Christmas roundup
I’m back after the usual round of visits to relatives, which were slightly complicated by the fact that our car decided to have a festive breakdown. It has been somewhat grumpy of late, but a couple of days before Christmas, it failed to start. After a phone call to my auto consultants (my Dad and brother), the consensus was that the battery might be just resting rather than dead. So I bought a charger, charged up the battery and it started the engine, though now the lights behind the instrument panel were flickering on and off. On Christmas Day, we drove across town to visit Mr. Bsag’s family, and the car was playing up again. The drive belt and/or fan belt seems to be slipping, generating a loud and highly embarrassing squealing noise. Worse, half way through our journey, the car seemed to lose a lot of power, and we could smell burning. When we stopped, smoke was pouring out of the driver’s side front wheel. It seems that the brake had stuck on, and set the brake pad smouldering. Our festive greeting to my in-laws went something like, “Happy Christmas, and can we have a bottle of water to put the fire out on our car?”
That was pretty much the last straw. There wasn’t enough time to get it fixed before we travelled to see my parents, so we booked train tickets instead. Amazingly, the train journey turned out to be pretty painless, and much less stressful than braving the motorways at Christmas. We’ve decided that the time has come to go car-less. We’ll get the problems fixed, sell the car, and revel in our freedom. We hardly use the car at all at the moment, so all the money spent on insurance, road tax and repairs is mostly wasted. We worked out that with the money we’ll save, we can hire a car on those occasions when we need to get away for a weekend, and can’t use the train, and taxis when we have a sudden emergency, and we’ll probably still have money left over.
We’re lucky that we live in an area with pretty good public transport links, so it will make very little difference to our lives to get rid of the car, but it’s amazing how people think life would be impossible without having a car sitting in the drive. “But what will you do in an emergency?” they say. Taxis are rarely more than a couple of minutes away, and anyway — because Mr. Bsag doesn’t drive — we would only be able to use the car in an emergency if I wasn’t incapacitated. Personal transport was supposed to bring us freedom, but it seems more often to be a financial and environmental millstone around our necks — another responsibility and source of worry that we don’t really need. I’m looking forward to cutting the chain and setting us free.
1
Go for it girl! (Were I female, I would have tagged friend onto the end of that).
As it would take 3 times as long to get to and from work by Public Transport (and cost a lot more as I go from a London postcode, to a suburban postcode, to another county; 3 non contiguous transport companies who don't talk to each other): additionally, I go from North Finchley to Ipswich and back every 2 or 3 weeks for about 8 months of the year (Sensible sailing weather), a car is the only practical choice.
I also find driving very relaxing, most of the time; I actually enjoy the process, having done it since I was 12 years old it is as natural to me as walking, and as I am now 62 with its concomitant problems, rather easier!
by Jonathan Briggs @ 30/12/2006 5:41 pm • Permalink •
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Ah, Femina Geekoides, Your poor car's woes, bat-flattery, squealy belts and red-hot seized brakes are all symptoms of a car that gets too little use. It will, no doubt be happy to regain its freedom and go to someone who will exercise it regularly. Regarding your future travel plans, might I recommend http://www.liftsharesolutions.com/ I've never used it but I have a friend who thinks it's the bees knees.... including their nubbly little pollen sacs. Or google 'car sharing', and similar words. There are all sorts of deals, from free lifts to £35 per day. It might prove cheaper than conventional hire. I checked one company which has a fleet of shiny VWs, gave it my postcode, in Leeds, Yorkshire. Moments later it gave me a multimap link to my nearest car. Oh so convenient! It's on a driveway in Golders Green. Very handy. Thank you for the crocs info. next summer, maybe. As for condensatioiny, you are welcome to add it to any dictionary you come across, just paste it in. Why should Shakespeare be able to get away with inventing words and the rest of us, not?
by soubriquet @ 30/12/2006 6:10 pm • Permalink •
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I'm sorry to hear your car problems impinged on your Christmas.
I can't imagine making the decision to be car-less. I'd have to move house and change jobs to make it feasible. I live 6 miles from where I work; it's a 75 minute journey by public transport (two trains, and a 30 minute walk).
