Commuting long distances

Sinny

Sinny

Sinny

Soldato
Joined
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Cheshire
I vaguely wander into these forums from time to time but rarely post here, but I'd like to know if anyone here drive's long distances to work.

I'm currently completing an apprenticeship of which I'm 1/2 way through, however I really don't like living away from family/friends and my parents have told me I'm more than welcome to move back at a lower rent (even though I'm back every weekend).

I'm on about £14k p.a and I'm seriously considering getting a Diesel car to commute. To work it's about 90mi round trip from Chester to Telford so I'm unsure as to what would be affordable or even if it's worth it, and if anyone else does it and is able to manage it?

Cheers for any help, though I hope this is the right section to ask :D
 
Last year I used to commute to university. It was a 90 miles round trip everyday.
It was not bad at times and at times it's just terrible because of traffic, having to wake up extra early etc.

If I was you I would stay and move back after your apprenticeship is finished
 
ADT said:
Last year I used to commute to university. It was a 90 miles round trip everyday.
It was not bad at times and at times it's just terrible because of traffic, having to wake up extra early etc.

If I was you I would stay and move back after your apprenticeship is finished
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That is the eventual plan, I live in a house share and It's not at all enjoyable to be honest.

Cheers for the input though!
 
I do 120 miles a day, 60 miles each way - 40 miles up the A3 and the rest on local roads - and I don't really think anything of it anymore. It takes me about an hour and 10 minutes each way and I've been doing it long enough that it's just normal. It does take a bit of getting used to at first but it's not really a big deal after a while. However, I do have flexibility so I can more or less go in whenever I want - not having to get in for 9am does help.

Diesel would probably make sense at that mileage - if it's 90 miles a day that's roughly 1800 a month so around 22k a year but it depends what you've currently got really. If it'd cost you loads to change car in the first place then it's probably better off just seeing how it goes with your current motor first.
 
I do 120 miles per day, 4 days per week, for no wage at all (uni commute :p) in a 4.2 supercharged V8. It's the whole southern section of the m25, so when it's quiet it takes about 50 minutes, when it's busy it takes 1.5-2 hours :(

I have to get up at 6am 2 days per week, the other days I'm in later so I don't have to get up until 8/9am. I used to live at uni, but as I took a year out in France, most of my friends aren't there this year, so it wouldn't be as much fun this time. Plus, it actually works out cheaper to commute than live there, as my uni is in a really expensive area.

I really don't mind it at all - I just put some music on and relax - if I was doing it in a Corsa or something, I'd probably hate it.
 
Phemo said:
I do 120 miles a day, 60 miles each way - 40 miles up the A3 and the rest on local roads - and I don't really think anything of it anymore. It takes me about an hour and 10 minutes each way and I've been doing it long enough that it's just normal. It does take a bit of getting used to at first but it's not really a big deal after a while. However, I do have flexibility so I can more or less go in whenever I want - not having to get in for 9am does help.

Diesel would probably make sense at that mileage - if it's 90 miles a day that's roughly 1800 a month so around 22k a year but it depends what you've currently got really. If it'd cost you loads to change car in the first place then it's probably better off just seeing how it goes with your current motor first.
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Yeah I worked it out at around 1800pm, I currently have a Mk5 Golf 1.4ltr petrol and I'm unsure on it's MPG, but I recon it's around low-mid 30's, but if I can get 50-60 as I'm a pretty cautious driver I think it could be worth it.

I'm just glad I'm on a decent wage as an apprentice and do 9-days work with flexi time so I can stroll in anytime I want before 9am, which is why I'm able to even consider it, but more than anything it's just the cost I'm looking at.
 
You are not going to get 60mpg from a petrol Golf.

Plus isn't Telford to Chester all single carriageway A roads, roundabouts, etc etc?
 
When I do have to go into the office, it is around a 100 mile round trip. When I do it, which is usually for 2-3 weeks at a time, it's not too bad, but then I don't actually hit any traffic as I live south of the city, and the office is on an industrial estate on the south side. So I am literally 2 miles from the dual carriageway on one side, and around 12 miles of country road on the other.

Again, it depends on what you have got already as to whether it is worthwhile commuting. I used to do it in a 1.9 TDI Passat, which was nice and comfortable. It was also returning a reasonable 47 mpg average per tank. And that was with little traffic really, little town driving, cruise set to 75 when possible on DC, but often less due to DC traffic. So a relatively economical commute.

But even at that, you'll be looking at in the region of £200 per month in fuel costs (based on a £1.10 pl fuel price). Or if you are driving a petrol, at 2ppl less, and 35 mpg average, you'll be £257 per month in fuel.

