Can't decide whether to ditch my family car and go without. Anyone done it?

pitkin2020

TUS wrote: »

I used to drive an old but reliable Pug 205 pre-kids :-D Felt like driving a tin can in high winds.

At the end of the day the more I think about it the more I think I'd be better off without any vehicle. OK, so I could reduce my outgoings by changing car ... but it wouldn't be as noticeable as having over £100 extra each month. As I have debts, I could snowball those with that extra cash.

For sure you could have the extra money and if you have debts it will definitely help to try and cover and get rid of some that debt. Swings and roundabouts, you could spend the next 12 months working as hard as possible to remove the debts and then get back into motoring after that (depends on how much debts you have). Personally I would rather downsize and save some cash, pay the debt over 2 years but still be able to enjoy ourselves as a family and the freedom driving offers. Everyones personal situation is different so you have to decide which is best for you.

moonrakerz

david39 wrote: »

I had been considering this myself.

I am retired and my wife will be retiring shortly, although she uses the car for commuting at the moment - the only practicable way of her reaching her work.

I believe that our (small) car costs us £35 per week to run, excluding depreciation.

We seldom do long trips, so most of our journeys can be done by local bus (free, with our bus passes) and I'm thinking that £35 per week would buy us a lot of short distance taxi fares for emergency travelling or journeys that are otherwise impractical.

Somehow, giving up the independence goes against the grain but Alan's idea of deliberately doing without the car for a few weeks to try it out before ditching it completely is sound advice - might give it a try.......

Likewise !

I have retired, wife does part-time and is still doing a bit of census work at the moment. She could get the bus to work, free.
The station is 250yds away, the shops 400yds. The only time we NEED the car is for the occasional big shop-in.
When I/we go to football (London), or concerts, the train is a lot easier and cheaper !
The car is 3 yrs old, 25K on the clock - that could pay for a nice cruise !!

Billy-no-Money

Cheaper bicycles are available!!
(I don't want to turn this into a 'what bike' thread, there's plenty of those elsewhere on the internet).

We did without a car for two years back in the nineties, when the kids were between 2 and 9 - we lived in a village with buses every hour or so, and a railway station with a similar level of train service.

Things that I remember from that time include:

• Walking as a family to and from the local supermarket, older children doing their bit by carrying something home in a back pack.
• Going on holiday by train - could be a bit stressful, but for the kids was one big adventure and memorable.
• Getting to a toy shop was a nightmare - as Toys R Us had sucked the life out of the local shops, it meant getting to an out-of-town store which took forever.

Kids of that age don't see being without a car as a problem - it means they get lots of different experiences, and on public transport they meet lots of different people (not all of them drunks). They'll already be used to that with their mum anyway.

It gets more difficult with teenagers as you end up ferrying them all over the place at odd times of day, but if they've grown up comfortable with buses and trains then they'll likely be happy to make their own way - it's just their personal safety you might be concerned about.

If your car's a few years old and paid for, then if a trial works I'd say go for it, you can always buy another car later without losing out.

TUS

I've just had a thought about another option ... as I have a driveway I could cancel insurance and declare the car SORN. Means I get the monthly savings from the insurance/petrol but don't have to get rid of the car.

We aren't in massive need of the funds selling the car would raise, so could manage without selling it. It just means I'm in a position to re-insure and tax at a later date ... or sell if we are happy without car use.

TUS

Bo_Nidle wrote: »

You will lose some money on cancellation charges, and you wont achieve another year of no claims if you cancel part way through. Plus a car sitting about going nowhere is not good for it or the tyres, moving parts, brake discs. A happy car is a used car.

If you have sky/virgin, a fag or booze habit I'd get rid of those first.

Yeah, thats a fair point about it lying dormant. Not so bothered about the cancellation charge as it is offset by any tax rebate I would be due.

Freeview and drug free here ... :-p

LittleMissAspie

How is your petrol so expensive??? I make it that you commute 168 miles per month? Our car does 500-600 miles per month and we spend about £50 on diesel. Your tax is horrendous, ours is £30 a year. Your insurance is horrendous but you think it will reduce next year.

So why not consider a car that is much cheaper to run instead? You'll have the convenience but it won't cost you so much.

Does your wife drive? If you add her on the insurance it might lower the premium if she is lower risk than you. You can still cycle to work in good weather, saving you petrol and reducing your mileage. Consider a mileage limit on your policy as that will help lower it too.

mark42424

You can also recover some of your costs by sharing rides. Checkout sites like rideshare and ridemarketplace.com

buglawton

If you are working full time and then add commuting time, you have to consider that every minute of weekend/leisure time is precious and a car is a productivity tool to make best use of time. You might find yourself 'lacking the will to live' not having this facility at weekends! In my younger days I once sold the car and went without for a year or so to make serious progress with the mortgage, but GF was having none of it, got a car again!

TUS

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

How is your petrol so expensive??? I make it that you commute 168 miles per month? Our car does 500-600 miles per month and we spend about £50 on diesel. Your tax is horrendous, ours is £30 a year. Your insurance is horrendous but you think it will reduce next year.

So why not consider a car that is much cheaper to run instead? You'll have the convenience but it won't cost you so much.

Does your wife drive? If you add her on the insurance it might lower the premium if she is lower risk than you. You can still cycle to work in good weather, saving you petrol and reducing your mileage. Consider a mileage limit on your policy as that will help lower it too.

I think the high petrol is because we tend to go out and about a lot when I'm off work for the sake of it. I work 3 weeks out of 4, so on my week off we tend to go out somewhere everyday.

But in all honesty, we can still do that without a car I think.

However, the car isnt efficient at all - prob 23-25 mpg.

My wife doesn't have a license no.

Are there any other more efficient cars which would fit 2 car seats in the back for toddlers and allow an 8 year to sit between them? And fit a double buggy in the boot? I'm all ears :-D

LittleMissAspie

Well I was going to say that I'm sure you can fit 3 kids in the back of a Yaris, but I forgot you need car seats for them these days. Maybe you could leave the buggy at home and carry them when they're tired? I don't know. Apparently the next one up from a Yaris has the same engine but slightly higher emissions so it's the band up from £30 a year and the mpg must be almost as good too. We get 60-70mpg in the Yaris.

It can't be hard to beat 25mpg, my 44 year old Beetle does that...