I can’t cope… 😥

With life in general Fred, or are we still on about cars? 😉

The comments about it being impossible unless you live in a big city are untrue. We live in a small market town. Buses to Salisbury, which is hardly a city, are every 20 minutes during the day. I’m married with 1st child due in 2 months. Our habits and activities will simply evolve around not owning a car. And not owning a car does save you a lot of cash, because it’s not just the direct costs involved.

We live in a small market town. Buses to Salisbury, which is hardly a city, are every 20 minutes during the day

Then you are extremely lucky imo. Proportionally speaking very few places in the countryside have a good bus service.

Busses in Herefordshire where I grew up were a joke. I could not get a bus to see my mate in Tenbury Wells. Or rather I could at something like 10am on a Tuesday but the only return bus was 3pm on Thursday or something stupid.

I just drive a sub £700 car (pretty much worthless so depreciation is zero) and can fix it myself. Insurance is £200, tax is £200, MOT £50.

Repairs and servicing cost me no more than £250 a year.

Where I live now the bus costs me about £5 each way into Bristol and the last bust is at 5.20pm so pretty bloody useless. It is 15 miles away but very hilly. No train near by and the train also costs over £4 and requires extra transport.

But fuel cost is killing us at the moment.

I wish affordable electric cars would hurry up!

We aren’t comparing the same thing molgrips. You generally will find it tough to get between small towns ans villages by bus, that’s what the bike is for. I also think that as fuel gets prohibitively more expensive, bus services will improve.

You generally will find it tough to get between small towns ans villages by bus, that’s what the bike is for

I did used to ride to my mate’s a lot. His mum however didn’t enjoy it so much!

I also think that as fuel gets prohibitively more expensive, bus services will improve.

Really?

Hasn’t fuel been getting prohibitively more expensive for decades now?

Can’t say I’ve noticed much improvement in any bus service since I used to get on a double decker in Sheffield as a nipper, chuck tuppence in the ticket machine, and take my ticket with the imprint of said tuppence stamped onto it. Tuppence got you anywhere in Sheffield 30 something years ago btw.

Hasn’t fuel been getting prohibitively more expensive for decades now?

No, because it doesn’t appear to have changed the way people think. When I heard a mate of mine talking about how his next car choice will be influenced by fuel economy though I found that interesting. He earns at least £100k, so if he’s thinking about it there are probably a lot more people doing so. At the bottom end the choice will be between car and no car. For me it was either car for a year or a month in Australia. That was a **** ace month 😀

On the flipside, I don’t earn £100k (well, not after overheads & costs), but do drive 40k miles pa, yet don’t really get worked up about the fact that my vehicle does 30mpg.

We have two cars. I reckon we could easy cope with just one. I’d happily ride into work every day and we could use my wife’s car for doing the weekly shop in and visiting relatives. I normally nip down the shops for bits and pieces on my bike anyway. The time we’d miss my car would be emergencies I reckon. Not real emergencies but urgent stuff where we need to rush around to get things done.

jenbe – Member
never had a car! never will, if you cant ride or get train or bus their, i dont go!

Presume you cant drive then?

my main prob with cars is that i need different cars for differnt things

ive got a pickup truck for towing and delivering logs
a transporter van for work
and a 4 seater 4×4 for when i need 4 seats

a landrover 130 hi cap would do the job of the pick up and the 4×4 but I cant afford one so till then I have to insure and tax 3 vehicles – oh and a motorbike

and to save money Im thinking of getting a little lpg van for running about in !

Hasn’t fuel been getting prohibitively more expensive for decades now?

When I stated driving fuel was about 75 p a litre (unleaded). It’s now 1.30 that was 12 years ago. That works out as 4.6 % pa increase. Factor in inflation and it’s not rising that fast. Above inflation yes but not that much. Other cost involved with motoring have fallen. A big sign that motoring is infact overall cheap is that more people are about to afford cars now, car ownership has increased over the last 20 years.

I did read yesterday though that car usage has fallen very recently, and so have average speeds. Anecdotal evidence and a few surveys.