Commuting long distances

Quartz · 10 Dec 2015 at 13:36

Sinny said:
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?

Do the maths: at £1/litre and 10 miles per litre (45 MPG) you'll be spending £9 per day on fuel. That's £2250 per year (250 days). And when the price of fuel rises, your costs will rise significantly. A rise to £1.25 a litre will increase your fuel costs to over £2800. Plus you'll be losing over two and a half hours per day on the commute. Plus - and I'm guessing here that you're young - there will be high insurance costs. Plus servicing, maintenance, tyres, etc.

If you're set on being back with your parents, look at commuting by train. At least then you can study or talk on the train journey. But you'll hate the extra time you spend commuting.

Diagro · 10 Dec 2015 at 14:29

Quartz said:
Do the maths: at £1/litre and 10 miles per litre (45 MPG) you'll be spending £9 per day on fuel. That's £2250 per year (250 days). And when the price of fuel rises, your costs will rise significantly. A rise to £1.25 a litre will increase your fuel costs to over £2800. Plus you'll be losing over two and a half hours per day on the commute. Plus - and I'm guessing here that you're young - there will be high insurance costs. Plus servicing, maintenance, tyres, etc.

If you're set on being back with your parents, look at commuting by train. At least then you can study or talk on the train journey. But you'll hate the extra time you spend commuting.

Haha train. AHAHAHHAHAH

Sorry but what?

As an example to why i find that so funny.

Cost to commute to Leicester from Hinckley £11.50
Time: 21Mins train - 10-20mins walk w/e

Cost to drive @ 45mpg = 0.62Gallons (28mile round trip)
0.62Gallons = £2.60 in diesel.

Yea sure ok, the train is better

Do that everyday its around 2.7k or 2.2k with a discounted rail year pass.

In the car its 624 in fuel. The rest can pay for insurance, tax and maintenance. Oh and you have a car.

Avalon · 10 Dec 2015 at 15:04

Don't believe the hype. My commute was 90 miles a day. The most economical car I ran over the 10 years of doing that wasn't a diesel, it was a 1.4 petrol that did 38mpg. NA and chain driven allowed it to run on nothing but oil/filters for service work plus the odd wheel bearing.

A modern diesel will be both turbo and normally belt driven for smoothness. Turbo's can and do fail and are expensive/time consuming to repair, timing belts are usually not cheap either and the intervals are annoyingly short at this sort of commute. You also have the joys of a DMF, heavier rubber/brake wear (weight+torque) and that's without the DPF.

Think very carefully before you buy into the diesel myth.

sandys · 10 Dec 2015 at 15:33

The economy of diesel is not a myth you just have to pick the right diesel. My Scenic was rather good, 18k servicing, 90k for timing belt did 60mpg, reliable, replaced ummm, pedal rubbers and the odd bulb in over 100k of ownership, was economical on tyres at over 30k a set and did brakes twice I think but I used to tow with it. Biggest repair cost was electronic keys which failed, they would be same on a petrol though.

Was a very cheap car to own.

Sinny · 10 Dec 2015 at 16:06

Here is some financial tid bits.

I spend around £325 on house rent and £100 on food per month as well as my existing petrol costs which is around £60 per fortnight. so all together around £550 of my current income goes on that.

I spend the majority of my time cooking and staying in my room as there is nothing to do here unless I want to talk to the polish tenants who's English is pretty broken.

If I bought a car on HP it would cost me around £200 per month, £200 per month on fuel and then my parents have told me they don't mind me paying a lower rate of £100 (including new tyres, I service my car myself) it would work out at about the same or maybe a bit more.

I will have to do the maths.

It's pretty much single carriageways and roundabouts all the way here, But I usually stick to around 60mph most of the way.

(I also work a 9 day fortnight)

iaind · 10 Dec 2015 at 16:16

Forget the rent when you're doing the maths, it's not relevant

If you moved home, how much would the fuel be if you kept your current car? I fail to believe it would be £400 a month - eg a £200 saving.....so you're not even breaking even by getting a car on HP

Avalon · 10 Dec 2015 at 16:49

sandys said:
The economy of diesel is not a myth you just have to pick the right diesel. My Scenic was rather good, 18k servicing, 90k for timing belt did 60mpg, reliable, replaced ummm, pedal rubbers and the odd bulb in over 100k of ownership, was economical on tyres at over 30k a set and did brakes twice I think but I used to tow with it. Biggest repair cost was electronic keys which failed, they would be same on a petrol though.

Was a very cheap car to own.

3 of them were VAG based diesels (2 1.9PD's and a 2.0CR) so I was in effect disguised as a taxi most of the time. I still stand by my statement that but i'll clarify it for you; the cost per mile over several years of running various different cars (6 in total) leads me to the conclusion that a small NA petrol was cheaper per mile each year (even with the higher fuel prices at the time) than any of the diesels. This included everything from servicing to road fund and insurance, MOT's etc.

