Should I give up my car

I live in a small town and buses elsewhere are few and far between. I can’t get to any big shops or to any cultural or seasonal events.
I lost my independence when I gave up driving, assuming family members would take me when I wanted or needed to go anywhere. That has rarely happened.
Do I regret giving up driving? No, because I knew I was a bad driver with bad eyes. My reward is knowing I will not kill anyone or wreak anyone’s life.

We are also considering giving up our car, DH has macular degeneration in one eye and it is starting in the other eye, I loathe driving now and neither of us will drive at night. We have a bus stop three minutes walk away and the buses are every 15 minutes, the bus can take us to town and we can get another bus from there to other towns, the railway station and the local hospital, both of us get the bus to the hospital now because the parking is almost impossible and very stressful. I get the bus to town and back twice a week, DH uses it occasionally and always to hospital. We also have train passes because of DH’s service with the railway, we get 20 passes a year each pass lasts 48 hours and when the passes are used up we get reduced fare which is about a quarter of the full fare. We would have given up our car last September but the insurance went down quite a lot. DH is getting his cataracts done starting in January, this may improve his vision, the final decision depends on the result of his annual eye test.

The money you save on car costs/petrol/maintenance/service/mot/insurance can be used towards a taxi as and when you need it.
Probably not suitable for very long journeys but works out well for local trips.

I would most definitely get rid of car. For anything urgent use taxis or uber and if you’re well enough use bus or walk

This is an old thread. I wonder what OP decided in the end. Maybe she will read this a year down the line and reply.

I could manage without a car. In fact, I totted up the cost of maintaining it, against the cost of using taxis and they came out roughly equal.
We live in a town with excellent transport links - a bus to the town centre every 10 minutes, a train station in town and shops and doctor within walking distance.
It sounds as if you could give up your car. Without it there are plenty of other options. Uber is your friend.

Apparently men do insure with them. If they are like me they use one of those sites that gets quotes for you and pick the one that suits them.

Re Sheilas Wheels - I would imagine they aren't breaking the law. The clue is in the title - ie I can't see a man insuring with a womans insurance company. If men did - then that firm would be breaking the law - but if men don't then they arent.

Allsorts

If you give up your car you will save at least £2000 a year thats a lot of taxis and buses are free, soon my car will have its service and mot, £500 thereabout, then tax £200, then petrol, AA and the dreaded insurance, i would try it for 3 months and see how you get on,

Thanks for saying that - ie overall cost pa.

I did have a car - very briefly - but not gotten around to working out annual costs - as my ownership was so brief (I turned out to be very far from anyone's definition of a driver unfortunately and had to give it up..!)

Useful to have an idea how much I'm saving.

I guess that doesnt include depreciation either? - ie having to mentally allow £x a year to cover replacing it at necessary intervals? So do you know how much depreciation would be a year - allowing for having a reasonable quality secondhand little run-around car?

jmo

While you can afford to keep your car and are a competent driver, do so - it beats standing in the rain waiting for a bus!

Balanced against no searching for parking spaces. My local bus drops me in the middle of town avoid the walk from the car park.

I live near the end of the bus route, if I'm going out I can see the bus that has come from town and know I have ten minutes to get my coat on and do the two or three minutes walk to the bus stop, never have to wait long. At the other end I can sit in the little waiting room at the bus station.

Just checked and it is unlawful.

gentleshores

This is the ladies car insurance company I mentioned. Sheila's Wheels. It's Which? recommended. I don't know how much cheaper it would be but I believe they have cheaper policies for lady drivers as they say they are safer drivers!

www.sheilaswheels.com/

I thought different pricing for men and women had stopped due to discrimination or something. I must look it up.

I've posted this before so apologies if you saw that post.

Elderly relative with various issues was going through this dilemma. She was advised to set up a new bank account for transport sell the car and put the money in the account. Then work out what insurance road tax MOT recovery service and petrol cost divide by 12 and put that in the account every month. This was her taxi fund. At the end of the year there was more in the account than she started with and she hadn't even accounted for depreciation or unexpected repairs. I thought it was a positive way to manage it.

I think my situation is similar to yours. I was hardly using my car, I live on a bus route. Shops, GP and pharmacy are all close by. To be clear I hate grocery shopping so have had home deliveries for years.
I gave up driving because my eyesight was poor, meaning to take it up again after my cataracts were done. I discovered that I didn’t need a car at all. I have a bus pass and a railcard. The bus is efficient and I have chatted to some lovely people at various bus stops. The only time I need a taxi is when I need to take my cat to the vet for his annual vaccinations.
For me an added bonus was not having to worry about parking. My house has on street parking and there is fierce competition for spaces which caused me a lot of stress. It’s been almost a year now and I am not missing my car at all.

