The perils of car ownership.
It's that time of year again when we screw every penny we have "spare" into getting our car an MOT for the next year. I am happy to report that because of some prophylactic work we did a few months ago, it got through at about half of what we feared it might cost, needing only a replacement tyre (which frankly, could have happened at any time, and therefore is negligible). This is, in general, a good thing. We have known for some time that our car might be reaching the end of it's time with us, as it reaches the point of costing more than it's worth to maintain.
This time last year we knew that the law was going to change, and that a permanent (though now mysteriously fixed, we have no idea how!!) fault on our car was likely to cost us the vehicle. It would be a small part, but LOTS of cost to fix it. So we started to have some conversations about what we would do in that eventuality, especially if we were both still unemployed.
We are both still unemployed (I feel I should justify myself here, because it's not for lack of trying on either of our parts) so this is what we are going to do:
We agreed that if the repairs cost less than a given amount (an amount of available cash, plus what's left of our current credit) we would fix it, then look to sell it. We have a railcard now, we have investigated how making our big journeys might work by train/other public transport, and we are as satisfied as we can be that they are perfectly do-able and in some areas, might actually cost LESS doing it that way. We can basically afford generally either the MOT or the road tax, but not really both. The cost of petrol is one of the things which tips us from "managing with difficulty, watching every penny" and "pretty much falling off the edge of money".
That was the theoretical upshot of the proceedings. We have discussed it at great length, we have gone back and forth over different parts of it, we have discussed it with some people on whom our decision would make the biggest impact - in particular, my husbands parents, who live the furthest away from us. That conversation was actually considerably LESS scary than we anticipated, as ironically they have been having a conversation between themselves that's a similar shape.
And we have found that we are - as a family - ok with this idea. In lots of ways, it has attractions. We would be able to sort a few financial things out, and we can still travel, albeit that we would have to plan a lot more to make certain journeys, in order that we could travel for a reasonable price. We've done a fair bit of research. It has not been an easy decision to make, not at all, but we have made our peace with it. For us, it's not really been a complicated decision, there is a point where it is a liability. If the choice is between more debt and living without that stress, I'll take the less stress.
What makes me curious is that other people seem to be quite peturbed by the idea that we would so "easily" give up our car. I wondered what the reason for these feelings might be. I asked a friend, who said that people take having a car for granted. This is a valid point, especially in the society we have today which seems to value public services very little, and cultivates the cult of the individual. There is a thread here about it only working if the public transport network is actually any good, which is true, but can also be a circular argument. Maybe to me it isn't scary because my family didn't have a car until I was 14, this has never been the only way to get around for me.
Here is not too bad a place to be without one if we have to do it. The rail network is relatively well connected, there are opportunities for employment in easy reach rail-wise. Buses are a little trickier, but do-able. I can get to regular hospital appointments fairly easily, we can get to family as easily as any distance travel is.
So why do you think people worry so much about not having a car? I am curious to know how people react to this situation? We have been looked at with what can only be described as horror for even suggesting this course of action.
Is it a new measure of poverty, a family without a car?
Is it because we live in a fairly rural area and so getting to intermediate places is difficult?
Why? What is it about cars?!