Learn to drive or taxi?

[NightTimeRain]

I am absolutely sick of buses I can’t take them anymore, they are ridiculously crowded everyone pushes in front and people are so so rude on them. I need to learn to drive but I cannot afford it, people tell me it cost them £400/£500 a month to drive or more which I just can’t afford. Is getting taxis everywhere better? Can anyone else not afford to drive? Does anyone rely solely on taxis? Someone told it would be cheaper? Just done with public transport

Car-drivers are just bus-people in cars.

What’s the parking like in the parts of London you would need to drive to? That would put me off for a start. I have been getting taxis occasionally recently and they have gone up to an extortionate amount and I would not be able to get them regularly.

It depends on how many miles you are likely to do in a car. There is no point paying for lessons then all the expenses of car ownership if your travel is minimal and a taxi would be cheaper when all things considered.

I live in the north and learnt late. My costs are not that high. I had to as the public transport near me has become non existent and I couldn’t get DD places.
Almost everywhere I drive there are no parking costs though and would you have to pay that new charge or are you in the outer parts of London?

When people are estimating driving costs are they actually including costs of:

Buying the car (even if you've paid it off that's money you haven't e.g. paid off the mortgage with - and it's a depreciating asset)
Insurance
Parking - including having to buy/rent a house with parking
MOTs and repairs
Fuel.

Plus in your case lessons.

Yes that’s a good point we don’t go out very often or very far so taxis may not work out that expensive

A few people have just given me a breakdown of the costs but yes it’s including the cost of buying the car

Insurance for new drivers is very expensive. We have paid £1000 to add DS on to an existing policy, and that's with shopping around.

I would have thought getting taxis/Ubers occasionally for short distances might be a good short term solution.

I live in Edinburgh and avoid driving where possible because the roads are so busy.

@NightTimeRain those people you know who never take the bus probably live in the outer zones in that case. I live in zone 2. I think it's funny when people are too snooty to get the bus (not suggesting this is your motivation). Suggests a lack of self-esteem.
My DD LOVES it when I say we're taking the car however.

Get some lessons and see how you feel. Book the lessons so you are either picked up or dropped to work/home.

£500 to run a car per month???

I pay £13 tax, £25 insurance and whatever petrol I throw in it a month. I save about £400 over the year for the MOT but it's a reliable car and I haven't spent more than the cost of the MOT in 3yrs. Its an old banger, worth about £400. No finance.

Yes, a car will be expensive in the first year for the initial outlay of your lessons, test and actually buying the car, but year on year it will be way cheaper than taxis. And it's a useful skill to have!

I wouldn’t drive in London, it’s cheaper and in most cases quicker to take the tube. Buses are same speed but much less money.

Work out which journeys you’d need a taxi for and how much that would cost per month vs buying and running a cheap little second hand car. Parking is normally the issue.

I didn’t drive when I lived in London, I do 400 miles a week commuting now in the car and wouldn’t do public transport for that journey. If I’d stayed in London I wouldn’t ever had needed to buy a car, just rent one occasionally when I needed to travel.

I don’t need to drive I want to drive as can’t deal with the crazy people on buses anymore. If people weren’t so crazy I wouldn’t bother but buses are getting worse and worse I’m finding and more and more crowded. So it’s either drive or rely on taxis

The bus seems to bring out the worst types of people.

the break downs were roughly
250 car finance
120 diesel
90 insurance
50 MOT repairs etc

£120 for car
£50 insurance
£120 fuel
£15 tax
£50 MOT repairs etc

It depends if you want a cheap car that you save and buy outright rather than financing a car. Driving lessons are £70 per 2 hour slot where I am. You can learn a lot of theory, meeting situations, what lane you are meant to be in etc from youtube as lots of driving instructors post on there. There are a lot more automatic cars available these days.

You can go on Autotrader, find cars you would potentially consider buying and you can narrow down the search using the filters to see what is out there and how much they cost. Run the reg plate through an insurance comparison site like compare the market. You just keep changing the car details, it holds all of your details and see how much it actually is to insure a car for your postcode. That is how we did it when Ds1 was about to take his test just to give us an idea of how much insurance would cost, he was 19 when he passed, delayed due to covid.

I drive an auto fiesta passed recently
20 mile trip to work and back
£97 insurance
£80 petrol
£16 tax
£250 loan as it cost me £9K

I commuted on buses in a city got years bed thing I ever did.

One of the biggest consideration when buying a car in London has to be the ULEZ - it's all very well people saying they keep costs down by driving an older vehicle but OP will be restricted to what she can drive

I bought a Ford Fiesta outright for £2000, costs around £200 a month including petrol then MOT once a year

You said you don't travel far or much so you're not going to spend £120 a month on fuel. Also unlikely to need £50 a month for repairs

If you buy a cheap run around you won't be paying finance for long so after a year or so you could deduct that.

Once the cars paid & you budget a more realistic fuel allowance & even putting aside £25/£30 a month for repairs you're reducing your £500 to around £175

It only cuts out older diesels. I drive a 15 year old petrol car which is ULEZ compliant. Most cars are compliant.

I don't use the car often, my partner doesn't either, so I think it costs us about £1.2k per year including petrol, insurance & MOT/service so about £100 per month. But we use public transport all the time as it's there and frequent.

It only cuts out older diesels. I drive a 15 year old petrol car which is ULEZ compliant. Most cars are compliant.

Ah that's good news then, although it does beg the question, what's the point in it!

I've just put fuel in my car, £135.00 for a full tank.

Driving is an ongoing cost. But also a lifeskill. Buses are infinitely cheaper.

Before I bought a new car last year I did work out all the costs of running a car compared with a taxi for all the journeys I regularly do eg supermarket shopping/visiting elderly parents etc and overall it would be cheaper to use taxis.

It's the learning to drive and buying a car that are the pricey bits.

I bought a second hand car outright so don't have monthly finance payments. I don't drive much, mostly kids hobbies and shopping. My monthly costs are less than £100 for fuel and insurance.

However, I did an intensive course to learn to drive which was over £1K, then I bought a £4K car - so the initial outlay was expensive. Insurance was higher in the first few years but has steadily come down year on year for me.

I've just put fuel in my car, £135.00 for a full tank.

Driving is an ongoing cost. But also a lifeskill. Buses are infinitely cheaper.

Yes, but that £135 is going to cover a fair few miles.
If I get the bus into the City centre from where I live (not London) it costs £2.40 single. Obviously I have to come home again, so that's £4.80. I don't live that far from the city centre and it would cost me about £2 in petrol (return) I estimate.
Now, that's just with me in the car.
If 2 of us go, bus fare is then £9.60
If 3 of us go, bus fare is then £14.40
If 4 of us go, bus fare is then £19.20 but my petrol remains £2.
I am aware I am probably unusual in that I know somewhere I can park for free (public place - anyone can) .... but it isn't always the case that buses are infinitely cheaper.
I am one of those people that buys an old car for a few hundred pounds, so I don't have finance to pay. Yes, I pay car tax, MOT, occasional repairs or replacements for things, but they are spread over the many, many journeys I take throughout the year.

I am also lucky I Iive in a City where buses are frequent and are much cheaper than they are for many parts of the country. For many folk, a car is much more economical - particularly when transporting others.