast ruling based on the age of her car alone from a company she had applied to: her 12-year-old car ruled her out for a trainee job at an estate agency.
The BBC reports that Alanah Thompson French, from Nottinghamshire in England, drives a 2014 Citroën C1 she bought last May. The small silver hatchback had less than 40,000 miles on the clock and one previous owner, making it a prime example of a good used buy for not a lot of money; she paid £2800, or less than four thousand dollars for it. It’s been getting her to work and back without any mechanical grief, and a car would continue to be a necessity were she to take the next step in her career toward working as an estate agent.
As well as sending a ton of applications elsewhere, she applied for a trainee lettings negotiator position in Nottingham in December. The estate agent company, which BBC names as haart, had replied that she didn’t make the interview shortlist as she had marked her car as being over 10 years old in the online application; they even had a separate box for the age of the car. She later received an email reply that the company had considered her application but ultimately decided not to invite her for an interview as they required access to a car newer than 10 years old.
In a statement provided to the BBC, the company replied: “It’s extremely important that people who work for us use reliable vehicles for their own personal safety, particularly where they travel many miles each day and often work alone.”
“Evidence from motoring organisations shows that the likelihood of mechanical problems increases as vehicles get older. For that reason, and in line with many organisations that require staff to use their own cars for work purposes, our policy is that vehicles should normally be under 10 years old.”
How Many People Even Have A New Enough Car?
This is certainly an interesting statement. For one, the average British car is around ten years old, according to the motoring organisation RAC; by the end of 2024, the precise average age was nine years and ten months. That means the average British driver would be on the edge of being acceptable for a position in which they would be required to drive their own car.
As Alanah herself says in the BBC article: “It’s just a bit of a kick in the teeth because obviously when you’re applying for jobs, you’re applying for loads and loads of jobs and to get an email back saying that … I just don’t understand it.”
“It doesn’t seem fair because how am I meant to afford a bigger and better car? And how am I meant to get insured on a bigger and better car?”
While the British used car market is usually priced cheaper than the rest of Europe, partially because of left-hand traffic and right-hand-drive, insurance is famously very expensive for young British drivers.
The situation is even worse for European drivers: based on this 2024 article using data from 2022, the average car in Europe was roughly 12 years old, and the economic situation has hardly improved after that. In the States, the average car is now nearing 13 years old according to S&P Global.
The Finnish Information Centre for the Automotive Sector states the average car in Finland is pushing 14 years. And to bring the point home to myself, when I last applied for a job, I was in fact asked whether I had access to a car for work. The fact my daily driver Corolla is over 25 years old didn’t matter, but perhaps it was deemed as reliable enough.
Does Being Nearly New Make A Car Reliable?
The woman named in the BBC article also has a reliable car, according to the RAC. The Citroën C1 is a badge-engineered version of the Toyota Aygo, also sold as the Peugeot 107, and with its Daihatsu powertrain in the gasoline versions, it’s one of the more reliable cars available for a budget sum.
And nearly-new cars haven’t proved to be as reliable as the Aygo: for instance, the now-infamous 1.2-liter PureTech engine has put a big dent in the image of Stellantis’ smaller cars, as the engine’s wet timing belt tends to crumble, blocking the oil passages with debris and requiring a big bill to put right. Stellantis has taken the step of rebranding its 1.2-liter engine line as the Turbo 100, backing the new motor with the statement that its timing chain and improved robustness would “increase driving pleasure.”
Ford isn’t off the hook, either, as the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine, widely used in Fiestas and Focuses in Europe, also has the same wet-belt issue. Ford’s most troublesome units were produced up to 2019, and Stellantis only initially improved the PureTech with a timing chain in 2023, before introducing its successor that the company claims is more robust. These cars are out there on the used market, far newer than the stated 10-year cut-off for “likelihood of mechanical problems.” And a bad 12-volt battery can render any newish car inoperable, with the likelihood of the battery giving up the ghost increasing the newer the car is. Even the Toyota Yaris, a car considered reliable, is named in WhatCar’s reliability survey as having problems with the battery. The Nissan Juke, another popular car in the UK, got a ridiculous 50% score in another WhatCar survey, with the battery the main culprit.
