Alternative to having a car
Discussion
I don’t really do much driving anymore, during the week it’s pretty much zero as wfh or in London, weekends I’ll use my car once or twice, with the occasional longer journey.
I’m probably not covering more than 2500 miles a year, and currently have an expensive (to me) BMW and paying £420 a month for the privilege.
I am going to sell the car and pay off the finance as a change of job has meant a a big pay drop, and I’ve been looking at getting a cheap runaround at about the £10k mark.
I was wondering though if anyone has managed to make not having a car work. I can taxi for some of my usual journeys but will need a car at weekends. Hiring a car is an obvious one but seems expensive and nearest hire place is 30 mins away. I need 5 seats when I do need a car as have three growing kids, and a bit of boot room, but don’t need anything special.
I can either buy a car, take the risk of it having an issue, cost of insurance, tax, fuel, servicing and just get a golf or a3 or similar, but I was wondering if there’s a cheaper way to do it by not owning a car and also not necessarily getting into more debt??
I’m probably not covering more than 2500 miles a year, and currently have an expensive (to me) BMW and paying £420 a month for the privilege.
I am going to sell the car and pay off the finance as a change of job has meant a a big pay drop, and I’ve been looking at getting a cheap runaround at about the £10k mark.
I was wondering though if anyone has managed to make not having a car work. I can taxi for some of my usual journeys but will need a car at weekends. Hiring a car is an obvious one but seems expensive and nearest hire place is 30 mins away. I need 5 seats when I do need a car as have three growing kids, and a bit of boot room, but don’t need anything special.
I can either buy a car, take the risk of it having an issue, cost of insurance, tax, fuel, servicing and just get a golf or a3 or similar, but I was wondering if there’s a cheaper way to do it by not owning a car and also not necessarily getting into more debt??
That looks like an absolutely perfect example of when having a shed car works. Couple of grand on a 10-15 year old Toyota, you don't give a damn about it, it just does it's job. My friend has been doing this with an 03 plate Avensis for over a decade now, it's had a couple of suspension arms and normal servicing.
If you really must spend £10k of borrowed money on it buy a newer Toyota and you won't have many worries about unexpected bills. A Lexus if that's a bit too prosaic. Just don't try it with an older car from the Fatherland and you'll be fine.
Not enough "imagine" for most people though.
If you really must spend £10k of borrowed money on it buy a newer Toyota and you won't have many worries about unexpected bills. A Lexus if that's a bit too prosaic. Just don't try it with an older car from the Fatherland and you'll be fine.
Not enough "imagine" for most people though.
Edited by GeniusOfLove on Wednesday 20th March 12:45
You could experiment and say do 6 months without a car and see how you and the family adapt. I'm doing a similar annual mileage but like the convenience of having one in the drive. However I'm retired and find I'm using it less than less.
When i did work I rarely used the car as I worked in central London so chose to live within an easy walk/cycle to the station. So much more relaxing than trying to drive and I gained the time I would have spent working to do work admin stuff, emails etc.
So it really depends where you live and how you can arrange your life without the car on the drive.
When i did work I rarely used the car as I worked in central London so chose to live within an easy walk/cycle to the station. So much more relaxing than trying to drive and I gained the time I would have spent working to do work admin stuff, emails etc.
So it really depends where you live and how you can arrange your life without the car on the drive.
Depends where you live.
Between bicycle, public transport and hire cars did spend a while living without a car, but eventually uses for driving made it too awkward - hiring is cheaper until you consider needing 30min-1hr either end extra to get to hire firm + deal with rental paperwork... In theory various car share schemes exist, but these only work if they are practical for you to get to.
Also, if you have kids then bicycles/e-bikes may be far less practical for short/middle distances (panniers will comfortably carry a weeks shopping for 1-2; They are a lot less capable of coping for a family of 4, not that this should stop you trying to replace car milage with cycling, but may mean proper cargo bike rather than typical diamond frame).
Generally, at least living on Western edge of London, a bike/e-bike or train are the two main non-car options - anything short enough to do by local bus you can do by bicycle as quickly. And a 10 min bike ride to next station over can easily save a ~1hr train connection (and 10 min walk to local station)...) and make trains comparable in travel time to driving over long distances (and a lot more comfortable - can walk around or do other stuff on the train, don't need to focus on driving...)
