The high cost of car ownership? Has anybody tried car clubs or p2p car rental apps?

Grumpy_chap

AdrianC said:

Agreed. That's just silly pricing - presumably, set by the car's owner.

It would seem not. 
I have just entered the details for my 2007 150k mile dented and rusty Focus and been told it is "just what  the community of drivers are looking for and could earn me up to £503 per month"  Quite absurd!
If I buy a whole load of wrecks from Autotrader, I could presumably make enough money to rent cars instead of working

AdrianC

Nearest Hiyacar to me is a fiver an hour for a 6yo A-class Merc. Doesn't seem ridiculous.

Supersonos

I didn't have a car for a couple of years and would just rent one at Hertz when I needed it.  It got to the point that I was renting a couple of times a month and I developed quite a relationship with them and would always be upgraded to some very nice cars.

It was a bit of a pain collecting and dropping back, and the mileage limit caused an issue a couple of times, but it's an option.

Ditzy_Mitzy

£1,000 p.a. for a basic car ownership, without factoring in petrol usage, is extremely cheap.  I probably pay a little less than that because, as someone with more experience, my insurance costs very little but it's not too far off.  The most sensible thing to do now you have the car, from an economic perspective, is to use it.  Parking is, these days, often cheaper than bus travel, so see if there are any journeys you make by public transport that you can use the car for instead.  You also get the benefit of having it with you: you can go back to it and put shopping in, for instance.  
Car clubs are invariably more expensive which is, firstly, why they exist at all and, secondly, why they haven't really caught on.  
Oh and don't cancel the insurance, doing so is illegal.  Well not literally but you'd then have to declare the car SORN, which you can't do if it's parked on a road or, rules depending, a car park.  Even if you have somewhere to park legally, selling it will then become almost impossible as a private buyer won't be able to test drive it.  

ontheroad1970

You treat fuel like it isn't a cost of motoring.  It very much is, and the cost is quite volatile and subject to change.  Watch what happens after the pandemic.  Governments of any colour will increase fuel duty on ICE cars.  There has been a pause in this, and the argument about food deliveries etc is easily sidestepped by commercial vehicles having permanent discounts.  It can then be justified on the basis of the environment.

fred246

There is definitely a change occurring between the generations. My parents were 100% reliant on a car. They knew of no other way to travel. When they lost their car in old age they were just housebound. Didn't know how to access any other transport even though everyone tried to help them. I was desperate to learn to drive and even took a job to pay for driving lessons. My own children had to be persuaded to learn to drive and still don't have any interest. For their age group it is often much cheaper to use services like Uber. Also parking is incredibly expensive for the places they go to. It was free for us. Another factor that people forget is that people used to keep a car for supermarket shopping. A weekly shop is really quite heavy and people had no way to get it home. That all changed with supermarkets delivering. Personally we are very multi modal. Whatever is best for the journey. Walk, bicycle, bus, train, car.

Herzlos

I honestly don't understand why many of todays 17 year olds would bother learning to drive: lessons are expensive, insurance for new drivers is outrageous, then there's all the costs of having a car, and the likelihood of self driving cars appearing in the future.

My parents are similar; they drive anywhere, even if it's 100 yards away. The only time I'm aware of them walking was when the snow was too bad to take the car out. Whereas I do as much as I can without the car. We barely use the car but it's usually for longish trips so I think it's a bit cheaper than uber, all in. But I pay £200/year for insurance, £30 for tax, get 50mpg and the car is paid for outright). If we lived closer to a car hire place and I wasn't concerned about the state the kids would leave it in, I'd probably get rid and just rent 1 or 2 days a week.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Herzlos said:

I honestly don't understand why many of todays 17 year olds would bother learning to drive: lessons are expensive, insurance for new drivers is outrageous, then there's all the costs of having a car, and the likelihood of self driving cars appearing in the future.

My parents are similar; they drive anywhere, even if it's 100 yards away. The only time I'm aware of them walking was when the snow was too bad to take the car out. Whereas I do as much as I can without the car. We barely use the car but it's usually for longish trips so I think it's a bit cheaper than uber, all in. But I pay £200/year for insurance, £30 for tax, get 50mpg and the car is paid for outright). If we lived closer to a car hire place and I wasn't concerned about the state the kids would leave it in, I'd probably get rid and just rent 1 or 2 days a week.

I'm not sure that self-driving cars will become a serious alternative for the average seventeen year old within my lifetime, but am prepared to wait and see.  A no-deal Brexit might seriously complicate things in that respect, as might a shift to electric power.  That said, I always wonder about the corollary of your point: how do people without cars manage?  I assume by living in urban areas and making use of home shopping services, but accept there's probably more to it!  
For someone who lives in a medium sized town without much public transport, and who commutes to another town for work, there is no viable alternative to driving.  I could get the train to work, but the railway station lies several miles away in the wrong direction.  That means driving to the station, paying to park and then buying a rail ticket for the onward journey; silly when it's cheaper just to drive the whole way and park for nothing at the other end.  I could get the bus to the station, however doing that extends the total journey time to over an hour each way.  Driving takes just under half that time and I simply don't have the additional three hours a day to spare that I'd need to use public transport.  Oh and there is a bus to the other town, but I'd need to travel about four miles in the wrong direction to catch it and it takes two hours!
Then there's doing things like popping into town; parking is cheaper than bus fare, let alone a minicab.  Visiting towns and villages nearby?  Driving is the only realistic option, it seems.  In order to get a train to a nearby shopping centre (which is near a station) I'd need to get to the station, catch a train to a completely different town and change to catch another train back to the shopping centre which lies closer to my origin point.  
How do you do it?  It makes me tired just thinking about having to live that way.  

Herzlos

My wife doesn't drive, so has to use public transport if she doesn't get a lift or a taxi. Usually it's a short walk to a bus stop and then a bus largely where she wants or sometimes a 2nd bus. It's definitely do-able, assuming you get anything heavy/bulky delivered. I get the train to work as it's a shortish walk from the city centre and the journey time is pretty much the same as driving, except the train ticket is cheaper than the parking.

Obviously it depends largely on where you are and where you go. However, for the quick trips to the next town over a taxi would normally suffice.

Pre-covid we used to shop and collect everything ourselves, but we get most stuff delivered now including groceries, so I think it's definitely possible to live anywhere that's not completely rural without needing a car, albeit it's not always as convenient.