Over Christmas, my car sat outside the house for 6 days without moving. I've owned it 6 years, and I think the previous record is three days unless I've been out of the country! I drive it most days, and mostly for a journey that would be impractical to walk and impossible by public transport.
by Andy Cunningham @ 30/12/2006 10:52 pm • Permalink •
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A car club operates here in Brighton (http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/) and I have heard very satisfied reports from those who use it. The nuts and bolts of how it works is also fairly geeky, which would appeal to yoiu! If you could encourage them to start up in Brum, it might well be an ideal solution for occasional car users like yourselves.
by ThoughtBadger @ 30/12/2006 11:13 pm • Permalink •
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Go for it.
There are many places I'd love to live that wouldn't require a car. My current location doesn't allow that as a viable option.
by Traveller @ 31/12/2006 8:18 pm • Permalink •
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If you can manage it, do it! In 2006 I've been working in a city with great public transport and loved the convenience and lack of driving, home in rural Britain is a different matter.
by Julian @ 01/01/2007 8:54 pm • Permalink •
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Good luck if you are planning to do more travelling on the trains. I've just been listening to the radio news and they have announced that they are increasing rail fares above the rate of inflation (which incidentally is at an 8 year high), and the reason they give for this is that thay are trying to reduce overcrowding on the trains! Sometimes I just despair :-(
by Keith @ 02/01/2007 12:45 pm • Permalink •
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Jonathan Briggs: Yes, I'm lucky to live in an area that's quite well provided with public transport, albeit slightly unreliable public transport. I've never really enjoyed driving much since my first car -- a bright blue Hillman Imp -- went to the great Scrapyard in the Sky. That was a fun car, despite its many annoying quirks, and modern cars don't quite match up.
soubriquet: Yes, I know -- it just doesn't get enough use, but I don't see the point of using it just to 'give it a run' with no other purpose. Another sign that we really don't need a car. It had more use at other times of its life, but now it's just sitting there quietly rotting. Thanks for the lift share link -- it looks useful.
Andy Cunningham: I think my cycle commute to work is going to be about 7 miles each way, but it's a nice route that's mostly an off-road cycle route by a river, or the canal towpath (which is muddy but flat). I'm planning to mix cycling with getting the train during the week, particularly in the winter. I don't mind rain, but ice scares the bejesus out of me on a bike, particularly on a towpath -- that muddy water is awfully close to the path!
ThoughtBadger: I've emailed them to request a Birmingham group -- it looks like a great scheme, and would be enormously useful for us.
Traveller and Julian: Yes, rural areas (and even some suburban areas) are very poorly served.
Keith: Our local fare has just gone up by 20p :-( Still, occasional train journeys (even at the swingeing prices they charge) will probably still work out cheaper than running a car. I used the calculator on the City Car Club site that ThoughtBadger linked to to calculate the rough cost of running my car, given the mileage and age of the car. Despite the fact that it's a very small, fuel-efficient car, it came out at around £3,500 a year, which is shocking. That buys quite a few train tickets.
by bsag @ 02/01/2007 6:25 pm • Permalink •
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yep, me too. i never understood Brits' kneejerk-insistence on driving in and out of population centres on bank holidays etc. me, i take the train to near by where i want to go, and hire a car there. takes a fraction of the time, costs the same, and. there. is. NO. hassle.
by Saltation @ 08/01/2007 2:54 pm • Permalink •
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Hello again bsag, I saw a car yesterday that belonged to another car club called WhizzGo. Sadly they too have not spread to Brum yet, but should you wish to encourage them to do so, there is a link to do this on their site.
by ThoughtBadger @ 22/01/2007 10:21 am • Permalink •
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ThoughtBadger: Brighton seems to have car clubs coming out of its ears! Couldn't you shove a few cars in the direction of Brum? Actually, I had some potential good news from City Car Club: they sent me an email to say that they are trying to start a club in Birmingham, with a possibility for the end of 2007.
by bsag @ 22/01/2007 6:36 pm • Permalink •
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