Edit: Note of course above comments about a 'shed' car; This is basically what I have - I don't really need to worry about car breaking down because I can do almost anything critical by bicycle/foot. The discussion ends up being is ~600-1k/year (mot, service, insurance (gone up a lot recently
), tax) worth it for convenience factor.
Between bicycle, public transport and hire cars did spend a while living without a car, but eventually uses for driving made it too awkward - hiring is cheaper until you consider needing 30min-1hr either end extra to get to hire firm + deal with rental paperwork... In theory various car share schemes exist, but these only work if they are practical for you to get to.
Also, if you have kids then bicycles/e-bikes may be far less practical for short/middle distances (panniers will comfortably carry a weeks shopping for 1-2; They are a lot less capable of coping for a family of 4, not that this should stop you trying to replace car milage with cycling, but may mean proper cargo bike rather than typical diamond frame).
Generally, at least living on Western edge of London, a bike/e-bike or train are the two main non-car options - anything short enough to do by local bus you can do by bicycle as quickly. And a 10 min bike ride to next station over can easily save a ~1hr train connection (and 10 min walk to local station)...) and make trains comparable in travel time to driving over long distances (and a lot more comfortable - can walk around or do other stuff on the train, don't need to focus on driving...)
Edit: Note of course above comments about a 'shed' car; This is basically what I have - I don't really need to worry about car breaking down because I can do almost anything critical by bicycle/foot. The discussion ends up being is ~600-1k/year (mot, service, insurance (gone up a lot recently
), tax) worth it for convenience factor.Edited by qwerty360 on Wednesday 20th March 12:54
vikingaero said:
The main draw of a car is convenience. It's there so you can leave when you want with no planning. Hiring a car/car clubs are fine to an extent.
Agreevikingaero said:
And where are you. If you're in any major city: London, Brum Manc etc, then public transport is fine and you will rarely need a car.
Sadly not always (unless Bristol is not a major city 
)We have a student staying with us at the moment which has really opened my eyes to how bad the bus system is in Bristol - poor timetables / non-connecting timetables / bus passes which only work for one company / a very high % of buses on the timetable which simply don't turn up / timetables which bear little resemblance to reality
if you can afford a car it is transformational! It need not be expensive and at the lower end of the market there isn't a huge depreciation cost, or necessarily a tax or insurance cost.
Sold my car last year having not used it for a year since moving within the city.
Live in central Hove, work in central Brighton.
If I need to get to Dorset to see my folks it's a simple train journey from the easily walkable station. Far less stressful than driving to Dorset on a Fri eve and can have a few beers along the way.
No probs at all.
Live in central Hove, work in central Brighton.
If I need to get to Dorset to see my folks it's a simple train journey from the easily walkable station. Far less stressful than driving to Dorset on a Fri eve and can have a few beers along the way.
No probs at all.
Depends where you live.
I live 3km from work and cycle in, I can cycle to the city center in under half an hour, or walk 5 minutes to the tram stop and then 15 mins or so on the tram. From the center it's 30 mins on the train to the airport. There are rent by the minute electric mopeds around and a rent by the minute/trip car parked at the end of the road.
We still have a car (although only 1 rather than the 2 we used to have at our old house) because it's so bloody convenient when you do want to use it, and because a significant proportion of our mileage these days is longish distance trips on holiday or a long weekend. I haven't driven it in several weeks, although my wife did use it for work a few times last week when it was raining (she takes her e-bike the rest of the time.
I live 3km from work and cycle in, I can cycle to the city center in under half an hour, or walk 5 minutes to the tram stop and then 15 mins or so on the tram. From the center it's 30 mins on the train to the airport. There are rent by the minute electric mopeds around and a rent by the minute/trip car parked at the end of the road.
We still have a car (although only 1 rather than the 2 we used to have at our old house) because it's so bloody convenient when you do want to use it, and because a significant proportion of our mileage these days is longish distance trips on holiday or a long weekend. I haven't driven it in several weeks, although my wife did use it for work a few times last week when it was raining (she takes her e-bike the rest of the time.
