Annual Car costs

First.Aspect

Oh I see. I suppose it depends on what you like doing.

Does opportunity cost factor in a person's time? I guess not. That's the main reason to have a car. Unless you like collecting locomotive numbers, or bacteria, getting around the UK without a car is pretty depressing and slow.

Big_Paul

I'm a strict banger fan, I haven't owned a car costing more than £600 in the last 13 years, usually I can get my hands on something with a bit of life in it, spend maybe £100-200 a year on it in bits for the MOT, then flog it a couple of years later for what I paid for it. I am, however, able to do all the servicing and minor repairs myself, if the car shows signs of needing a lot of money spent, then it's shuffled off up the road. Unfortunately, small cars are holding their value, a while back I was offered a Lexus LS400, full history, big miles but still immaculate, for £700. Fiat Seicentos are making that kind of money these days.

Luckily, I don't need a car and SWMBO has a 2012 Fabia that she pays £140 odd a month for, she simply won't go down the bangernomics route, even when I wrote out the figures for her she wouldn't budge. Madness!

jimmypippa

wyadvd wrote:

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/index.html

OK so for me, the costs of my commute would be:

Bus - 3.3k
Train- 1.1k
Car -3.5k
bike - far less (£700 bike over 4-years and counting) plus running costs.

davmaggs

scrumpydave wrote:

Joining this a bit late and lots of pages so don't know what the consensus is.

You can cope without a car. I promise. I've got two kids and haven't had a car all that time. Hire cars for some long journeys trains for others, bus/walk into town, pay by the hour car scheme for emergencies. Transport costs are probably around £100 per month. Just keep some car seats for when you need them.

Lots of journeys are on the bikes. Having kids is just another great excuse to buy bike kit. Littlest (coming up to 4 months) is getting his first ride in the double trailer today!

I was car free for 10 years and whilst you can "cope", I found I was turning down doing family things because the logistics weren't right. Car free suited a single person, but for me it becomes suffering for the sake of it when a family is involved.

The example being this weekend; did a family swim Sunday morning with other parents, then got 10 miles across town to Grandads for lunch, before picking up some furniture for my sister (therefore getting a quick visit in with her) along with a supermarket shop. Being a new parent can be isolating, but a car means you can zip about dropping in to see people and blitz through multiple errands in one go.

My car follows the principle of bangernomics (think Uncle Buck) and sits on the drive during the week as I do my commuting on the bike. Even the insurance is social only. To me this version of owning a car trades the time vs cost nicely.

il_principe

First Aspect wrote:

Oh I see. I suppose it depends on what you like doing.

Does opportunity cost factor in a person's time? I guess not. That's the main reason to have a car. Unless you like collecting locomotive numbers, or bacteria, getting around the UK without a car is pretty depressing and slow.

Not convinced. I know for example that it's quicker for me to visit my folks in Sussex via the train than it is by car. Also went up to nr Chatsworth a few weekends ago. I took the train, sister drove. We got home about an hour and a half quicker than she did and we live a mile apart...

Of course this will all hold true until I move out of London, when I'll be buying a German made Estate.

tailwindhome

Il Principe wrote:

Of course this will all hold true until I move out of London, when I'll be buying a German made Estate.

If you mean Audi just say Audi.

It'll be grand.

JamesB5446

Unless it was made in the last ten years. In which case the injector pump and DMF will go, costing you thousands.

rhext

TailWindHome wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

Of course this will all hold true until I move out of London, when I'll be buying a German made Estate.

If you mean Audi just say Audi.

It'll be a grand every time you go near the garage

FTFY

team47b

TailWindHome wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

Of course this will all hold true until I move out of London, when I'll be buying a German made Estate.

If you mean Audi just say Audi.

It'll be grand.

or a German estate...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11668012

roger_merriman

Il Principe wrote:

First Aspect wrote:

Oh I see. I suppose it depends on what you like doing.

Does opportunity cost factor in a person's time? I guess not. That's the main reason to have a car. Unless you like collecting locomotive numbers, or bacteria, getting around the UK without a car is pretty depressing and slow.

Not convinced. I know for example that it's quicker for me to visit my folks in Sussex via the train than it is by car. Also went up to nr Chatsworth a few weekends ago. I took the train, sister drove. We got home about an hour and a half quicker than she did and we live a mile apart...

Of course this will all hold true until I move out of London, when I'll be buying a German made Estate.

depends where your going to, if you live close to main train stations and friends/family do as well then clearly the train is going to be a good choice.

If though you don't and nor do friends/family then car will most of the time is quicker.

To be fair I go west a lot of the time so even if I lived around where you do, the train is bit slower compounded by the fact that i'd need a taxi at the end etc.

so yes does rather depend doesn't sound like a car would be that useful to you at the moment, further into london, the less useful and more of a hassel it seems to be.