My car failed it’s MOT this morning and will need £500 worth of repairs to get through.
We don’t have that kind of money so the car will be scrapped. It’s 12 years old with 110,000 miles and no MOT so not worth selling. We can’t afford to replace it.
The car is our lifeline to everything in our lives; work, family, school, kids sports activities etc so this is going to be a massive adjustment for all of us. My youngest is loving her football and plays in a Saturday league which she’ll have to give up as I can’t get her there on a bus route.
On an emotional level the kids adore this car and refer to it as The Egg....it’s a Xsara Picasso so egg shaped. The youngest will be really upset. I know it’s just a car but she’s a sensitive little soul and these things are important to her.
Has anyone made the same transition from car to a family life on public transport? How did you find it? Any tips?
Thanks folks :)
It really depends where you live,
We have a foot in both South Yorkshire and Twickenham, transport links to the village in Yorkshire are dire whereas in Twickenham public transport - bus, tube, train, taxi's, airports are all easily accessible, my BIL lives in Battersea and wouldn't dream of owning a car.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
It's only fairly recently I did the opposite and took the transition from public transport to car. (Same reasons, we couldn't justify the cost of two cars so just shared my wifes).
Honestly, find the money.
Public transport is slow and expensive, I have found the buses and trains around Manchester to take twice the time and cost twice as much as running a car.
With two kids and their respective clubs, parties and commitments it's close to unfeasible to rely only on public transport. I would just scrap yours and look at the car auctions or eBay Marketplace. I have a good friend who buys a cheap car every six months with six months MOT on it, then sells it or scraps it for the next one - I reckon he's basically just paying for his petrol.
Check out this video, the £250 car challenge. That's what you need to do. Public transport on your own is well and good, but with kids it's just a nightmare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1AeAY8nn_s
Depending on miles why not just take a lease for the cheapest car avail
I recently saw a £79 a month inc cat on a seat Leon
Sure it was basic but it’s reliable with no issues or repairs
Then give it back when finished
£20 a week
That’s less than a bus pass in many areas
Yes fuel and insurance needed
But very cheap option
You can't live without a car in this day and age unless you are prepared to queue up for ages to catch a run down bus or train that takes ages to get anywhere. Also you see people doing their shopping in town centres carrying loads of plastic bags back to the bus station because they can't go to the out of town store and chuck everything in the boot. Of course they could use overpriced taxis and be literally taken for a ride.
Best advice I can give you is to sell all of your watches and buy a decent family car or get your current one repaired. Cars are more important than watches.
Last edited by Mick P; 17th August 2019 at 12:48.
Is £500 that much for transport you depend on every day?! Sell a watch and get it fixed? :-)
Ultimately it depends on how good your public transport infrastructure is.. if it’s good then, well, it’s all possible. I know a number of folks up in Glasgow who don’t drive at all, and commute and travel (very far abroad) with no issues at all.. but for me I think once you have had years of car ownership having to go back to and depend upon public transport is something I would be extremely reluctant to consider!
Depends where you live and what your lifestyle is like. Petal gave her car away 18 months ago but she lives in town, near all the shops, bus station and train station. And of course while we don't share a house I do have a car for those airport trips, Christmas, weekends away, etc. I'd find a rolls-eyes emoji but it's ok.
Yes, carless since 1990. But, no children. With children, it is much more difficult.
My wife has never driven a car. I had various cars when I lived in the USA. A motorcycle when I lived in San Juan, PR. But, no motors since I moved to England.
Best wishes,
Bob
Last edited by rfrazier; 17th August 2019 at 13:08.
I'm after a nice dress watch,it might help towards your bill or new car😉
It’s a dilemma faced by lots if folks these days, public transport in some areas is poor and the cost is getting high, especially with kids to pay for. No car could work for an individual, but once you start paying for 2 or 3 it starts to look expensive.
