One of my Nephews has a Same situation about His Car Allowance.

He does Sales work for AMD and travels ave of 50,000 miles a yr and takes out Cleints

1. That $ given to him is to Own a Nice  and Impressive Car.. not drive some Older car or some Compact Car..

2. Thus I pointed out, his boss is watching him on wether he has a 'Successfull Mans" way of spending $  or is he too conservative...  Tech businesses are Not Conservative..

3. Thus This Extra $ should be kept in Conservative Investments..not risky one's with High Risk Deviations.( Like loosing -20%+ in a  Int'l Fund? as it did in 01' )

4. AMBF's> Active managed Bal. Funds> Such as FPACX/PRPFX/OAKBX or just go with it in LSBRX.. ( ave 8%+ apy ain't all that bad either )

and concentrate on what your supposed to be doing..

1. Making a Good Professional Impression with A Decent car

2, And think in terms of  making Thousands, not Hundreds or less..

With Dealer/Labor Rates at $125/hr.,  a  older paid for car with 50,000+ miles can cost you just as much as owing a New one in maintenance bills and Downtime in the shop over a yr..and be alot less dependable..

let the Poor people own those older cars...LOL

You'll have plenty of time to keep a Old car after you retire... Like a 57' Chevy convertible..or a 67 GTO...