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I thought that re ULEZ, but actually other places do have similar schemes, eg Bristol. I got caught by this a couple of years ago when Google maps sent me through Bristol en route to somewhere else. Though I did manage to get the fine waived. And other places are apparently going to have them, eg Oxford. As I found when I was considering selling the car in Oxford. Which I think is a very good thing, but not helpful if your car isn't compliant Also in order to sell it I would presumably have to get it into working order, so I'd have to buy a new battery anyway. I use mostly buses and trains already, for travelling both within and outside London. That's why I rarely use the car except for transporting bulky/heavy items, or going to places which aren't easy to reach via public transport, or giving people a lift who are not very mobile. The problem with hiring a car to go to a festival, for example, is that I'd be paying for it to sit in a field for several days. And it would be impossible, or at least very difficult, to transport a tent and camping equipment there by public transport. Not that I've been to any festivals lately. I think I'm talking myself into keeping the car. I did do sums when ULEZ came in. I've had a Freedom Pass for over fifteen years, gulp 😂 This is all true, but you have to factor in my age, convenience, and the waste of money in hiring a car if you aren't actually going to use it once you've got to your destination until you need to drive home. If there was a system like zip cars where you could drive somewhere and leave the car for someone else to use, then pick up another car just to drive back, that would be different. And hire charges are greater for older drivers (even though apparently the stats say we are safer) even assuming you can find a company which will hire you a car. -
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By Cyclemonkey · Posted
I've never owned a car in the 25 years I've lived in London. I would regard it as a hopeless waste of money I walk, get public transport and taxis for the rare occasions when public transport won't cut it. Anything large that needs to be transporting to or away from my property - well pretty much all shops deliver and for anything else there is always someone who willing do it for a small fee. If I need a car to go somewhere outside of London (you would be surprised at how little this issue occurs) then hire cars exist. -
Hi, we're in a similar position with our old people carrier and did a look back at our usage and then looked at the costs for car clubs, taxis and car hire costs if we got rid of it. In our case the away trips to family, especially during school holidays, makes it cheaper to keep ours and pay ULEZ (the away trips is the big cost for hiring). We rarely use it for local trips and plan usage to aim for multiple purpose trips. We also share with our neighbours such as moving large items with our people carrier and share the ulez cost. Generally for low use alone it will not make financial sense to buy a newer car. Also, if you have a petrol car check its NOx output amount for ULEZ compliance as TFL wrongly categorised many older cars. Did this for neighbours 2001 car and it's ULEZ compliant when TFL originally said it was not (now fixed) and having the same issue with a 1997 petrol car.
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