But don't forget other costs too due to wear and tear, such as tyres, brakes etc... Not sure what 14k brings you home per month, but I suspect you'll be nearing 1/5 - 1/4 of your monthly income just on fuel.

I did, for a while do the same commute in a 1.9 SDI Polo running 50% veg oil in with the diesel. This reduced the costs a bot, but it wasn't really worth it, to me, as the drive was nowhere near as comfortable.

The drive itself you would get used to. It's the costs involved on such a relatively low wage that would likely kill it for you really. Would you really save £250 per month moving home? And then you still have the "cost" of your time actually doing the commute.

As Fox states, you wont get 60 mpg out a petrol golf. My cousin gets around 50mpg out of a petrol fiesta ecoboost thing though, and my sister gets about the same in her little petrol corsa thing. If you're seriously looking for a 60mpg motor you'll need to be in some horrible little diesel ecobox. And it will likely simply be a horrible commute. My father in law used to get 55 mpg out of my passat on his trips to London, but he really does drive miss daisy and I doubt he'd break 60 mph on the motorway (for 10+ hours).
 
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geekman said:
I do 120 miles per day, 4 days per week, for no wage at all (uni commute :p) in a 4.2 supercharged V8. It's the whole southern section of the m25, so when it's quiet it takes about 50 minutes, when it's busy it takes 1.5-2 hours :(

I have to get up at 6am 2 days per week, the other days I'm in later so I don't have to get up until 8/9am. I used to live at uni, but as I took a year out in France, most of my friends aren't there this year, so it wouldn't be as much fun this time. Plus, it actually works out cheaper to commute than live there, as my uni is in a really expensive area.

I really don't mind it at all - I just put some music on and relax - if I was doing it in a Corsa or something, I'd probably hate it.
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I did mine in a corsa 1.2 last year and it wasn't that bad actually :p
It just felt like a chore in the morning. But on the way back I stayed in the library till about 7/8 so traffic calms down and it's not so bad then
 
[TW]Fox;28913334 said:
You are not going to get 60mpg from a petrol Golf.

Plus isn't Telford to Chester all single carriageway A roads, roundabouts, etc etc?
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I do mean from a new for to get 50+mpg, my Golf definitely doesn't get anywhere near that :D.

Pretty much, I go through a few side roads and I'm usually stuck at 50-60mph all the way, but there are quite a few roundabouts on the way!
 
To get anything that would do 50mpg on that sort of commute would cost a fairly decent chunk of cash. If it's an apprenticeship I assume it's a fixed term deal, so you need to carefully think about how much you cold save and whether you would even break even
 
iaind said:
To get anything that would do 50mpg on that sort of commute would cost a fairly decent chunk of cash. If it's an apprenticeship I assume it's a fixed term deal, so you need to carefully think about how much you cold save and whether you would even break even
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I take home about 1100 a month as its a good wage. My current rent at my accomodation and food bills et comes to around 500 a month so i need to work it all out really.

But i think it comes to more or less the same, but the time i spend driving back is usually used for cooking and cleaning.
 
Long commutes suck, especially so if you're likely to be stuck in traffic, I'd do anyting to minimise mine (and have done, on three occasions now).

Stick with a shorter commute IMO.

Having said that I completely understand if you don't like living away.
 
I did around 90 miles a day for 4 years. The first few years were outside of rush hour which helped but I got used to it and didn't mind the long drive. The worst being stuck in traffic due to accidents/roadworks.

Things you will need to budget for due to the higher mileage are:
  • New set of tyres per year
  • A service every year (oil change, suspension parts, etc) over and above normal servicing
  • Depreciation due to higher than average mileage
  • Increased insurance cost
  • Spending a lot of time at the fuel pumps (you'll be filling up weekly) probably about £80 or so depending on the car
 
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So if I where you I'd get a small engine, around 8-10 year old Renault Meganne. I had a 1.6L diesel meganne for a while and it did ~53 MPG and cost £1200.
 
Not sure I could justify the cost whilst earning/learning even at 50mpg.

Could you get away with doing it outside of peak times?
 
I use to commute 150 miles a day, for 4 weeks.
The biggest issue I found was the stress. I do enjoy driving but being stuck behind people would annoy me. On top of the fact that by the time I got home in the evening, I didn't really have a me time. I was too tired to do anything.
 
Commuting sucks.

I used to do a 25 mile each way commute which usually took an hour, but could often take two. The M27 is one of the worst stretches of motorway in the country.

I would do anything possible to reduce your commute. I went self-employed in September and the commute was one of my reasons for leaving the job I had.
 
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