Sinny · 10 Dec 2015 at 16:54

iaind said:
Forget the rent when you're doing the maths, it's not relevant

If you moved home, how much would the fuel be if you kept your current car? I fail to believe it would be £400 a month - eg a £200 saving.....so you're not even breaking even by getting a car on HP

With my current car at around an average of 1.15 per gallon it would cost 250 per month just to get to work and back.

It takes me just over an hour to commute on a monday morning to Telford in my 1.4 golf assuming i get 35mpg.

iaind · 10 Dec 2015 at 17:08

Sinny said:
With my current car at around an average of 1.15 per gallon it would cost 250 per month just to get to work and back.

It takes me just over an hour to commute on a monday morning to Telford in my 1.4 golf assuming i get 35mpg.

Alright so £250 a month or £200 a month (your own figures)

Why spend an additional £200 a month to save £50?

Sinny · 10 Dec 2015 at 17:27

iaind said:
Alright so £250 a month or £200 a month (your own figures)

Why spend an additional £200 a month to save £50?

I would be doing for peace of mind really. I could get a newer car with a lot less miles. My golf currently has 94k miles on it.

Im not very good at assuming how long it will last. I service it myself every 12 months but when it comes to how long my car will last im not very experienced on this.

iaind · 10 Dec 2015 at 17:46

Sinny said:
I would be doing for peace of mind really. I could get a newer car with a lot less miles. My golf currently has 94k miles on it.

Im not very good at assuming how long it will last. I service it myself every 12 months but when it comes to how long my car will last im not very experienced on this.

94k miles is nothing. Cars dont just "die"

Service it when it needs servicing, fix it when it goes wrong. Only consider it uneconomical when it starts to need fixing more regularly than is convenient. Your net gain is £150 a month - nearly 2 grand a year. I cant see how thats justifyable on such a low wage

Sinny · 10 Dec 2015 at 18:00

iaind said:
94k miles is nothing. Cars dont just "die"

Service it when it needs servicing, fix it when it goes wrong. Only consider it uneconomical when it starts to need fixing more regularly than is convenient. Your net gain is £150 a month - nearly 2 grand a year. I cant see how thats justifyable on such a low wage

So you're saying it's justifiable on my current car if I can handle to driving distance?

The only reason I am actually considering this is because I find it more beneficial to myself to spend time with my family rather than sitting in a house share every night.

xs2man · 10 Dec 2015 at 18:12

Then do it. At least on a trial basis, for a few weeks or something.

But you dont need a new car to do it in. As said above, you wont save enough to cover the cost of a newer car. Not by a long way. So with your wages so "low" I'd stick with what you have. If it's a decent car, you may need little more than an extra service per year.

iaind · 10 Dec 2015 at 18:13

Sinny said:
So you're saying it's justifiable on my current car if I can handle to driving distance?

The only reason I am actually considering this is because I find it more beneficial to myself to spend time with my family rather than sitting in a house share every night.

Of course it is - a Golf is a perfectly sensible car and it's not exactly mega mileage that you'll be doing. The cheapest way would be do move and keep your current car, then re-evaluate if the current car ever becomes a problem

Committing to an extra 200 quid a month "just in case" and to save 50 quid is mad.

Sinny · 10 Dec 2015 at 18:32

iaind said:
Of course it is - a Golf is a perfectly sensible car and it's not exactly mega mileage that you'll be doing. The cheapest way would be do move and keep your current car, then re-evaluate if the current car ever becomes a problem

Committing to an extra 200 quid a month "just in case" and to save 50 quid is mad.

Cheers, i didnt really think of it this way. It actually looks more viable that way. I can actually test it.

I will give it a go after christmas and see how it runs.

Cheers

iaind · 10 Dec 2015 at 18:36

If you're overly worried about it's reliability (although you havent said its actually caused you any issues) then chuck 100 quid aside every month into a savings account. If something does crop up then you'll have a pot to use to pay for the repair and it'll still be miles cheaper than buying something else. If nothing does pop up, you'll have 1200 quid to spend on a holiday or beer at the end of the year

sandys · 10 Dec 2015 at 18:53

Just get a £35 Green flag recovery policy then your are sorted if you get stuck and if you don't its only £35 not a new car.

wesimmo · 10 Dec 2015 at 19:28

I did Nottingham to Birmingham for a few weeks and I hated it.

It was mainly because the traffic was so bad though, if I was to do a similar length of trip but back roads that were fun to drive It might have been a different story.

Skeeter · 10 Dec 2015 at 19:38

I'm currently doing London to Bristol and back once a week on 99% motorway and 2 or 3 days of a 40 mile round trip to the office on almost all motorway and duel carriageway and my brand new, super economical 2.0l diesel Octavia is showing an average of... 48mpg.

Just as a benchmark.

Quartz · 10 Dec 2015 at 23:08

Diagro said:
Do that everyday its around 2.7k or 2.2k with a discounted rail year pass.

In the car its 624 in fuel. The rest can pay for insurance, tax and maintenance. Oh and you have a car.

Do you really think I didn't look up the figures before posting? Yes, the train costs more but he won't be driving, so no need for a car that will be expensive to insure and maintain. Consider it several hours per day of study time.