Cars are almost becoming a necessity for many, but there’s always a cost involved in running them and we have to be realistic about that. A newer car costs in depreciation or lease costs, an older one costs more on maintenance, that’s always been the case. The concept of buying one cheaply then throwing it away when it costs money makes some sense, particularly if you can fix some stuff yourself.
My advice to the OP is to find the money and keep motoring.
I think most have said it already, but where you live, and what you need it for will determine if you need one.
When I was in Surrey, not having a car was a rather large pain. I did have a scooter for getting around (300cc, so capable of going on the motorway), but shopping, having to gear up just to pop to family etc was not much fun. Public transport was also quite expensive, so didn't really use it much either.
In contrast to that, since moving to Amsterdam, I have had no need for a car for coming up to 3 years. If I really need one I can just rent one for the day, and public transport here is pretty good. But overall I mostly use a bicycle now.
Having a family may of course change the expenses to the point where public transport may not work for you.
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The garage told me that we were looking at a £1,000 bill to get my Citroen C3 through the MoT. It had only done 43,000 miles, but I tended to use the bus more than I did the car, so I drove it home and had the local council pick it up to be scrapped. The collection driver, who lives on a remote island where MoTs are not necessary, rang me up and asked if he could buy it. The council had removed it for free, so I told him that he could have it.
The cost of the car back and forth to work was £6 a day in fuel, then there was all the normal costs on top of that: VED, MoT, insurance, breakdown cover, servicing, tyres, depreciation etc. etc. The 18 mile trip on the bus with my pre-paid card is £2.08, so £4.16 a day, or c.£90 per month. The bus stop is 400 yards from the house, 400 yards from my partner's house at the other end, or 800 yards from work.
There are others who live in Shetland who are not so lucky, live well off the bus routes and have to have a car, and they are suffering poverty because of it.
I usually buy a bag of shopping each day, just getting what I need, so almost nothing is thrown away, and what is, is usually consumed by the birds. The supermarket is about 400 yards from where I work. A bag of shopping, usually carried in my daypack, is no problem on public transport. Tesco deliver to my village, so that is also an alternative.
Public transport is often far from a joyous experience: screaming kids or screaming parents screaming at screaming kids, p*ssheads on the late bus shouting and singing, asking the driver to stop so that they can all empty their micro-bladders, but more often than not the trip is peaceful and you just have to hope that the driver doesn't have his radio tuned into something dire, or the heating up too far.
I own a motorbike, which is taxed for 6 months of the year, so in a garage for the winter, and is ridden once or twice a week otherwise.
The worst thing I did was get a car. Not having a car meant that I had to walk everywhere. With the car my exercise almost completely stopped, and was one of the reasons I took up cycle touring, but only after I had become 30 pounds overweight.
I am not sure that I am doing anything for the planet - the bus chugs out plenty of particulates for us all to filter through our lungs. My main reason was the costs and the little enjoyment that I got from driving, despite the roads on Shetland being superb, the traffic negligible, and the drivers on the whole are good, if crap with their indications. A traffic jam is usually the 15 minute rush our with 15 cars waiting at the roundabout.
Last year I rode the bike from Aberdeen to Torquay, and I never want to go through the hell that was the M6 again. My bike is big, with large panniers, but I was still able to lane split, whilst most other traffic was stationary. I saw some fast and expensive cars that day, but they were all stuck in the jam caused by the roadworks, at least I was in motion.
What did it actually fail on David?
Is it a garage you regularly use?
Sold my car when I moved from west to central London. I don't have off street parking and the notoriously anti-car council want up to £500 for an on street parking permit each year. Driving more central than where I live is a complete non starter when you factor in petrol/traffic/congestion charge and parking.
Can't say I miss it most of the time except that I actually quite enjoyed road trips from time to time when I lived outside London and getting to the airport with more than hand luggage is also a right pain! It saves me £1,000s per year as my last car wasn't exactly cheap to run and I don't need transport to get to work.
I can't think of anywhere outside London zone 2/3 I would be happy to live without a car however.
Can you really not afford £500? What about a loan from your bank?