If you give up your car you will save at least £2000 a year thats a lot of taxis and buses are free, soon my car will have its service and mot, £500 thereabout, then tax £200, then petrol, AA and the dreaded insurance, i would try it for 3 months and see how you get on,

Reported

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This is the ladies car insurance company I mentioned. Sheila's Wheels. It's Which? recommended. I don't know how much cheaper it would be but I believe they have cheaper policies for lady drivers as they say they are safer drivers!

www.sheilaswheels.com/

crazyH

gentleshores has so many good reasons, for NOT giving up your car. I totally agree….

Thank you . I know everyone's situation is different - that was just my experience. But also you can't always get a taxi in the middle of the night if you need to go to A&E! As has happened to me before. These days they sometimes ask someone to take you as there is such a delay with ambulances. But then maybe a neighbour could take you I guess.

One of our neighbours recently gave up his car as he has terrible arthritis and found driving difficult, his wife does not drive. We have offered to take him to hospital appointments but one of his his sons usually takes him. We have a bus stop three minutes walk away with buses to town every 15 minutes and a few shops over the road. We will probably give up ours in the near future as our last insurance renewal was £714 and we only do 3000 miles a year at the most.

If you were thinking of changing it - one I always wanted was one of the two seater Smart cars. I drove a hired one once and absolutely loved it. It's small and £0 tax but feels like a larger car inside as there is no back seat so it still has full sized front seats. They are also mostly semi automatic so futureproof if you need an automatic at some point. They don't rust - the panels are fibreglass - and it's also one of the safest cars on the road and has a strong metal crash tested frame (inside the panels). It's a joy to drive - you just hop in and can park in the tiniest of spaces easily. And very economical on fuel - about 60 to 80 mpg I seem to remember. Insurance is quite cheap on it as well.

In case you thought about changing the car!

gentleshores has so many good reasons, for NOT giving up your car. I totally agree….

Just to add - you could look at reducing the insurance by getting cheaper quotes or adding a larger excess to the policy, if you don't use the car much. The car tax depends on the type of car - some have £0 tax now - ones with smaller engines usually. Although maybe changing the car isn't affordable? I believe there's even a policy specifically for lady drivers that is cheaper than most. Servicing - if you're not using it very often you could get away with just one annual service and have the MOT done at the same time. You could even get away with only having it done once every two years if you're not using it much (although you'd need the MOT doing every year of course).

Granny23

Due to health issues I am no longer able to drive and I struggle to use buses, but I have found the perfect solution.... I have a younger friend who is early retired through ill health, lives nearby and cannot afford to run a car on his small pension. So now he is the "keeper" of my car while I remain the owner and pay for the tax, Insurance, MOT, repairs, etc. and we share fuel costs. He drives me to town for shopping, medical appointments, etc. and he also uses the car for his own purposes including visiting his elderly parents who live some distance away. This version of Car Sharing suits us both and I would recommend it to anyone with similar circumstances.

That's a great idea Granny23

Stevie D - I'll just throw in a few things to think about. I gave up having a car for financial reasons when I was in my fifties. I could actually walk to shops (but usually had to get a taxi home as I couldn't carry all the shopping bags that far). It took a lot of adjusting - allowing more time to get places and it was frustrating sometimes when it took so long to get somewhere. I'd need a bus and then a taxi, if I wanted to travel by train.

Taxis were never available before about 10am (eg if you had an appointment) because they were all doing school runs - likewise the same between about 2.45pm and 5.30pm - school runs. Local authorities use the taxis for some school transport.

But that might depend on the area.

The point I'm coming to is, I later regretted not driving for so long when I then couldn't walk or use buses - but could drive an automatic car! It took me some time to get my confidence back driving as I hadn't driven so long.

But a car is now my lifeline - because I can't manage buses and can't walk much.

So although at the moment, you can use buses and taxis - there may come a time when a car is more of a friend to you and can carry things for you and enable you to get out.

So I would think carefully about giving up driving altogether.

If you keep it and don't use it very often, a car can last a very long time, due to low mileage and not getting worn out etc. And it's expensive to replace it.

I now use the car to transport my folding mobility scooter - although I usually need someone with me to get the scooter out of the boot - it enables me to get out and do the odd thing.

You could get a taxi, though, I suppose.
Only if you needed to, of course.