Changing to a one car household

Cervantes

We're a two car household, and due to feeling the recessionary pinch, I'm considering getting rid of my car (2007 Mazda6), and commuting to work (takes a bit longer, but very doable). I just feel that the car has become too much of a financial drain, and I'm sick of worrying whether I've enough money in my account to meet the repayments each month (that said, it will be paid off in January).

I'm wondering if anyone else has moved from a 2 car household to a single one, and how did they find it? How did they deal with squabbles over who gets the car etc, and did they find they made significant savings by commuting (considering I'll spend over a grand a year on tax/insurance/service before putting a drop of petrol in)

Fiskar

Working on the same master plan myself, running 2 cars and a motorbike and it is not funny.
Got totally pissed off when I saw my 13 year old Golf GTI on the road last week looking imaculate (sold at 4 years old for a commuter car).
Getting to work on bike is 55 mins, going by bus is 2 hours minimum with walk to bus and 2 hours in the evening.
My car is an expensive burgular alarm.

Going forward, looking at a cheap weekend petrol car, bus/train to work and to stop biking. I'd never buy new car again, get a good 2nd hand car in the UK and work that for my local commute. looking back the GTI would have filled that gap nicely.

You have the same issue as me, car is 07 so it is on the old tax system and not worth anything on a trade in.

_Kaiser_

Cervantes wrote: »

We're a two car household, and due to feeling the recessionary pinch, I'm considering getting rid of my car (2007 Mazda6), and commuting to work (takes a bit longer, but very doable). I just feel that the car has become too much of a financial drain, and I'm sick of worrying whether I've enough money in my account to meet the repayments each month (that said, it will be paid off in January).

I'm wondering if anyone else has moved from a 2 car household to a single one, and how did they find it? How did they deal with squabbles over who gets the car etc, and did they find they made significant savings by commuting (considering I'll spend over a grand a year on tax/insurance/service before putting a drop of petrol in)

Guess it depends on where you are and where you're commuting to, what type of public transport you'll be using, how frequent it is (cause it'll inevitably be late or not show some morning), and how long it'll take you, plus how early you'll have to get up to be in work on time.

Personally, I couldn't do it. I'd rather sit in traffic in my own car than squashed or standing most/all of the way on a bus/train, stuck listening to other people's conversations/music and if it rains being damp all the way.

I did it for nearly 25 years in Dublin and NEVER AGAIN. Plus it's not like it's a cheap option either - especially if you have multiple connections (at one point I was taking 6 buses a day at nearly 2 hours for a journey that takes 25 mins by car )

If you only have till January left on the car before it's yours, I'd be trying to find a way to keep it... have you approached the company about reduced payments etc?

Cuddlesworth

Fiskar wrote: »

Working on the same master plan myself, running 2 cars and a motorbike and it is not funny.
Got totally pissed off when I saw my 13 year old Golf GTI on the road last week looking imaculate (sold at 4 years old for a commuter car).
Getting to work on bike is 55 mins, going by bus is 2 hours minimum with walk to bus and 2 hours in the evening.
My car is an expensive burgular alarm.

Going forward, looking at a cheap weekend petrol car, bus/train to work and to stop biking. I'd never buy new car again, get a good 2nd hand car in the UK and work that for my local commute. looking back the GTI would have filled that gap nicely.

You have the same issue as me, car is 07 so it is on the old tax system and not worth anything on a trade in.

So your going to to drop the bike which saves you two hours every day, the equivalent of 20 full days of your life every year. Which costs a fraction to run in comparison to a car, costs a fraction to tax in comparison to a car and costs a fraction of the maintenance and repair costs in comparison to a car.

All this to buy a weekend car? I'm glad your priority's are in order.


I run a banged up Ford Puma and a motorbike. Both are paid for and don't really cost me much to run.

Fiskar

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

So your going to to drop the bike which saves you two hours every day, the equivalent of 20 full days of your life every year. Which costs a fraction to run in comparison to a car, costs a fraction to tax in comparison to a car and costs a fraction of the maintenance and repair costs in comparison to a car.

All this to buy a weekend car? I'm glad your priority's are in order.


I run a banged up Ford Puma and a motorbike. Both are paid for and don't really cost me much to run.

Bike maintenance costs a far wack as does the gear which needs replacing.