Misanthroper said:
Hiring a car is an obvious one but seems expensive and nearest hire place is 30 mins away.
Is Zipcar still a thing? Used to see them in their allocated parking spaces when I lived in Ealing and a colleague used them regularly and said they were really good and convenient when you decided you wanted a car at short notice.Chris
WPA said:
Exactly, £10k is not cheap.
Time to embrace shed motoring, £2k and a good search would get you something fine and usable
Aye. £675 for a 90s Corolla in 2017. 52k miles later, she’s still full of life. Routine maintenance, aside one year where I replaced tired suspension parts, clutch and other oily bits (£900 ish spent).Time to embrace shed motoring, £2k and a good search would get you something fine and usable
sosidge said:
Misanthroper said:
but will need a car at weekends.
So yes, you still need a car.Surely owning a car just for weekend use makes little sense. The opportunity cost doesn't add up.
Having cheap 'shed' type runaround maybe oK for short non critical trips but when travelling any significant difference with family and maybe luggage it would be utterly unsuitable so hiring the appropriate vehicle makes more sense.
I return to my original suggestion. Try car free for 6 months. The money received for the sale of the car can be invested and obviously all other maintenance, repair and insurance costs disappear.
Thanks for the responses, I suppose I was thinking around one of those car share type schemes as mentioned, but a quick google doesnt appear to bring anything up. I am outside of the main centre and things but can walk to the shops and train station, plus some buses go to the centre.
I was thinking £10k was getting into the risky category of motoring, Im seeing a lot of cars on AT with close to 100k miles, 2013 to 2017 so up to 10 or 11 years old, and my concern was the potential for big bills which would completely negate the cost saving attempt.
Maybe a Toyota or Honda is the way to go, £5k or there abouts, even though they make such ugly bloody cars!! If they could combine their mechanical prowess with the looks of the European stuff Id be sold, but it's a tough sell looking at the weird shapes they make their cars.
The suggestion of trying it without a car for a bit is a good one, I will give that a go. Girlfriend does have a car but drives to work daily and has her own weekend commutes with her kids to do, so dont want to impose on that too much.
I was thinking £10k was getting into the risky category of motoring, Im seeing a lot of cars on AT with close to 100k miles, 2013 to 2017 so up to 10 or 11 years old, and my concern was the potential for big bills which would completely negate the cost saving attempt.
Maybe a Toyota or Honda is the way to go, £5k or there abouts, even though they make such ugly bloody cars!! If they could combine their mechanical prowess with the looks of the European stuff Id be sold, but it's a tough sell looking at the weird shapes they make their cars.
The suggestion of trying it without a car for a bit is a good one, I will give that a go. Girlfriend does have a car but drives to work daily and has her own weekend commutes with her kids to do, so dont want to impose on that too much.
Living in a small country town up North going without a car just wouldn't work for us - getting into town to the station and on to cities would work, but going to see family and friends in the surrounding towns would just be a non starter. Plus being a golfer public transport wouldn't really work even if it was available.
Probably easier in a big city to get around, but if you think you'll still need a car at weekends I'd echo the shed idea. We paid 1500 quid for a 2008 Civic and it's really hard to fault for the price we paid. Requires little maintenance, cheap as chips to run and ULEZ compliant. It could probably be our main car without too many issues, but we'll keep the expensive to run thirsty BMW for that.
Probably easier in a big city to get around, but if you think you'll still need a car at weekends I'd echo the shed idea. We paid 1500 quid for a 2008 Civic and it's really hard to fault for the price we paid. Requires little maintenance, cheap as chips to run and ULEZ compliant. It could probably be our main car without too many issues, but we'll keep the expensive to run thirsty BMW for that.
Nomme de Plum said:
sosidge said:
Misanthroper said:
but will need a car at weekends.
So yes, you still need a car.Surely owning a car just for weekend use makes little sense. The opportunity cost doesn't add up.
Having cheap 'shed' type runaround maybe oK for short non critical trips but when travelling any significant difference with family and maybe luggage it would be utterly unsuitable so hiring the appropriate vehicle makes more sense.
I return to my original suggestion. Try car free for 6 months. The money received for the sale of the car can be invested and obviously all other maintenance, repair and insurance costs disappear.
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