Wise words.Originally Posted by Mick P
The family need the car.
Cheers,
Neil.
Im sure you have things in the house that can raise you some capital. Kids old clothes etc.....
Can you not come to an arrangement with your garage with some sort of collateral on offer to get you back in your pride and joy?
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Fix your car or buy another cheap one,personally I don't see how anyone can live without a car unless you live in central London!!!
£500 for a years motoring is £41 a month!
It doesn't come cheaper than that.... yes you have insurance/fuel etc but you're paying that anyway....
If you trust the garage then get it sorted I fear if you don't you'll regret it in the long run.
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I've never really liked having a car but when our old one went bang we were without for a few months.
It's a complete pain in the neck, getting anywhere takes forever, shopping is a right pain & the ability to just nip somewhere is gone.
Public transport even on a fairly frequent route is slow & expensive, plus try taking a weeks shopping on one..Not to mention the amount of weirdo's you encounter on the average bus station or bus particularly at night. Throw in a wet day & it all just gets worse.
Once upon a time maybe you could manage without a car but now they're a necessity IMHO.
You (and your family) need the car more than you need a watch and certainly more than you need multiple watches.
Put your family first and sell all your watches if you have to.
What repairs does it need? Any handy friends that could help with getting it sorted for you as then you will only need to find the money for parts?
My wife has a 65 plate Suzuki ,costs £20 a week,no road tax ,£40 to fill tank which seems to last ages,£250 to insure .
There’s no way I’d run a banger and I’m sure if you work it out it’s cheaper than the bus.
Where I live it’s cheaper to get a taxi than the bus for 4 of us into town.
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Offer removed.
Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 22nd August 2019 at 21:52.
This.
If FFF can't get them I will have a look. IFA can get most things.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Rubbish. If you live somewhere with good public transport and services it’s far better than owning a car.
I don’t drive, my partner can but doesn’t own a car, in London the car is getting more and more obsolete or at least owning one is, there’s a few zip cars in my street which seem popular.
Yes in the countryside it’s a different matter.
As for the out of town store? They are getting less and less popular as the ‘metro’ stores have increased.
I shop every other day as the supermarket is 4min walk away so no need to plan buying just go and get it.
In the OP’s situation I would get a family railcard and see if there is a zip car type scheme in the area.
If that’s not going to work then I would also say sell a watch and buy a car.
Evening all - thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread today, it's been really informative.
I'll try to address the questions raised:
- I don't have a collection of watches and don't have watches to sell
- I'll upload a pic of the MOT fail sheet tomorrow but there's an engine management issue included that has been priced at £130
- I can't borrow money from my / a bank or I would have done that already
- I can't currently afford to take on another monthly payment - our current car is paid for
- Having looked into bus fares today it will be very, very expensive to have a bus-life
- I've never heard of zip-cars; we live in Northumberland so semi-rural
- There aren't any usable train / metro services in our area
- To those from the London area; your transport system is amazing, ours is truly dreadful
- I did look at lease deals today following input there but couldn't find any as cheap as quoted and actually the cheapest don't allow more than 10k miles a year which isn't enough for us
- I've looked at ebay and autotrader for cars up to £500 and couldn't find anything that had a current MOT and wasn't held together with tape!
So public transport-living appears to be a non-starter. I'm no further forward tonight so will sleep on it.
Again, many thanks.
What's your Reg no David?
It'll do no harm to post it here and I (and others) can have a look at the failures.
Thanks Dave I had no idea you could view that:
NC07 JXJ
Just a thought.
If you considered one of the very cheap lease deals with a lower mileage you could use it for essentials and then buses for other journeys.
Thanks
Andy
Dave, if theses get CAN errors in the engine ecu will that put a comms error in the ABS ecu on Citroen’s like LRs
Could you let us know how they costed and diagnosed it please?
A couple of hard to call warning lights there.
Engine light might turn off with a diagnostic box - at the very least long enough for a retest. If the engine is running smoothly and it passed the emissions (which it did), that might be simple.
