Is it even worth buying owning or buying a vehicle anymore?

Elliott.T123

midimanuser said:

Grumpy_chap said:

midimanuser said:

There are currently hundreds if not thousands of vehicles on the forecourts that are still being advertised for the same price as what they were prior to Covid and none of them are going anywhere. The government and the BOE thinks that the public are going to coming running out and start spending all of their money. But in reality I think that it might be the opposite of that, because so many people may have lost their jobs. 

In the "right now" the car industry have done a good job creating demand on the back of "not safe to get public transport with other people" scare tactics.  Not sustainable like that.

There are also a lot of people who carried on working throughout but spent less as everywhere was closed, so those people have money burning s hole in their pockets.

Some may have, but what would be the point of going out and peeing it up on buying a new car and going back to all of the cost. I suspect people will be looking to do other things than spending their money to have something sitting around on the drive. 

As others have said it is both a personal choice and dependent on individual circumstances.

I have a number of friends who's lives pretty much revolve around their cars, they are like overbearing parents with them and every spare penny they get goes on cars. The majority of my friends are still visiting an office at least once a week and in the area we live public transport just isn't an option unless you want a 35 minute car journey to take 2.5 hours plus.

On the other hand I do have a few friends who are now permanently home based and have absolutely no need for a second car and so yes I suspect they will be copying you and dropping down to 1 per family.

On a personal level, my wife is frontline NHS and as per her contract is required to have a car for work (she often does home visits to patients). I also use the car at least every other day but usually every day so although I am definitely doing less miles than pre-lockdown I don't foresee any reason to give up my car and had I not bought a new car Jan 2020 I would definitely be looking for one now. 

HansOndabush

I find at the moment, I am often only driving my car for the sake of it; just to keep it all lubricated and help stop it getting mouldy!

Ditzy_Mitzy

A car need not be that expensive.  I own mine outright and it's too old to cause any concern regarding resale values, thus depreciation is irrelevant and there is no basic cost for keeping it on the drive.  Tax and insurance come to £400-£500 all in, and servicing is an extra £100 or so p.a. on top.  That excludes fuel, of course, but petrol is very much 'pay as you go'.  As long as the car gets used once or twice a week it's not going to go off.  Maintenance costs next to nothing as the car isn't being used, so doesn't get worn.  

[Deleted User]

I find a lot of people like to argue about the need for a car, yet even pre-covid, I'd cycle down the bus lane past static traffic queues of cars, all 1 person per car. So many people seem to think they need a car to commute when a car share or public transport would avoid the queues, needless fuel burning etc 

born_again

fred246 said:

Korkyb said:

I live out in the sticks - 25 miles away from the hospital where I work as a nurse.
I have (obviously) continued to attend work all through the Covid 19 Pandemic.
Not everyone can work from home.

I will not be selling my car & using my bike.

Cycling to work would improve your health. Should know that.

Can you post a u-tube video of you cycling 25 miles, possibly doing a 12 hour shift, as many NHS workers do then cycling 25 miles home...
Approx 2 hours each way. So that is 16 hour day....

TBagpuss

I think it's down to individual circumstances.
If you work from home, or have fixed hours and good public transport, and if you have good local facilities and good public transport links,  then yes, you can mange perfectly well without a car, and the costs of hiring one when you want to go on longer trips, or taking a taxi, will probably work out cheaper (or around the same) as the cost of keeping a running a car. This is obviously much more likely to be the case if you live in a city or large town.
If you have been a two car household then if some of those things are try then you can probably go fairly easy from 2 cars to one.

You an also think about alternative options - for example whether you live somewhere with car clubs enabling you to use a car when you need one, or if you live close to family who are able/willing to assist if needed (my brother and sister-in-law live a few doors away from SIL's mother, and the three of them share a car - they live in a city so commute by public transport (or did, pre-lockdown) )  

Personally - I live in a rural village. I walk where I can, and we are lucky enough to have a shop in the village, so I can get most essentials without driving, if I have to,  but my job means (in normal times) I need to be able to drive, and public transport here is pretty limited - my nearest bus stop is 3/4 mile away, and when you get there are is one bus an hour (fewer in the evenings and the middle of the day) 
That said, my car was pretty cheap, and my running costs are low, so for me personally, not owning a car, and  hiring one or getting taxis when I needed one would work out more expensive, and it would certainly be less convenient.

Archie_Duke

midimanuser said:

... I have placed it on SORN and let the insurance run out. 

It’s not a good idea to not have insurance IMO. Your car is possibly the second most valuable item you possess. Could you afford to lose up to several thousand pounds? 

It is mobile (even if in your garage) and therefore could be stolen. 

It could catch fire, if it was in a garage that caught fire house contents insurance wouldn’t cover it.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Deleted_User said:

I find a lot of people like to argue about the need for a car, yet even pre-covid, I'd cycle down the bus lane past static traffic queues of cars, all 1 person per car. So many people seem to think they need a car to commute when a car share or public transport would avoid the queues, needless fuel burning etc 

It sounds as if you're witnessing drivers in the final mile or two of their commutes, which is often the worst bit.  Centralised commercial areas and industrial estates tend to funnel cars into a single place, which causes congestion.  That gives the impression of many people trying to get to the same place at the same time.  What you are not seeing is all the driving the various cars did to get to the convergence point.  If there are 20 cars, they more than likely came from 20 different and geographically separate places.  If I attempted to car share with my closest colleague, I'd need to look at driving 10 or 15 miles out of my way.  Colleague would be looking at driving 15 miles in the wrong direction to pick me up, thus rendering the whole exercise pointless.  I could use public transport but it would be significantly more expensive and slower, making it a lose lose.  An efficient means of combining public transport and cars would be best, but we seem incapable of doing that in this country.  Generally speaking, if one drives for part of the journey it's often easier to just do the whole thing by car.   

Sky_

My old, owned outright, car is sitting on the drive SORNed. I considered getting rid of it until I worked out that keeping it on the road only costs me £300-400 a year before petrol costs--less than the cost of hiring a car for a couple of weeks, or a handful of taxi journeys.  We live in a village with limited amenities and the dog and I often travel to visit family 90+ miles away (not at the moment obv.).  The vet is also 20 miles away along country lanes and the dog is a bit accident prone, so having one car could be tricky when OH goes back to his workplace. 

There is also the ease of having a second car available in case OH's car breaks down.  So I've decided I'll keep my car and continue saving £50 a month to replace it when it goes to car Heaven.

Tokmon

midimanuser said:

Grumpy_chap said:

midimanuser said:

There are currently hundreds if not thousands of vehicles on the forecourts that are still being advertised for the same price as what they were prior to Covid and none of them are going anywhere. The government and the BOE thinks that the public are going to coming running out and start spending all of their money. But in reality I think that it might be the opposite of that, because so many people may have lost their jobs. 

In the "right now" the car industry have done a good job creating demand on the back of "not safe to get public transport with other people" scare tactics.  Not sustainable like that.

There are also a lot of people who carried on working throughout but spent less as everywhere was closed, so those people have money burning s hole in their pockets.

Some may have, but what would be the point of going out and peeing it up on buying a new car and going back to all of the cost. I suspect people will be looking to do other things than spending their money to have something sitting around on the drive. 

I have been cycling to work for a long time before Covid so only use my car for recreational uses and i certainly wouldn't be getting rid of it. Outside of lockdown i would be using it every weekend to go out somewhere on my days off work for a walk, activity, visiting people etc. So i don't see why are car would just be sitting on the driveway because if your working from home too then surely you must want to get out and about on your days off?