Do all the car maint myself. Both mine are paid for too. As I say, if the alternative job or infrastructure improves I'll ditch one or the other.

Best thing about the bike is no speed tickets, no pay parking

extremetaz

@Cervantes:

I'm not saying this is a solution to your situation, it depends on the mileage you're doing and where and how, but, we recently replaced one of our cars with the Leaf (EV). The repayments went up as did the ESB bill but the loss of the €400/month petrol bill leaves me with both increases paid and double the cost of both left over.

As I said, I'm not saying that it'll suit your needs, and even if it does, I'm not saying it'll suit your preferred driving style, but if there's a chance that would do the trick, then I couldn't recommend a test drive highly enough - and make your descisions from there.

Personally, I wouldn't go back - however the detractors will likely descend on this thread like thor's hammer shortly after I post this, so as I said, take a look into it and make your own descisions. If you want any farther info from me, drop me a line, I'll likely not bother with this thread once the others chime in. Sick to death of defending my own choices at this stage.

ShadowHearth

It all depends how much will the public transport cost you op and how much your time and comfort worth to you.

I know some people who though it was a good idea to go public transport, and later on they discovered that they are not saving that much, but they did traded in the freedom car gives you.

I could not handle living with one car in our house hold. In fact we got 3 now ( 2 on the road and one spare for emergencies ).

doopa

If you live in Cork or Dublin would something gocar.ie be possible. Its a car sharing scheme.

166man

If I were you I'd pay off the car and then sell it. Then go off to donedeal and buy a 10 year old Nissan Micra for a couple of hundred. Tax is €180 quid, insurance is very low and maintenance should be low too. If you find you are still struggling then just sell it on in a few months for what you paid.

I just couldn't do the whole commuting thing and the above is about as cheap as driving gets.

Cervantes

Thanks for the replies everyone. In terms of what the commute would be, I'm looking at a 5 minute cycle to the station, a 20 minute train ride and a 10 minute bus ride. Another option would be to have a bicycle at each end, so I'd only be paying for the train (it would help with the fitness as well!).

My wife mainly works from home, so it wouldn't be too much hassle to take her car the odd day (especially a day like today). As commutes go it's pretty good. On paper there seems to be plenty of reasons to ditch the car, but it has to be balanced with the flexibility of having my own car (after a long day at work, it's great just to be able to jump into your own little zone)

Idbatterim

Op why not just sell the car and get a 1 litre yaris, tax is 178 per year, i.e as good as nothing... People need to understand that you are saving a little on tax with post 08 cars, but are losing thousands per year in depreciation. Id also question Op if public transport would be cheaper than having the car if you have to make 2 connections...

For Forks Sake

Cervantes wrote: »

We're a two car household, and due to feeling the recessionary pinch, I'm considering getting rid of my car (2007 Mazda6), and commuting to work (takes a bit longer, but very doable). I just feel that the car has become too much of a financial drain, and I'm sick of worrying whether I've enough money in my account to meet the repayments each month (that said, it will be paid off in January).

extremetaz wrote: »

@Cervantes:
I'm not saying this is a solution to your situation, it depends on the mileage you're doing and where and how, but, we recently replaced one of our cars with the Leaf (EV). The repayments went up as did the ESB bill but the loss of the €400/month petrol bill leaves me with both increases paid and double the cost of both left over.

For crying out loud, OP has stated that they're having trouble with repayments and your advice is a 25k (min) EV??

extremetaz

For Forks Sake wrote: »

For crying out loud, OP has stated theat they're having trouble with repayments and your advise is a 25k (min) EV??

He also stated he was paying finance on the car - in my case at least, it wasn't actually the finance that was my problem, is was the fuel bill. My finance arrangement has increased marginally, but the fuel bill has vanished as I mentioned in the post.

So whilst I understand your objection you've missed my point. :rolleyes:


Having said that, from the info the OP has given since I made that post, it would appear that his fuel bill isn't anywhere near large enough for him to reap a similar benefit, hence at this stage, I'd rule it out. I stand over by the advice for anyone doing a longer commute though.

I'd advise against cycling though - it's great in theory, but we really don't have the weather or the infrastructure here to compliment it (and I say that as a 100km-a-week cyclist myself!). I'd be inclined to agree with a few of the others, pick up an el-cheapo small engined runabout for the journey. Reckon it would serve you better than anything else for the distance you seem to be covering.