Costs of owning a car?

[rosemarie04]

Hi all,
With another child on its way we are considering buying a car. So far we have managed with cargo bike, rental cars, public transport... Just had a bad day with rain and wind and children complaining on the bike, so walked to the bus stop, had to wait 25 min and was then told that the bus was full and could not take another pram :-( last month we had a very bad experience with a car rental company and now twice the taxi company was more than 30 minutes delayed. We might have had an unlucky month but I am wondering if owning a car would make our lives easier. We have never owned a car in the U.K, any ideas how much the annual costs are approximately for a used car (thinking around 5 years old)! How much is insurance, I found offers starting from 1000£?
Thanks a lot!

I would highly recommend looking at money saving expert website - covers insurance and loads of other things www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-finance/buying-used-car my insurance is around 250

Have you looked at Zipcar? Possibly a car share scheme might work. I guess it depends where you live and how often you think you would use the car.

You can sit in traffic for a very long time in Cambridge. I rarely use the car to go into town as it takes much longer than cycling.

I have the same issue as yours. We cycle to everywhere in Cambridge since we moved to the town. We have been thinking of getting a car but hesitating if it makes sense if it is only for bad days (traffic will be worse during bad days!) and weekend trips out of the town. It would be great to get more info from people. thank you!