Giving up car, relying on public transport

Gruffalo

Furet wrote: »

After much soul searching, I've decided to give up my car when my insurance lapses in the autumn. It's a luxury for me that I don't really need, and I certainly can't afford it anymore. I think I'll save about €3,000 per year by mothballing it. I'll really miss driving though.

Given your love of driving, which is evident, driving is both a hobby and a means of transport for you. It shocks me that you would give it up, though obviously you know best.

NewDubliner

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Even if it's another thousand, he's still ahead.

Car depreciation is about 20%/annum? That'd make the car worth only 5k to start with, feasible if he's handy doing his own repairs.

More realistically, on a 20k car, the depreciation would be 4k/annum. And, this assumes a person bought their car for cash, rather than financing it with a loan, in which case interest repayments would be a cost too.

NorDub

Gruffalo wrote: »

Given your love of driving, which is evident, driving is both a hobby and a means of transport for you. It shocks me that you would give it up, though obviously you know best.

Well, a car can still be a not necessary luxury then. When I still had a car, it was standing around 99% of the time: I didn't need it for getting to work, not for most of my shopping, ... I could get nearly everywhere without the car. Actually, there were years when I filled petrol just once or twice during the summer months.
But on the occasions I used the car I loved driving. (Maybe because I used it then to drive where it wasn't a hassle to do so?)

Luke Crowley

NewDubliner wrote: »

Car depreciation is about 20%/annum? That'd make the car worth only 5k to start with, feasible if he's handy doing his own repairs.

More realistically, on a 20k car, the depreciation would be 4k/annum. And, this assumes a person bought their car for cash, rather than financing it with a loan, in which case interest repayments would be a cost too.

That depends on the car. My car has dropped in value by about €600 since I bought it in 2007, and most of that is due to the general fall in used car prices in the last year. ('95 Mercedes-Benz E200, bought it for €2600, worth about two grand now).

NorDub

NewDubliner wrote: »

Car depreciation is about 20%/annum? That'd make the car worth only 5k to start with, feasible if he's handy doing his own repairs.

More realistically, on a 20k car, the depreciation would be 4k/annum. And, this assumes a person bought their car for cash, rather than financing it with a loan, in which case interest repayments would be a cost too.

I think it's definitely not only a matter of money. Just counting euro and cent, it would be a 50/50-situation in most cases around a larger town. There are other aspects coming in as well. For example, insurance, servicing & repairs, having a secure place for the car, break-ins, accidents, ...
Or, in bad driving conditions, I gladly pay someone else to get me safely where I want and have my mind free to do something else in the mean time.

I found, just the "organisational bits" around having a car took up quite a bit of my mind and time - and most often when I really had no capacity for it. So I consider this the greatest luxury now: I really don't have to worry about any of this anymore.

antoinolachtnai

The depreciation on a 20 year old car is definitely not 4k/annum. A car used domestically (burning only 40 e of petrol a week) will last ten years at least. The depreciation is more like an average of 2k/annum (though it is more in the early years and less in the later years.