To drive or not to drive

lihar

I think my over 10 year old car is costing me a lot in petrol because it is old; so i started taking the train to work. This aggrieves me because i have to change and almost doubles my journey to work, than if i continued driving. But because i am in debt and this is the cheaper option, I'm doing it.

But my journey to work may be changing, im potentially going to start a new job. I don't want to tempt fate, but i thought i should do some research into alternatives and was looking for some advice.
The new journey would mean 3 changes and a very long roundabout way. But it is in Surrey, so it would mean driving really, although I;ve no idea how long it would take to get there.

Generally speaking is it "cheaper" to drive or get the train? If i was able to lift share, would that work out much much cheaper? Just wish I knew how to work out how much MY car costs me in petrol per mile. Its a Rover 400, 1.6. If that makes any difference!?

Thanks

Dave101t

train is cheaper overall.

davetrousers

lihar wrote: »

Just wish I knew how to work out how much MY car costs me in petrol per mile.

Just look at the amount of litres you put in when you fill up, and record your mileage repeat this exercise each time, then do the maths.

blued

Dave101t wrote: »

train is cheaper overall.

How did you come to that conclusion given the information we have from the OP?!

maninthestreet

lihar wrote: »

I think my over 10 year old car is costing me a lot in petrol because it is old; so i started taking the train to work. This aggrieves me because i have to change and almost doubles my journey to work, than if i continued driving. But because i am in debt and this is the cheaper option, I'm doing it.

But my journey to work may be changing, im potentially going to start a new job. I don't want to tempt fate, but i thought i should do some research into alternatives and was looking for some advice.
The new journey would mean 3 changes and a very long roundabout way. But it is in Surrey, so it would mean driving really, although I;ve no idea how long it would take to get there.

Generally speaking is it "cheaper" to drive or get the train? If i was able to lift share, would that work out much much cheaper? Just wish I knew how to work out how much MY car costs me in petrol per mile. Its a Rover 400, 1.6. If that makes any difference!?

Thanks

So how many mile do you get out of full tank, and how big is the tank??

whatmichaelsays

Costs to consider:

Car:
The cost of the car
Fuel (according to Parkers, a 1995-2000 edition Rover 416 should be able to manage 32-39mpg depending on the exact model)
Parking
Insurance
Tax (The car is over 1549cc and is presumably pre-2001. Your tax therefore will be £190 per year if bought before April 2010, rising to £205 after that)
Maintainence
Depreciation

Train:
Cost of ticket
Cost of connecting travel (eg, bus to station)
Increased time commitment
Depreciation (your season ticket will be worthless in 12 months time - something that the pro-public transport bandwagon tends to forget)

Also consider your transport commitments outside of work. Will you need a car to do the weekly shop or the school run for example?

olly300

lihar wrote: »

I think my over 10 year old car is costing me a lot in petrol because it is old; so i started taking the train to work. This aggrieves me because i have to change and almost doubles my journey to work, than if i continued driving. But because i am in debt and this is the cheaper option, I'm doing it.

It's not costing a lot in petrol because it's old it's costing you a lot in petrol because it has a large tank.

To work out how much it's costing you per mile - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2089443

In regards to taking the train doing more than 1 change is wearing doing 2 is tiring and doing 3 makes you want to lose it. The reason is that due to the poor maintenance of the tracks and the fact that the UK rail system can't cope with extremes of weather one of your trains will be late or delayed on average 3 times a week. (And yes I've done all.)

lihar

So basically, as I already own a car, and am paying for it in tax, i may as well ditch my car for a smaller engine and use that, to avoid the stress of the consistently late trains? Someone please say yes, its what i want to hear!!

Seriously though, a smaller engine would mean less cost of petrol. I think a train season ticket vs petrol is roughly the same for a journey by car. I THINK

lihar

I wont give my car up, as i do need it to get to remote places where my family live, where they apparently forgot to put public transport in.
So it sort of seems daft to be paying costs for a car and not using it??

geordieracer

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

Costs to consider:

Car:
The cost of the car
Fuel (according to Parkers, a 1995-2000 edition Rover 416 should be able to manage 32-39mpg depending on the exact model)
Parking
Insurance
Tax (The car is over 1549cc and is presumably pre-2001. Your tax therefore will be £190 per year if bought before April 2010, rising to £205 after that)
Maintainence
Depreciation

Train:
Cost of ticket
Cost of connecting travel (eg, bus to station)
Increased time commitment
Depreciation (your season ticket will be worthless in 12 months time - something that the pro-public transport bandwagon tends to forget)with an annual ticket you only pay for 40 weeks so your getting 3 months travel free plus other discounts with your goldcard for family members,
Also consider your transport commitments outside of work. Will you need a car to do the weekly shop or the school run for example?

something people who dont travel by train dont know about.

michaelro

lihar wrote: »

I think my over 10 year old car is costing me a lot in petrol because it is old; so i started taking the train to work. This aggrieves me because i have to change and almost doubles my journey to work, than if i continued driving. But because i am in debt and this is the cheaper option, I'm doing it.

Could you cycle part of the way? (ie Train & Cycle)

How long is each journey currently?

If it's 30 Mins each way by car that's an hour a day you are travelling just to save a few quid.

When I factor in travel time, I work it out at my hourly rate.
ie I was offered a job for £10k more, but meant I would have been travelling an extra 8 hours a week. I wasn't that worse off staying in my current job and working overtime rather than moving jobs.

My point is, could you do overtime and earn extra money to cover the extra cost of the travelling?
Travel time is essentially wasted time - The more you do the more you lose out on potential earnings, or more importantly for me - time with family & friends.