The AA renewal came through today, and made me realise with a grimace that over the last 3 months, the total cost of my car has been maybe £7 or £8 a mile (if you include depreciation).

I’m not about to sell it, because if we go back to anything approaching normal, car clubs don’t work for us. But it did give me pause for thought.

Anyone else?

what do you consider a car club? Mine is spending lots to drive a flash car every 3 months. Not something im interested in atm

Haven’t heard of those ones!

I meant the ones where you use a car like a bit like a Boris bike, i.e. Book it with an app, pick it up from a parking spot two streets away, sign it out for £5 an hour, bring it back when you’re done.

It’s a handy option if you just need to do a couple of errands a week. Less so if you want to leave it in an office car park all day…

One of my mates that lives in London used to use one. Worked really well for him for the occasions he needed a car which wasn’t too often. So depending on circumstances can work well.

He’s got a car again now as he has a young kid and he obviously met the tipping point of cost vs convenience vs hassle.

Nope, but I am considering sacking off the 4×4 and getting a classic… been promising myself another for the past 15 years.

I like have a primary car I can use anytime, but share it with my wife. It’d be nice on occasion to have a second car as if she has the car I’m on my bike or at home. But is it worth a monthly subscription to a car club, given it’s pretty rural where I live it’s not like there are zipp cars all over the place so no, not really all that worth it to me. I just live without a second car as 1 is expensive enough.

We used to run just one family car, but we had a local Sixt branch that I could nip down to. Would get the cheapest Corsa “or equivalent” (often better) for about £20 a day and unlimited mileage on the times I was away riding for the weekend. Fine for hammering down the M4 with a bike in the back.

Wanted a bigger car anyway for camping, family biking, etc so we have our Stepwgn that does a few thousand miles a year, mostly family trips but it covers the times we need to get two kids somewhere different at the same time. Have an EV for the everyday stuff.

Zipcar and the like are OK if your usage is up to a few hours at a time, it gets pricey once you take it for full days or more. Some more central London friends do it anyway because it’s much more convenient to get one a street or two away rather than get to a hire place, particularly once you have kids.