But the likeliest explanation for the entire deal is that an estate agency simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to consider the multitude of vehicle choices when hiring new workforce. The blanket 10-year rule for cars means the least amount of effort needed to sift applications, as it relies on a simplified rule of thumb. It’s just that the current economic situation means more young people are applying for work while having a reduced budget to shop for cars to make that job happen, especially as new cars are increasingly more expensive.
In a Catch-22 situation, you need a job to be able to source a car, to buy one or finance it, but you also need that car to get the job in the first place. And while not every job lists a car as a requirement, a car-based economy with its long commutes means a lot of people need to rely on a car to get anywhere to begin with.
UPDATE, Good News
After the BBC’s article went online, the estate agency reversed its policy and welcomed Alanah for an interview. The company’s spokesperson stated: “We are extremely grateful to Alanah Thompson French for raising her concerns about our 10-year car age limit policy, which has now been dropped. Although it was introduced with good intentions, to ensure that colleagues use vehicles that are roadworthy and safe, it was never meant to prevent people from joining our organisation.”
“We are so impressed by Alanah’s tenacity in raising the issue. She is exactly the sort of person we would like to work for haart estate agents and we are contacting her to invite her for an interview.”
Top graphic image: Citroën
I thought Autopian had a similar policy?
If it runs, if you don’t have to suck-start the gas flow, if you don’t have to advance past the broken teeth on the flywheel, if it’s built and has seats and the too-thin wires don’t get hot while you drive, if it has a chassis and frame and running gear:
You’re disqualified.
Yeah, I’m driving my 2012 Fusion to work until it disintigrates around me. Perfectly solid, comfortable commuter. I’m glad I’m not in that sort of position. My boss, for example, had a perfectly clean and servicable 2019 Outback that’s technically too old for an outside salesperson to use for company work. It’s nuts. He drives his wife’s X5 when he has to be around the big wigs.
Covering my territories usually involved a plane trip so I was always in a rental car. The company did have requirements that the car I rented be at least a mid-size.
They were fine with me driving my own vehicle without verifying its age or quality, but I was expected to get a rental if I was going to be driving more than 500 miles.
Mid-size probably makes sense, so you have the option to comfortably take a group of prospects to lunch, for example. But a 7 year old car that is kept showroom clean not being good enough? Drives me up the wall.
It’s not about reliability. It is about presentation. Even if you’re not driving customers in your car, you are meeting them at the property in your car.
An older car (well, the kinds realtors drive at least) does not present as well as newer ones.
Agreed in some part, but if a realtor rolled up in an older G-wagen or an older Rolls Royce, those would be perceived just fine. So a good amount just has to do with the cars perceived value.
It’s a terrible but very telling part of how we as humans operate. The east coast of the US definitely lives more like this than the west.
Realtors aren’t interesting enough to drive those cars.
You’ll see them in their Lexus RX.
Frankly, I’m of two minds about this. On one hand, if I were a realtor, leasing a new RX would probably make financial sense. It would be unproblematic and comfortable, but would keep wear-and-tear off of a car I prized more.
On the other hand, I feel like the car I drive reflects my personality, and an RX is a dreadfully boring car in which to be seen.
Maybe those employers should pay them a wage that allows them to purchase a new vehicle then, or at least provide a company car.
Maybe the job pays well enough that buying a newer car won’t be a problem. With this applicant so desperate to get in, let’s assume so.
One can hope so. I have the impression sales/agent jobs are usually “we’ll pay you enough to afford a cheap apartment + a couple outfits + a nice car on credit” vs. backoffice jobs that are “we’ll pay you enough to afford a cheap apartment + a bus pass.”
More income upside on the sales side maybe, but you still gotta make those car payments if things go bad.
Yuuup. See also the whole kerfuffle around Mercedes’ wife’s car. Even if it only makes the difference 10% of the time, sometimes you can’t afford to miss that 10%.
I don’t know anything about the real-estate business in the UK, but if it’s anything like the USA, it’s pretty status-conscious. The “new car” dictum would be to ensure the company’s representatives looked prosperous. They couldn’t realistically go further to dictate the makes or models they’d find acceptable.
Tangentially, I knew a guy who worked on oil pipelines in rural parts of the USA. Most of the guys who worked on these were young (except for people with specialist skills, like welders). As my friend told it, on their first day on the job, the foreman would insult whatever it was they were driving and strongly suggest they need to buy a fancy new truck. This was not about status: this was to get the new workers locked in to big monthly payments, so they wouldn’t walk off the job.
