Having no car....

Outpost

LandyAndy wrote: »

Thank God I had a spare £350k sitting around to buy my house.

Nice.

Mat_Lock

My £700 old car was costing me too much every other month to repair. I got fed up of SORN and unSORNing it too. Sold it on Ebay for £250 this week. I haven't been driving it for over a month anyway. The only thing I miss is being able to do a full shop at the supermarket. Now I have to do it in drips and drabs every day. I also miss just getting in it and driving far away for the day just me and the tunes and scenery out the window.

I won't miss the petrol costs, insurance hikes, road tax that doesn't go back on the roads and garage costs. Bike and walk to work will make me fitter, lose weight and might not cost as much haha

passatrider

I sold my car last week and to be honest it's a relief not to have the running costs. I've bought a 100cc scooter for the local trips and will use public transport for anything else. I really did not have a choice in the end what with being on sickness benefits and the rising costs of running and keeping a car on the road.

flexrider

Mat_Lock wrote: »

My £700 old car was costing me too much every other month to repair. I got fed up of SORN and unSORNing it too. Sold it on Ebay for £250 this week. I haven't been driving it for over a month anyway. The only thing I miss is being able to do a full shop at the supermarket. Now I have to do it in drips and drabs every day. I also miss just getting in it and driving far away for the day just me and the tunes and scenery out the window.

I won't miss the petrol costs, insurance hikes, road tax that doesn't go back on the roads and garage costs. Bike and walk to work will make me fitter, lose weight and might not cost as much haha

:DOnly two quid if you get a flat tyre or 3 for a pump? :):)

mikey72

LandyAndy wrote: »

Thank God I had a spare £350k sitting around to buy my house.

My mortgage is at 1%.
My £350k is staying is the bank.

benjus

Even in London a car is nice to have. I lived without one for about 3 years... it was certainly feasible - a mixture of cycling, public transport and car clubs gave a reasonable alternative to having a car (I would never consider using a car to commute in London anyway).

But I started to miss the freedom a car gives you - doing shopping with public transport is no fun, or sitting in the rain wondering where the **** the bus has got to. The car clubs were pretty good in central London but when I moved a bit further out I could never get a booking at short notice.

So I ended up getting a cheap runaround...

Kilty_2

Strider590 wrote: »

You shouldn't have bought something you couldn't pay cash for in the first place.... But to be fair this is a symptom of British class systems, we all want nice shiny cars to improve our imaginary social status. Then we struggle with the debt for the rest of our miserable lives.

I love it when this subject comes up.

EVERYONE that buys something on credit is an irresponsible idiot that can't actually afford anything and shouldn't be let out of the house unsupervised is the general consensus of "holier than thou" people like yourself who are everywhere at the moment.

:rotfl:

Johnvic

No car, weather in Widnes UK, London UK or Boston USA I've always used my feet and my bike to get around the most.

The reason why there is such a problem with car transport in the UK and USA is that it's the selfish dream, as long as _your_ ok, as long as _your_ fighting everyone else from road space then it's all fair. but in fact cooperation building train networks can product far more efficient transportation infrastructure so long as the culture isn't hostile to socialism which USA generally is. even the liberals are mostly only liberal to free speech not to socialism.

bosseyed

Strider590 wrote: »

You shouldn't have bought something you couldn't pay cash for in the first place....

I couldn't afford my house with cash either, should I never have applied for a mortgage (and indeed neither should 90% of the rest of the population) Seriously, engage your brain you berk. To be fair, if I only ever bought things I have the actual cash for I'd have no house, no car, no fridge freezer, no TV, no wedding rings on my wifes fingers. I'd be one sad lonely bloke, which is what I suspect your problem perhaps is Strider.

Strider590 wrote: »

But to be fair this is a symptom of British class systems, we all want nice shiny cars to improve our imaginary social status. Then we struggle with the debt for the rest of our miserable lives.

It was a very nice shiny car. Hardly a struggle when we bought it though, and hardly a debt for the rest of my miserable life - more like 3 years. Its only a change in family circumstance that forces the sale, plus the spiralling costs of insurance and fuel.

Edit - and thanks to others for your interesting thoughts. You're mostly all reinforcing my thinking that its not going to be much fun.