Q

MOT: £44.95
Full Service: £109.05
Car parts and extra repairs:563.75
Insurance: £232.80
Tax: £120
Total: £1070.55

Not having to use public transport: Priceless?

And that’s not including petrol.

So I’ve been thinking, do I really need a car? I *like* having a car, and my Dad very kindly bought me this one, but there clearly are alternatives to it that might work out cheaper. Everybody stand back: I’m going to use MATHS.

miles a year: 10′000
miles a gallon: 44.8
litres a gallon: 4.546
pence a litre: 118.9
pence a gallon: 118.9 x 4.546 = 540.5
pence a mile: 540.5/44.8 = 12.065
pence a year: 12.065 * 10000 = 120651
pounds a year = 120651/100 = £1206.51

As you can see, the maintenance of my car has this year cost nearly as much as the petrol, the total being 1206.51 + 1070.55 = £2277.07. The combined pence per mile is conveniently (because I do ~ 10000 miles a year) 22.77p. Obviously some of these costs would not go away even if I didn’t drive the car, but let’s leave that for the moment. (y= 0.177m+506.8 if you really care) Let’s also ignore depreciation, because I didn’t buy the car.

One common journey I make is to Preston with Dan to visit his family. Let’s take this 300 mile (round trip) journey and work out the cost of travelling it in various ways. I tend to only be able to go on a weekend, so that’s what tickets I’ll look for, and I’ll try to get the cheapest possible, so I’ll try a few weekends varying distances away, and factor in a railcard if one might apply. I’ll account for there being 2 of us.

Car: 22.77 pence per mile = £68.10

There are no railcards which apply to Dan and the young person’s railcard I can only get within the next year (*sob*). I’ll try it with me having one, anyway. Costs £24 a year, so pro rata that would be 72p for this trip if I still did 10000 miles a year.

Train: 1 adult (£46) + 1 16-25 (£30.35) = £76.35 (ignoring railcard cost)

Ok, so what about buses? There must be some buses to Preston, right? Yes, you can get there from Aber with only 1 change in Birmingham using National Express. Take in a couple of hours shopping, because that’s how long you’ll be waiting. There exist such things as Young Persons Coachcards, which again Dan is too old and decrepit to have but again I’m just within range. They cost £10, which is 30p pro rata for this trip , so I’ll ignore that again as it’s tiny.

Coach: 1 Adult £61.50 + 1 young’un £43.40 = £104.90

I’m surprised the coach is more money than the train, so I’m going to look for more bus-like buses. Nope, because the best chance was the X32 linking with the X94 and onward, but the X32 doesn’t run on Sundays.

No other form of transport I can think of (do suggest one if you can) allows you to pay a visit to Preston from Aberystwyth over a weekend. So far, so car.

What if Dan travels alone? Well, he hasn’t got a licence, so he’ll have to get the train anyway. What if I travel alone? I think I might just buy that railcard.

What if we travel a lot less? How much less would it have to be to not be worth the static cost of owning the car?

y= cost in £
x = distance in miles

Car: y= 0.1771x + 506.8
Train: y= 0.2545x + 24

0.1771x + 506.8 = 0.2545x + 24
0.1771x + 482.8 = 0.2545x
482.8 = 0.0774x
x = 6237 miles (and y turns out to be £1611)

Phew, that took me right back to high school. So, what we’ve discovered is that (based on many many assumptions, not to mention rounding errors and plain old mistakes) If you live in Aber, and you travel more than ~6000 miles a year as at least a pair, it’s probably worth owning a car if you don’t have to buy it yourself. If not, get the train. Third option: stop travelling so far for such lengths of time.

Well, now that my car works and its brakes are better than “it broke when we took it off, that’s how bad it was” I shall continue to own it for the foreseeable. Hopefully maintenance will be a lot less next year, anyway.