How much does your car really cost you?

lady_fuschia

As a proud non-car-owner I'll be watching this thread with interest. I often get people looking at me in complete bewilderment and disbelief when I say I don't have a car and have no intention of getting one in the forseeable future. There's a half-decent public transport system in my area, so anywhere I can't walk (like over 3 miles) I tend to get the bus or train (and I reckon when summer comes around I might try cycling to work and save even more! Too much of a wimp to do it in this weather!)- if you use the net to find cheap deals, use discount passes etc it works out much cheaper than paying petrol- it works out I only very occasionally have to fork out for a taxi, if I need to go somewhere late at night, or somewhere really out of the way (and it's easy enough to get a taxi from the nearest train station), but I reckon you definetly save a lot of money through doing without a car. They're seen as essentials these days, but I think more people than will admit it could do without them.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Mrs Best now has a car but I (Mr Best) do not drive and I just ride a bicycle to work / walk etc and when we first got married she did not have a car either and we just got buses and taxis.

I think if you are indebt and are a 2 car family it is bonkers as cars are so expensive. You need to reorganise your life, jobs, living location etc to manage on one or no car.

DontDoDebtKids

As a proud owner of a new sparkling shiny budget, drawn up with my own two hands, I can tell you exactly:

£1,880.00 Petrol (estimate based on filling up every week minus holidays)
£975.00 Car Servicing (estimate based on two services a year with problems)
£347.41 Car Insurance (exact)
£90.00 MOT (guesstimate based on last year)
£15.00 Parking (exact)
£175.00 Car Tax (exact)

Total: £3,482.41 per annum

I paid £1900 for it in August 2005 so that's 18 months so far, making it cost £105.50 a month to date if you spread the capital cost the car over the time I've owned it.

DDDK

PS I need it to get to work as it's impossible to get there by public transport - oh well!

Rusco

I need a car as I get out and about a lot, I visit family who are 40 miles away most of the time.

Expensive thing to have, but needed to enjoy life I feel

lady_fuschia

Rusco wrote:

I need a car as I get out and about a lot, I visit family who are 40 miles away most of the time.

Hey, my family live 300 miles away and I manage without one!

LJD1_2

This has made me even more pleased that we're selling one of our cars. Yes, it will be slightly more inconvient having just having the one but not enough to justify keeping it. We're cleaning up one of the cars and putting it up for sale this weekend. Can't wait!

Timmne

kylestyle06 wrote:

the reason I took a loan out was to get a nice car.

£800 TPFT on insurance

:eek: Really?!! Is it that much of a nice car that you're risking losing it if you crashed?!! Don't think of this as a moan but have you thought much about it? I may be wrong and you car's nice but not expensive....

:eek:

Timmne

We got rid of one of our cars two years ago and it was a bit of a struggle but we got by - we worked out that if each car costs us say £3k per year to run then getting rid of one was a good idea but saving £3k on getting rid of the other one would harm our quality of life that much that it's worth paying!

embb

Even though I posted what I did in my last post, I've been wavering about putting it back on the road as my dad-in-law offered to get it on the road for me again so I'd only have petrol to pay for a year, I still can't justify it really but as others have said It's quality of life, I only go out once a week for my shopping now instead of being here there and everywhere, I have to rely on other people to take DD#2 to dancing/her nanas etc, I'm I mad not accepting this offer? I like not having the worry of a car but I like the convenience of it, and I can afford to put petrol in, oh what a quandry

alzeebub

Absolutely nothing

I got rid of my beloved Vtec Prelude 2 years ago and have managed absolutely fine ever since.