Thinking About Getting Rid of My Car

BeatrixKiddo

Hi guys, 

I have almost come to the end of my car lease, and just have the balloon payment of £4600 left. For a variety of reasons, I am seriously considering either handing my car back in June at the end of the period, or paying the final £4600 and then selling it. I have environmental considerations (despite it being a very economical little car), I am worried about the recent petrol crisis, and I also want to improve my health by exercising more. I currently use it every day for work Mon-Fri, and most weekends, but there's honestly very few places I ever go where I couldn't walk/cycle/bus, or train/coach/hire car etc for the odd longer journeys I make.

I'd love some advice or feedback from anyone who has taken the leap to do this, or if there's anything I'm fundamentally missing in my decision. At the moment, I'm figuring I'll save the finance payments, insurance, tax, petrol and service/MoT costs, so likely around £300+ per month (£3600 per year). Even with bike maintenance, train/coach tickets and bus fares, I really don't think it would cost anywhere near what I'm spending right now. The major drawbacks I can think of are having to deal with inclement weather, working around the times of trips available and not having the flexibility and spontaneity available to me at the moment. It's also worth mentioning that I live and work in a town so the public transport links are very good overall, and my fitness is also pretty good. I'd love to know what other people think! Am I mad, or it is a viable decision? TIA  

Bonniepurple

Up to you.  If you live somewhere where there’s decent public transport and live near enough to work, go for it.  Saying that, over the years we have often talked about going down to one car, but it would be very restricting for us.  We are lucky in that where we live has fairly good transport links - if the buses turn up.  One set of timetables worked well so that the buses and trains connected.  Not any more.  I’ve also worked out that for me to see my Dad (25 miles away) I can take the car and be there in under an hour.  To go by bus I would need to take 2 buses each way and one way would be 2.5 hours - plus a half mile walk from the bus stop.  It would cost something ridiculous like £14 for one person.

Give it a go.  See what car hire is like where you are.

SaverRate

Have you looked at selling your car via Motorway or similar? They will pay off the remaining finance plus you may get some money back depending on the valuation/condition of vehicle?

Grumpy_chap

BeatrixKiddo said:

Hi guys, 

I have almost come to the end of my car lease, and just have the balloon payment of £4600 left. For a variety of reasons, I am seriously considering either handing my car back in June at the end of the period, or paying the final £4600 and then selling it. I have environmental considerations (despite it being a very economical little car), I am worried about the recent petrol crisis, and I also want to improve my health by exercising more. I currently use it every day for work Mon-Fri, and most weekends, but there's honestly very few places I ever go where I couldn't walk/cycle/bus, or train/coach/hire car etc for the odd longer journeys I make.

I'd love some advice or feedback from anyone who has taken the leap to do this, or if there's anything I'm fundamentally missing in my decision. At the moment, I'm figuring I'll save the finance payments, insurance, tax, petrol and service/MoT costs, so likely around £300+ per month (£3600 per year). Even with bike maintenance, train/coach tickets and bus fares, I really don't think it would cost anywhere near what I'm spending right now. The major drawbacks I can think of are having to deal with inclement weather, working around the times of trips available and not having the flexibility and spontaneity available to me at the moment. It's also worth mentioning that I live and work in a town so the public transport links are very good overall, and my fitness is also pretty good. I'd love to know what other people think! Am I mad, or it is a viable decision? TIA  

You have until June before the lease ends, so why not put yourself through a trial period of not using the car before that date arrives?

Either stop right away and run to the end of the year, or start January 1st and simply don't use the car. Doing this in the midst of winter is probably the best as it will capture the periods when the weather is the worst and the temptation to take the comfort is the greatest.

If you find there are journeys when you "must" use the car, you can note those events and assess the extent to which using a hire car is a viable alternative for those events.

Make it a month without using the car and you can probably do this relatively easily.  Especially as when you actually return the car, it will be an easier start from middle of summer with light mornings and light evenings.  

On the other hand, if you've taken the car out several times before the end of the first week, this is not the option for you.

Finally, there are middle-ground options.  Give the car up, and you can also buy another.  Or, if you find you can 95% give the car up, and the occasional hire car won't work for whatever reason, you could go for a smaller, older, cheaper and more economical car for the occasional use but still gain 90% of the gain in terms of fitness, budget, environment.

Good luck in making your change and keep us informed on what you decide to do and how it all works out

DrEskimo

I take it it was a new car?

In which case, the next year's depreciation will be much less than the years you've just paid (wrapped up with interest in your payments).

What is the car worth today, and what would it cost you (if anything) to finance the balloon?

It may not cost a lot to keep the current car and have it paid off in interest (if you have savings this will be zero) and depreciation.

tacpot12

I've not taken the plunge myself, and won't while I have aged parents that live some distance away. But my partner and I have gone down to one car when we retired and have found this is saving us a lot of money. My daughter also has not bought a car when one might have been useful to her; she has used the Enterprise Car Club to rent cars by the hour when she needed to. 

sheslookinhot

Sold the second car in our household in August. Probably 2/3 occasions we would have used it. It was an expensive ornament (65 E Class) on the drive with WFH. Around 1,000 miles between MoTs’.  It was the car with the highest value so the funds for selling it will go towards our Camper van.

tacpot12

The camper van is likely to be another expensive ornament. Most poeple don't use them as much as they expect to and end up selling them on (sometimes at a profit!) to the next wide-eyed retiree with dreams of parking up in picturesque parts of UK...

ComicGeek

Assuming this is PCP with the balloon payment, and not an actual lease?

I'm currently selling my car. Current offer is £10k more than the balloon payment, which means that that the car has only lost 7% in 3 years from list price - and I didn't pay list price & got 0% finance. Crazy figures.

Don't just hand it back without checking prices first, great time to sell a car without buying a new one. 

JJ_Egan

Savings ??

I worked out where i wanted to go and how i would get there without a car plus cost .

First non car journey replacing a 20 min drive was a £25 taxi fare .

tommyedinburgh

Here in the south of Scotland were some households still have no power following the storm a fortnight ago I have a colleague who converted to an electric vehicle 9 months ago. She’s trying to get out her PCP as she hasn’t been to work as unable to charge her car.