giving up the car

[Deleted User]

hi there i am contemplating selling my car as i now live in a town centre a stone's throw from a bus station.
the main reason is to save money .
i have a motorbike for when the children are in school.
there is a co-op in walking distance too.

i guess what i am asking people is those who have children (youngest is 6 ) is it really any cheaper to use public transport ???

i need to make 2 journeys a week with 3 children so i can buy day tickets for that £10 a time !!!

obviously i would have no mot,tax , insurance , repairs , unexpected bills etc to pay .

just looking for ideas and opinions really .....................

vaio

£20 a week is £1k per year, you'll struggle to run car on that so it depends what value you put on the other benefits of having a car.

forgotmyname

Depends what you do at weekends and holiday time. Does the car pay for itself then?

We go camping so without a car it would be virtually impossible.

Strider590

Costs somewhere between £80 (cheap run around) and £200 (with new car finance etc) a week to run a car.

Public transport is only cheaper IF you don't have a car at all.

You'd even be able to take a taxi to get your weekly shop and still save money, if you had no car at all.

puppy999

Why do you need a motorbike ??? it still needs tax, insurance and petrol why dont you sell that ???with a car you can take the children out and say one is really ill in the nite by the time you have got a taxi you can be at the hospital (hope nothing does happen) dont know were you live but taxi's are'nt cheap were I live 2 mile trip £3 and if your child is sick in the taxi they charge you and not many will let pets in ..........
A young friend of mine wont drive makes all excuses up dont need one till the last mth when her mum broke her leg and was unable to drive
she is now having driving lessons and is really enjoying them its only taken her 12yrs .....that sometimes we need a car

mandi

I would rather sell my soul to the devil. It's so much cheaper to run a car than travel on public transport

[Deleted User]

puppy999 wrote: »

Why do you need a motorbike ??? it still needs tax, insurance and petrol why dont you sell that ???with a car you can take the children out and say one is really ill in the nite by the time you have got a taxi you can be at the hospital (hope nothing does happen) dont know were you live but taxi's are'nt cheap were I live 2 mile trip £3 and if your child is sick in the taxi they charge you and not many will let pets in ..........
A young friend of mine wont drive makes all excuses up dont need one till the last mth when her mum broke her leg and was unable to drive
she is now having driving lessons and is really enjoying them its only taken her 12yrs .....that sometimes we need a car

hi my motorbike is a hobby that i started when my youngest went to school 2 yrs ago.
not only that , i pay £87 insurance,£15 tax and £30 MOT each yr as opposed to £325,£125,£50 respectively for the car.

not only that i get 250 miles on £10 on my bike - no car will do that !
like i said , it is only 2 journeys a week on the bus , otherwise i can use my bike,or cycle or walk .

and as i am thinking of selling it to save money , holidays don't really come into the equation for me.
my 10 mile commute to work is my main journey.

thanks everyone for your input , sometimes having someone else's perspective can help clarify things in my mind

jayme1

get a citroen c1, stupidly cheap to run, way way less than the £80 the person above says a cheap runaround costs a week.

for a C1 (or toyota aygo or peugot 107)
say you do 10,000 miles a year you get around 400-450 miles a tank (lets take the lower 400)
therefore you would need to fill it up 25 times a year,
filling it up full from empty is £40 for a full tank (lets call it £42 to take in prices going up)
add to that £20 road tax
and £300 insurance for good measure (this varies a lot!!) someone with full no claims, good area and older but not elderly can easily get it for £150.

put all that in and it comes out at £1370 a year or £26.35 a week, even if it goes up to £50 a tank then that still only comes out at £30 a week.
(ps a service is ~£110 (though varies by area and dealer and which service it is and only needed under warranty) and an MOT is whatever it costs in your area (could be anywhere between £30 and £80), so take that and divide it by 52 and add it on to the price per week I have said above)

for me I would go that over public transport anyday, the C1 has 4 seats so you an 3 kids would be fine, although one may have to be over 135cm to ride in the front.
but still it shows that you can still have a car and run it cheaply

Inactive

^^

You seem to have missed something in your statistics.

( Clue; cars, not even a C1 is free. ):)

jayme1

she says she is selling her car, that would help fund it, depending on how much she sold it for would offset the cost per week.

you can get very good 2nd hand ones for £5000 now so if she is keeping it for 3 years that would add £32 a week on to the other price, if she sold her car for say £3000 that would make it only £12 a week onto the price above.

still very very cheap

Rossy.

jayme1 wrote: »

she says she is selling her car, that would help fund it, depending on how much she sold it for would offset the cost per week.

you can get very good 2nd hand ones for £5000 now so if she is keeping it for 3 years that would add £32 a week on to the other price, if she sold her car for say £3000 that would make it only £12 a week onto the price above.

still very very cheap

I agree in pricipal with what your saying about the C1 but your presuming the op has 5k to splash on a car. We don't even know what car she has now let alone what it's worth. For all we know it "could" be a banger and be worth pennies (no offense OP)