Thinking of selling up??????

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

We've been without a car for 18 months or so since it failed it's MOT. We're lucky in that we live somewhere with good train links and that my wife works from home, but if we ever do need to use a car there's a hire place up the road.

The biggest thing was making the decision to give it up. In our case it wasn't economical to fix the car once we worked out we had only used it about five or six times in the previous year, so the decision was an easy one.

 

[BrumJim]

When you look at the depreciation costs of running a car, the cost of hire doesn't seem that big. Worked out that you could hire a car once every other weekend, and it would still be cheaper than buying.

 

[Sheepy1209]

Motorbike and cycle only for me, but my wife does run a car so I'm cheating really.

I do like the bit about doing without a car being great for a petrolhead - I've wasted thousands over the years buying cars only to get bored with them after a year or so. Hiring at least brings some variety, and a nearly-new car that's always going to be better than I could afford to own (where a month's finance and insurance would more than pay outright for my bike).

Getting rid of the fixed costs of car ownership also gives a sense of freedom, in that you can choose train, bus, walk, cycle, taxi, sedan chair, whatever's most appropriate for the journey. It's ironic that car ownership is such a millstone, when it promises the dream of freedom.

 

[StuartG]

There is always streetcar.co.uk for when you really need a car - and if you live out of area why not form a local car club and get some of your neighbour's cars off the road too?

The nice thing about these hire schemes is they show the real cost of using a car for a couple of hours. Owning a car means most of these costs are already sunk so you only think of the marginal cost - which ain't realistic and encourages all these sub 2 mile trips that cause so much urban congestion.

Oh and you get a better, less car clogged, streetscape too.