Yeah. This is similar to Mercedes’ wife’s situation, running into issues driving her old Scion IQ as a lawyer.
I’m a generous person who tries not to judge people based on appearances. That said, if I’ve gotten myself into spot of legal trouble… I want the lawyer who rolls up to my court date in at least an entry-level executive sedan, not the one broken down on the side of the highway in a 15 year old city car.
I worked(briefly) at a place like that. The ownership even said it vs implied we like it when people buy a new car because it motivates then to stay on the job. They saw it as good business, I saw it as a trap
You want me to drive a nice new car? Give me a company car. If I’m the one paying for it, I’ll drive what I want.
Wild. I’m doing a 140 mile commute in an 87 LeBaron and my biggest hangup was on my ride home when a lady hit me. Me and the car are fine, it was just a minor inconvenience.
A quick “Thank You!” to all the commenters for reminding me how nice it is to be “retired”. I have less than fond memories driving “cars-of-opportunity” while trying to “get ahead”. I spent the 1970’s with a 20 mile commute and night school classes at seemingly random locations distant from home. For instance, driving a $25 Opel station wagon. Money was tight (Anyone remember the Nixon price freeze? Or the Carter stagflation?). I struggled to maintain a supply of reliable “shit-boxes”. The biggest problem was rust, the cars had to pass MA inspection every 6 months. Some how, I managed to show up at work and class on time.
And a nod of thanks to the older coworker who sold me his dad’s 1964 Falcon. I managed to patch that one up for several years.
In my area, there is need for real estate agents to have some form of vehicle that will be taken on rough dirt roads. If they are driving a fancy sedan, they would not be taken seriously. Fortunately for them, SUVs are not only the best choice, there are some fancy ones as well.
The most reliable vehicle in my not-very new fleet is also the oldest. The ’64 F100 coach-built crewcab has been a solidly reliable vehicle for decades. Even when I have let is sit for months neglected, it still starts.
Tell us about the rest of your fleet, please!
Covered in a Member’s Rides!
https://www.theautopian.com/crew-cabs-campers-a-far-traveling-phev-and-one-shamancycle-members-rides/
My old employer had a similar car-age policy. They would pay your car note up to $600 if the car was newer than 10 years old. So I bought a Jaguar F-Type and rode my bicycle to work.
At least they’d pay for it.
Did the bicycle have to be newer than 10 years old also?
and need to be carbon fiber with clip-on pedals. You know, to make clear this is my toy and not my only transportation.
“ The estate agent company, which BBC names as haart, had replied that she didn’t make the interview shortlist as she had marked her car as being over 10 years old in the online application;”
Jackasses.
“After the BBC’s article went online, the EMBARASSED estate agency reversed its STUPID policy and welcomed Alanah for an interview. “
Fixed it for accuracy.
If they want want to have a say in the cars their staff drive, then they should be giving staff a monthly car allowance to help pay for the additional cost of a new/newer car.
Also, just because a car is new, does NOT mean you can’t have issues that take it out of service. Think of all the cars that have a big safety recall where owners are ordered to park their cars until parts become available… like what happened to the Bolt with the battery or owners of vehicles with Takata airbags.
“ Although it was introduced with good intentions,”
I don’t believe that. I believe there was a certain amount of elitist thinking behind the implementation of that policy.
” it was never meant to prevent people from joining our organisation.”
Bullshit.
These C1s were not only cheap, they could keep going with cheap fixes.
If all the car service people vanished tomorrow, these kind of cars would be the last you would see on the road.
(Some pedo is probably thinking right now ‘How is that possible, it could not even receive over the air updates?’)
Man, all those E-1 Military guys with their 21%apr Camaros/Mustangs are gonna snap up all the Real Estate jobs!
Since, you know, a new car is the only thing they care about.
Circa 2005, I was driving my 30 year old 914. I called my wife from court one day, and I said “I have good news and I have bad news.”
She said “Let me guess. The good news is that you won your motion. The bad news is the car won’t start…”
For better or for worse, at a certain point, you need to have reliable transportation for your work, and there is a bit of image at play.
