giving up the car

[Deleted User]

Rossy. wrote: »

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)

you're about right !!
i have a diesel focus that is cosmetically poor and probably in need of lots of work for its MOT after xmas - i literally scrape by from week to week and the little money i get from the car would be put away to get some bills cleared and to have a month or so's public transport money at the ready

maybe i should ask for a C1 on freecycle
i am trying to lose the expense and associated stress that comes with owning a car ( i can always hire one if needed) , but i just don't want to do that to find that public transport is more expensive for the little i will use it .

thanks again for everyone's input

Strider590

It's amazing how blind people are to the cost of running a car....... There's no way that owning a car is cheaper!
Public transport is more or less equal to the equivalent fuel cost to drive a car the same distance! But! you didn't have to pay tax, insurance, repair costs, tyre's, etc etc etc and a £200 a month loan or finance (in some cases) to get on the bus/train.

jaydeeuk1

The cost to my pride of using public transport would far outweigh cost of car ownership.

Mark_Hewitt

Strider590 wrote: »

Public transport is more or less equal to the equivalent fuel cost to drive a car the same distance! .

Nonsense! e.g. My town to Durham City is about £3.50 bus fare, petrol is less than £1.

Home to York is £38 return bus / train fare, £25 petrol. I could go on. But public transport is more expensive than the fuel for the same journey.

As others say, the only way to save money is not to have to pay tax, insurance etc for a car at all.

mustrum_ridcully

Strider590 wrote: »

It's amazing how blind people are to the cost of running a car....... There's no way that owning a car is cheaper!
Public transport is more or less equal to the equivalent fuel cost to drive a car the same distance! But! you didn't have to pay tax, insurance, repair costs, tyre's, etc etc etc and a £200 a month loan or finance (in some cases) to get on the bus/train.

Indeed! As a non-car owning couple said to me once - running a car is all about the overheads!

Using some rough figures for a year (lowish mileage say 5k)
£200 (insurance) + £150 (VED) + £55 (MOT) + £200 (servicing + parts + wear and tear on tyres/brakes) + £500 (Petrol* ~£40 pm)
=£1105 to run that car for a year (and that doesn't include parking, tolls and fines).

Almost £100 a month. If you only need to do local journeys then it's cheaper to use bus/coach/train/foot/bike/taxi (it doesn't matter if the train fare to London is £10 or £100 if you're not going there).

* I am assuming there's a bit of motorway travel, if it was all urban you'd probably be looking at something like £750.

wba31

Strider590 wrote: »

It's amazing how blind people are to the cost of running a car....... There's no way that owning a car is cheaper!
Public transport is more or less equal to the equivalent fuel cost to drive a car the same distance! But! you didn't have to pay tax, insurance, repair costs, tyre's, etc etc etc and a £200 a month loan or finance (in some cases) to get on the bus/train.

bus far out of Birmingham each night (i get a lift in every morning) is £1.70 a time. the bus takes 35-40 to do 8 miles. i estimate that costs at most £1 in my car. and takes 15 minutes.

return train to my good friend in Ely cost me £45 per person in June. the same journey with my partner in my car cost me £30 in total 3 weeks back. that included going to Huntingdon Races on the saturday, and down to Newmarket on the sunday...

Strider590

^^^ People are still forgetting the overheads when looking at car v public transport......
It's not just the fuel cost, it's the cost of everything you pay for a year of motoring divided by mileage.

Hammyman

mummyof5 wrote: »

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.

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

Firstly before you get rid of it, try living without the car for a fortnight. Do the shopping using bus/taxi and the journey you were on about using public transport. Keep the receipts and tot up at the end of the fortnight.

For me to have my car parked on the road not turning a wheel costs per week:

£2 VED
£3 servicing
£4 insurance
£1 MOT

So it costs me a tenner a week in "static" costs.

Hammyman

Strider590 wrote: »

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.

Where did you get the figure of £80 from? Even with finance for a £5k loan, doing 600 miles per week mine JUST costs me £80. Take off the finance and knock the mileage down to a more reasonable 300 per week and its £30 a week - maybe £50 if you had a petrol car.

rev_henry

The thing about public transport is it costs PER PERSON rather than just however much petrol. Taxis are the exception to this as you pay 20p extra per person full stop. I generally find the car about the same/a little more than the train in petrol, but as soon as you add a passenger the train makes 0 sense, especially as you already have the car and will pay for insurance, mot etc anyway.

OP you could even SORN your car when the tax and insurance runs out, then you won't be paying anything towards it really, do this for a month or so and see how it goes.