cycling to have new car

[booze and cake]

Indeed.

The model American male devotes more than 1600 hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for gasoline, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours on the road or gathering his resources for it. And this figure does not take into account the time consumed by other activities dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, traffic courts, and garages; time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the next buy. The model American puts in 1600 hours to get 7500 miles: less than five miles per hour.

(Ivan Illich, Energy & Equity)​

Wow that really is a rubbish rate of return isn't it. For a comparison I just had a look at my most recent years ride data. Since the beginning of 2016 I've cycled 1691 hours, so I've got nearly 3 years worth of cycling from about the same time investment as the average US motorist does in 1 year. And I've cycled 24,476 miles in that time, so I've cycled further than the average driver too. And that's nearly all in super-slow London with umpteen million traffic lights (that I do always stop before anyone pipes up). Go cyclists.

The savings have been somewhat offset by the fact I've bought 3 bikes in that time.

I was also surprised the average US mileage was 7500 per year, for a such a huge country with an equally huge car dependency, I thought they'd drive more. We drive more than that on this poxy little island.

Its a good job they don't count watching car adverts as part of the figures, would car adverts on Cyclechat mean we are contributing towards our yearly driving mileage? That would be messed up..... Imagine if time spent on bike forums was factored into cyclists average speed, some people would be down to average speeds of your average glacier, remember them......

 

[theclaud]

Wow that really is a rubbish rate of return isn't it. For a comparison I just had a look at my most recent years ride data. Since the beginning of 2016 I've cycled 1691 hours, so I've got nearly 3 years worth of cycling from about the same time investment as the average US motorist does in 1 year. And I've cycled 24,476 miles in that time, so I've cycled further than the average driver too. And that's nearly all in super-slow London with umpteen million traffic lights (that I do always stop before before anyone pipes up). Go cyclists.

The savings have been somewhat offset by the fact I've bought 3 bikes in that time.

I was also surprised the average US mileage was 7500 per year, for a such a huge country with an equally huge car dependency, I thought they'd drive more. We drive more than that on this poxy little island.

Its a good job they don't count watching car adverts as part of the figures, would car adverts on Cyclechat mean we are contributing towards our yearly driving mileage? That would be messed up..... Imagine if time spent on bike forums was factored into cyclists average speed, some people would be down to average speeds of your average glacier, remember them......

I daresay they do - it was written in 1973!

 

[booze and cake]

. OK so they probably do more like 20,000 miles year now, bouncing cyclists off their fenders as they go.

EDIT:its apparently about 13,500 miles per year (2015 numbers)...so still nearly doubled

 

[Deleted member 1258]

That's my next entry for the 'getting old' thread. I've got a Suzuki Swift, think it's ace... and I'm 50!

Your only a youngster yet then.

 

[confusedcyclist]

In my mid 20s I naively leased a new car. I loved it for a year. Then got sick of commuting in stand still traffic and the constant threat of delay by roadworks springing up everywhere. Whilst stuck in stand still congestion with the traffic lights in my lane cycling between red and green, yet seemingly no one getting anywhere, I witnessed 3 cyclist whizzing unimpeded down the inside of the 20 some queue of idle motors. I knew I had to give it a go. I went from couch potato to cycling 14 miles a day 5 days a week in a matter of months, I started cycling so I didn't have to sit in traffic and waste £350-400 lease and running costs every month.

You might argue instead I subsequently went and spent a small fortune (about £3000) on two bicycles, clothing and accessories, but those costs will be amortized in time, presently at less than £60 a month and it's still falling fast, I rarely buy anything exciting for the bikes these days. I wasn't particularly frugal with my purchases to start with, I could have easily commuted on just one £400 bicycle, maybe my next bike will be a frugal purchase. Even so, the car would have only continued to burn holes in my pockets every month, my bicycle is powered by a morning bowl of oats or an apply in the office before heading home. With insurance premiums and fuels costs on the up, and terrible investment in public transport cycling is the only rational way to get around aside from using ones feet in my part of the world.