That’s why the best car for a professional is/was an Oldsmobile 88/Buick Lesabre (if you are aged 30-55). Nice enough to say “success”, not so nice as to cause resentment. After that, a 98, an Electra, a Caddy or a Lincoln could be justified.
oooo a 914 😀
hehehe no Bonneville 😛
This probably has more to do with what the company was not willing to state officially than with what they were willing to state officially.
Mr. big shot probably started shouting something about skin colour, hair style or perceived sexual preference before ending with ‘and she drives a stupid car too’. The secretary was smart and only typed what they could not be sued on.
Maybe it’s a regional cultural thing, but in the Rural PNW, people tend to compliment you for driving older cars. Nobody gives a shit if you drive something new, but rockin a 30 year old Subaru or pickup truck? Oh yeah.
I consistently impressed stakeholders when I showed up in my w126. I can’t wait to start doing it with a classic mini instead.
I love going to the PNW because they consistently have cars running that I haven’t seen for 10-15 years elsewhere. Ancient Subarus are bountiful. I like playing the game of trying to find the cars that have mountain bikes (or other sporting equipment) attached to the roof that are worth more than the car itself.
It’s been like this as long as I can remember, we have weird stuff still running happily here. In the parking lot today I parked my 30 year old Grand Marquis next to an Isuzu Amigo.
EDIT- Just walked out to grab something out of my car, in the brief walk I passed: An early G20 Shorty passenger van (unrestored but pretty nice), a pristine restored 4th gen El Camino, a beat to all hell 1st gen Chrysler Concorde, and 967,321 Subarus.
Maybe I’m just being contrarian, but I have positive views of people who drive older cars. To me, it shows the owner drives responsibly and keeps up on maintenance. I also see older cars as indicators of fiscal responsibility and contentment. I don’t see anything wrong with driving a new and/or expensive car, but I don’t see why some people view drivers of older, cheaper cars negatively.
I’m also skeptical of realtors that drive expensive cars. I’m sure they are trying to say “I’m successful and will sell your house quickly!” but the message I receive is “I’m going to maximize my paycheck at your expense!”
Many realty companies put rules on what their employees must drive for work. Most require 4 doors if you’re expected to drive customers around, many veto compacts, I bet some require SUV’s given the age of the average home buyer, and I’ve heard of some odd rules around badges/price points. But I’ve never heard of such a company enforcing these requirements BEFORE the interview.
If you have a stack of applicants, this is an easy way to weed someone out. I assume you’d also want professional experienced employees, but you’re not allowed to directly consider age as a factor. Driving cheap old cars may identify you as a young person without them having to ask.
I was thinking it’s mainly a way to identify someone as poor, which is certainly a criterion by which they like to discriminate.
If it’s a young person with an old car it wouldn’t give me pause. Young and poor could definitely equal hungry for an opportunity.
Old and poor may indicate other things (temporary setback or a lifetime of poor performance).
I don’t have a problem with realty companies having standards for what their agents drive, as long as those standards are reasonable. The realtor I used for my last purchase had a small SUV (I think it was a CR-V?). The one I used to sell my old house had a Chevrolet Trax. Both were clean, newer vehicles with adequate room for clients. I could see a realty company prohibiting compact two door cars like the one in the story (although, small cars might be more acceptable to clients in the UK; also, the story specified the car was too old and not too small).
I mostly am skeptical of those that drive expensive luxury cars. I recall one that drove a brand-new S-Class with her name plastered all over it as well as one with a new Model X with a bright wrap – I found both extremely off putting.
Door-to-door salesmen or contractors are discouraged from driving luxury cars or even cheap sports cars like a Mustang or Miata for that exact reason. Anything that an uninformed customer could perceive as flashy can cost a sale. I’m glad I’m not a salesman or realtor.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. However, a company that feels this way is likely taking advantage of employees by making them put wear-and-tear on their personal cars and not providing any kind of personal stipend. Which is just one more outrageous aspect of this late-stage-capitalism world in which we find ourselves.
Similarly, I once worked an office job that definitely did not require us to drive anywhere. Nevertheless, there was one employee with a pretty beat-up teal ’94-era Ford Escort wagon. And it did break frequently. I once personally witnessed her in the parking lot changing the alternator out on it. Management already handled her with kid gloves because she was transgender, but she told me she was outright asked to start parking her car around the back of the building or drive something else, because her car made the front lot look bad when visitors saw it.
