Do you "need" your car?

TJ27

My car is being sold (hopefully) on Tuesday and I'm not going to replace it. I have two kids and a disabled wife, so it's going to be quite difficult but:

I now cycle to work (covering about 70 miles per week.) I am actually contractually obliged to have a car for work because I go out on visits. I do get an allowance for that. On the other hand my employer is constantly advising staff to use sustainable transport. So I'm just using my bike and waiting to hear if they say anything or cut my allowance.

My wife has a taxi account. She does get mobility allowance and that's sort of what it's for.

My kids walk to school, or we go on our tandem. All three of us.

We get shopping delivered, or I collect it on my bike.

We have a bus stop 50 yards away and two train stations 200 yards away. So we go to, say, the cinema by public transport. The services are frequent and good.

Sometimes we go for odd days out when I can borrow a car. However if it's sunny the beach is about forty minutes away by train and we have loads of other places we can visit locally.

If we neeed a car for a week we can hire one.

We live three miles from a city centre but I have a small wood opposite my house from where I can walk directly into open countryside. We also have one of the best parks in Wales down the road, with a boating lake and a great playground. The kids love it.


My current car cost me about £20k four years ago. It's resulted in a lot of lost interest, depreciation, insurance, maintenance, diesel, tax, MOT, etc. I estimate it's cost me about £4k per year. It's mainly been standing on my drive for the last three months. I can get a lot of taxis and hire cars for four grand!

If it's too difficult we'll probably get a banger but we're going to give it a shot without a car at all.

Littlered_3

I have to have my car for work, as I do visits all over the place every day. But even if I didn't, getting to my office would be very difficult, and despite being in the same town as where I live, it would take me over an hour with the bus service to do a 10 minute car journey.

But I only have a small car, that's cheap to insure, tax, run, etc. Although I think next time I'm going to get diesel. They seem to run on nothing!

Jo_R_2

I have to have my car for work, so at the moment I couldn't get rid of it even if I wanted to - which has crossed my mind!

I live four miles from the city centre and public transport is good, though ironically accessing the nearest supermarket would mean taking two buses and going in a big circle because even though it's five minutes in the car, there's no direct bus route from where we are!

If I worked in the city centre and didn't need it for work I would definitely consider getting rid of my car. I survived for years without it, and even though have a three-year-old and an 8-month-old, I could get shopping delivered. Everything else would mean negotiating bus journeys but that's no big issue for us, just stick DD2 in the sling and DD1 will walk (I say 'will' but am sure those of you with kids this age know the battles when they get tired!)

exil

Do I need my car?

To be honest, no. I get the train to work. OH does the same.

The car is useful of course, I can fill it with groceries and cut down the main shop to once a month, or with rubbish to take to the dump. I can go on day trips where the bus doesn't go or on Sundays when the local station is closed.

But if I add up all those trips I find it difficult to justify the fixed costs - depreciation, tax, insurance, servicing, repairs, before even thinking about "green" issues. This year I'm going for "pay-per-mile" car insurance which I hope will save me about £100 a year. I could easily do without the car altogether and spend the money on taxis and hire a car/van when I need it.

I appreciate of course that many people DO need their cars, particularly to get to work when there isn't a convenient alternative way of getting there, or if they're not able to get about on foot easily.

golddigger_3

Definitely couldn't do wothout both of our cars

We have a an old (S reg ) Rover (diesel)
and an 8 seater Nissan Serena (petrol)

We have 4 children,3 go to the school across the road which of course isnt an issue, but the oldest get s the school bus as his is 3 miles away. If he gets a detention/ has an after school club (which isnt often but it happens) we have to pick him up.
The youngest 3 have singing lessons after school one night a week 7 miles away (20 minutes from when they leave school) so defintiely need it then - noone to car share with with so many of our own lol
My hubby only works part time as one of us has to be on call - one of my children has a disbaility which means the school could phone us at any time to collect him. he has regular treatment in birmingham (22 miles away).
Hubby also does all the shopping in the big car and then takes it at the weekend for his second job as a musician as he needs the space for all his equipment.

I am a travelling sales rep - so obviously no car - no job!

deb_buffy

i would say £500 is very low. We have a p Reg fiesta with 106k miles on and that would sell for £450. I would definatly ask for more. I would also get rid of the 2nd car if you can manage it. I am trying to get my OH to get rid of his car. there is just 2 of us and we have 2 cars, we are moving to less then 1/2 a mile away from his work and am trying to tell him that its not worth the £1000 we spend a year on the car insurance/tax/mot/etc for not having to walk 1 mile a day. So good luck if you do give up the car.

Sea78

Hi

Interesting thread - we have one car and at a push, when my dd starts school over the road we might be able to get rid of it, if the childminder was willing to come and collect my son!! However, we aren't going to. But neither are we going to get another car - for us it's unnecessary - yes, it's sometimes a little annoying not being able to use the car if the other is, but I usually cave in as OH has a whole thing about the car and having it.

He would love to get another one, but it's just not going to happen (well, not even when it's a possibility!!:) ). I think OP is wise to consider getting rid of the second car - especially given his circumstances of not really using it.

Sea xx

Ebany

Not sure if this is your particular type, but according to Parkers, in good condition this probably similar one is worth over £1k. http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/used-prices/Valuation.aspx?deriv=12504&plate=55&buysell=sell

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/used-prices/Derivatives.aspx?model=989&plate=55&buysell=sell has the list of all the P-reg Corsas if you can find your actual one.

dolly_day_dream

It's a case of what you have never had you never miss. I don't drive and have managed to raise three children without a car. We have visited most parts of the United Kingdom and have never felt curtailed by our 'lack' of transport. We either use public transport, walk or hire taxis. When my daughter needs to be collected from uni with all of her accumulated stuff we just hire "A man with a van" it costs £200 but then I only spend £41 per month for my bus pass. So although some things will cost a bit more on the whole I know that I couldn't begin to afford to run a car. Using public transport I get time to read and walking along I get my daily slot of gentle exercise. I am very happy and surprisingly enough none of my children (aged 27, 25 and 20) drive either. Then again, like I said, it's probably a case of what you have never had you never miss.

TJ27

I think most people can, with determination, do a lot of things that they thought were impossible. Not only did I used to think that I needed a car for work, it's actually in my contract that I must have one. Nevertheless I'm going to get rid of it and see what my employer says. The worst that can happen is that I will have to buy another one. I currently cover about 70 work miles per week by bike and it's dead easy. (About 40 of those miles are for work related visits over three days. The other 30 are my 3 days x 5 miles x 2 times commute.) I actually cover five miles by bike quicker than I do by car.

I know a bloke who commutes 38 hilly miles by bike. That's 76 miles per day, 5 times per week. OK that's exceptional but it goes to show what can be done with a bit of determination.

A few years ago I wanted to sail across to France but thought it would be impossible because I would have take my one year old daughter. So I decided not to. Shortly afterwards I was talking to a mate of mine who has sailed around the world. He actually met a woman on his trip who had given birth on a 25 foot yacht in the middle of the Pacific and thought nothing of it. (Well, I'm sure she thought something of it, but it didn't worry her!!)

Most things are possible but sometimes it means moving out of your comfort zone for a while, or changing the way you do things.