ABS less so. That said, it could also be something that has tripped on and can be turned off. Not worth taking a chance with brakes. Could be a speed sensor, could be a control unit issue.
The other bits are basic nut and bolt jobs.
Did the garage diagnostically read the car? If not, I'm amazed how they came up with the £500 repair price.
Failed on ABS light last year but somehow sorted for re-test.
Just saw that. Which likely means it's an intermittent fault that will turn off for a while.
Get that sorted if you keep the car David. If it's not permanent, it's likely a cracked ring or dodgy connection to the speed sensor. And replace that seatbelt too.
The ABS light was a ring sensor which I had replaced for the retest. I’ve actually had both sides done in the last 18 months. They said today that the ring sensors don’t look cracked (which they shouldn’t at 18 months) so may need to be removed and reseated to ensure they’re working correctly.
The EM light is a heat sensor issue so doesn’t affect the drive at all. It’s been on a diagnostic and quoted £130 fitted. The seatbelt has passed every MOT and hasn’t been used since last MOT so that annoyed me. I’m told it’ll be hard to source a new one?
So the £500 was a max quote for everything.
Thanks all.
Was it a Halfords MoT by any chance?
No, ATS Euromaster.
Right. So the same thing.
Ask your neighbour's who they use until you get a decent independent. Take the car and the failure there and spend the money for them to diagnostically read the car and check the other faults. Once you've got an actual price for the work, then decide from there.
Cheers Dave.
TZ-UK at its best!
I tried going without a car between 1994 and 1996 when I lived and worked in Reading.
Pubic transport was fairly reliable and frequent. Most journeys were £1 as I recall.
However, I found it a miserable experience. Not being able to go exactly where I wanted when I wanted grated on me. Grocery shopping was a nightmare - though this wouldn't be so much of a problem these days due to the delivery options available. Most of all I hated not being in my own space.
Every now and then I hired a car for longer trips including some camping - it felt like bliss.
It was something of a relief all round when I bought another car and I haven't been without one since.
I agree with the above comments re finding a small independent garage with a good reputation to deal with the MOT and any repairs.
Hope you get it sorted soon, I’m looking at possibly going down to one car as the wife and I are running two 15 year old cars with mot’s due next month.
I’m the obvious choice to loose my car but I can’t believe at 55 years old this is where I’m at right now!
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I cannot imagine going carless. Perhaps we could do it if we lived in a city, but in our rural area we'd be scuppered: in fact even a brief attempt to just using one car between us was a disaster.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Easy to say but cut down on as much as possible. Expensive jeans, clothes, handbags and anything else such as Sky etc. Sell anything and I can’t imagine if you are working you can’t sort a cheap car out.
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At the end of the day, it’s all about priorities.
Sorry David, but I know how much you earn. As you know I’m in the same job. To claim you haven’t got £500 when you’re earning significantly more (27%) than average salary is a nonsense. You need to look at what you’re spending and prioritise your spending better.
Last edited by Cynar; 18th August 2019 at 06:58.
Since separating from my wife a year ago I’ve been carless- I’m living with my folks (new house should complete in the next 2 weeks) if I’m desperate to pick something big up I can borrow my dads car but I’ve bern using my cycle for everything else
I like it
Not sure that when I move into my new house it will be ok as I’m renovating it so will need supplies-
I’ve been a long time biker so may pick up a little 250 runaround
While I don’t know the OPs situation 30odd grand to support a family isn’t much. I agree about priorities 500 isn’t much especially as you’re asking the kids to give up so much too.
500 quid is only an insignificant amount when you’ve got savings, credit cards etc so I can appreciate the situation. Look at your monthly spending if you’re worried about throwing good money at a crap car then a new lease deal might be best. Probably cheaper insurance, running costs and almost zero maintenance.
I know people that earn 50/60k and are skint all the time, but as you say it’s all about priorities
I feel you bro !
Traffic in England is unbearable, they even drive on the wrong side of the road !!! ;)
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