My response to her was, “Well, if they feel so strongly about your car, the management/executives can pool some money together and give you a bonus check for a new one. Otherwise, f**k ’em.”
They didn’t tell her to buy a new car, just not to park the old one where people could see it. If the appearance alone wasn’t enough, using the company parking lot to change out an alternator surely was.
I mean, that’s fair, but—again—that’s the economic reality of hiring people at uncompetitive wages, and hiring them as contractors and never converting them to full-time, both of which this company did with her particular department.
And she wouldn’t have been changing the alternator in the parking lot if it hadn’t gone out. My understanding was that she got someone at the parts store to deliver it because the car was immobile and she couldn’t afford to tow the car *and* get the alternator fixed.
Cars today are much more reliable than in the past, its pretty common to see 20 year old cars daily. Back in the 80’s you rarely seen early 60’s cars around.
At one of my old jobs, I was “encouraged” to drive the company runabout (a 2012 Ford Fiesta with the PowerShit transmission) to client meetings instead of my own car (a battered 1995 Toyota Corolla that was dead-reliable but looked awful). I had two bosses; only one of them cared. So I only took the Fiesta when she was paying attention.
Mark, we need you looking eminently respectable and to showcase our company to everyone who sees you behind the wheel. So take this Avis-grade Ford subcompact that bucks and slams between every gear.
We’ve got a reputation to maintain.
Just borrow a nice car to drive to the interview. Just put “pending” in the what do you drive box. After you have the job and show up in your daily driver, you would be on the winning side in court if fired!
I’ve got a mate in Nottingham with a 23-year-old Renault Clio 172, the car’s one year older than he is! I bet any future employers are gonna freak out 🙂
My Toyota used to get called a Lexus for the sake of applications for rental houses.
If the car is part of your job function and one isn’t provided to you then sadly this is legit. Plenty of jobs require private transportation.
“If the car is part of your job function “
… then the company should be including a monthly stipend to pay for the car needed for the job function.
Agree. And that’s why a lot of firms offer company cars. I don’t know if it’s changed, but in the UK there used to be a very substantial tax loophole such that a lot of middle-class people had company cars as part of their compensation.
That is still the case:
“Corporate fleets, including company cars, car dealers, manufacturers, and short-term rentals accounted for 58% of new passenger car registrations in Europe.”
I don’t know how estate agents are compensated in the UK, but it’s a pure commission job at most places in the US. If the employee churn is similar, then they need new hires constantly.
Their employees aren’t just representing the company to their clients, but they are also selling the company to potential future employees.
Of course this represents employees subsidizing costs for their employer. Hopefully they are paid well enough to justify it.
“Hopefully they are paid well enough to justify it.”
If there is a high rate of churn, probably not.
I don’t know anything about UK realtor compensation, but I would be surprised if it worked the way it does in the US – straight commission with a cut for the broker / office.
The successful ones NEVER stop selling themselves, since that it the product. If they’re trying to project a successful image they will gladly buy a new car if they think it’s helps their image / sales.
Nice to see Mercedes’ wife isn’t the only person who is losing work based on what they drive.
People need to fuck allll the way off with this stuff. Demand reliable transportation and mind ya goddamn business on what that transportation is.
Agreed in principle, but what defines “reliable”? This company is apparently taking a lazy approach based on the car’s age.
Mercedes’s wife was being discriminated against due to the perceived lack of prestige of her car. This UK company would apparently be fine with the cheapest little runt on the market assuming it fell within the age limit.
If the employee consistently fails to arrive because of transportation issues, then it is not reliable.
There isn’t a realistic way to know this ahead of time without discriminating and/or screening out potential quality hires.
One of the highest paid execs at my work commutes in a Elantra Touring that has the front bumper held on with wood screws. They don’t even miss days due to sickness. My direct manager doesn’t even drive. Public transit and is present every morning on time.
“If the employee consistently fails to arrive because of transportation issues, then it is not reliable.”
I agree with this. Wouldn’t be that hard to implement/enforce as a policy, either. Certainly better than a near-meaningless age cap.
Hell yeah. We even have employees that bike to work. You wanna guess what their no-show rate is compared to people with new vehicles undergoing warranty and/or recall work?