I bit the bullet and returned the car despite the ~£1000 (I forget the exact amount, it was 4 digits) early return fine. We've been a one car family since then, I commute 5 days a week by bicycle and haven't looked back. And that's before we get into any moral obligation about the future of the planet. Electric cars won't save the planet, but at least they don't spew fumes in inner cities. Most people don't make financial decisions with the environment in mind. It's all about convenience for me. Oh and its a hell of a lot of more fun than sitting in traffic. I quite like being £4800 better off each year too.

 

[Salar]

It's a lowly C30 1.6D the T5 Turbo must be a complete hoot, although I suspect as thirsty as previously mentioned cars

We had two C30's, still like them a lot, shame they were only in production for a few years.

The T5 was very thirsty, 25-29mpg if you were lucky, not long after we bought it my better half was making regular 300 mile round trips, so it had to go, traded in for an Audi A1 when they first came out, big mistake.

 

[jayonabike]

I've just bought a Volvo

I sold my v70 2.5 turbo in the summer. That car served me well. Ideal family car, massive boot, built like a brick out house and also with the largish lump and turbo pretty fast.
Now our son has his own transport and we don’t have large dogs anymore (we had 2 french mastiffs) when it came to change the car I went for something smaller.
I now drive a BMW e93 3 series 330M Sport convertible.
The 3 litre straight six engine means it goes bloody fast, flick the gearbox in sports mode and it flies. Puts a smile on my face every time I get behind the wheel. And being a convertible it adds another dimension to driving. I don’t think people are obsessed with cars, nothing wrong in owning a nice car, no different to owning a nice bike. Plenty of people would think most of us on here are mad spending the money we do on bikes.

 

[rogerzilla]

Convertibles are nice. I've had MX-5s for the last 12 years. My current one does about 1,500 miles a year and is SORNed in winter, but it is paid for.

 

[confusedcyclist]

Interesting read for anyone curious why their BMWs attract so much disdain!
http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich/EnergyEquity/Energy and Equity.htm

 

[Drago]

Spending money we haven't got, to buy items we can't afford, to impress people we don't like. That's a ridiculous cycle of pointless consumption, and is the reason a lot of folk aren't retiring 10 or 15 years earlier than they are.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

That's a ridiculous cycle of pointless consumption, and is the reason a lot of folk aren't retiring 10 or 15 years earlier than they are.

Fraid I disagree there, salary/wages is the biggest reason, 60/70/80+% no idea of the real figure is, are struggling to live let alone put money away for retirement, I know I never have been able to, I'm royally screwed once I'm forced to retire

 

[NorthernSky]

Spending money we haven't got, to buy items we can't afford, to impress people we don't like. That's a ridiculous cycle of pointless consumption, and is the reason a lot of folk aren't retiring 10 or 15 years earlier than they are.

true, i fight the envy. it's not always easy but getting easier. just not into spending money when i don't need to. i'm also setting a limit on the price of a coffee , it's getting crazy

 

[screenman]

Fraid I disagree there, salary/wages is the biggest reason, 60/70/80+% no idea of the real figure is, are struggling to live let alone put money away for retirement, I know I never have been able to, I'm royally screwed once I'm forced to retire

You cannot have your cake and eat it, it is often not how much a person earns but how much they spend.

 

[Drago]

Fraid I disagree there, salary/wages is the biggest reason, 60/70/80+% no idea of the real figure is, are struggling to live let alone put money away for retirement, I know I never have been able to, I'm royally screwed once I'm forced to retire

I've some close up first hand experience. My ex Missus is a director for a large electronics firm and earned easily 4 times as much as I did, and likely much more. Unfortunately, due to her Porsche 911 habit, and several foreign holidays a year habit she'll be working into her 60's. She could have quit in her 40's if she'd lived a more modest life.

You're right, many folk aren't so lucky and find it very tight. Which makes it all the more remarkable that so many of them saddle themselves with finance or PCP's to acquire cars they can't afford. The whole object of such finance and schemes is to sell people products they can't actually afford, and every year several million Britons fall for it.

 

[Mugshot]