Why own a car when you can borrow one?

Neil Collins

14 March 2009

Do you really need a depreciating heap of metal sitting outside your house? Neil Collins offers an alternative

I do hope you enjoyed that new Ferrari 612 you bought a year ago. After all, it’s cost you more than £1,000 a week. That’s not what it cost to run, it’s what it cost in depreciation before you filled up, taxed and insured the beast. Still, it could have been worse — had you plumped for the Maybach 62, you would have lost £128,899 before you switched on the ignition.

We moan like mad about the cost of petrol, because we can see it. In fact, thanks to the collapse in the oil price, a litre costs much the same today as it did three years ago, despite rises in duty. We may complain that our insurance premiums are subsidising all those lunatic drivers who just wing it, but the figures above, compiled by Parker’s, a firm of car-buying advisers, reveal that the biggest cost of that rotting metal outside your house is, well, the rotting metal itself.

Petrolheads view driving as an indulgent hobby rather than a means to an end, but as you pay another servicing bill, you may wonder whether it’s really necessary to own a fast-depreciating asset which sits unused in the road for days on end, a target for the local hoodies. You’re not the first.

The idea of sharing a car is hardly new. Car hire is almost as old as car-making, and has become a cut-throat industry. Shares in Avis Europe, which cost more than 80p two years ago, stand at less than 5p now. The car-hire business model relied on big discounts and cheap debt from carmakers. Gasping for cash themselves, they can’t afford to lend money today simply to shift the metal.

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Peter

March 12th, 2009 8:59pm Report this comment

Car clubs are of no use if you need your car for commuting, which the majority of car owners do.

TRH

March 13th, 2009 9:02pm Report this comment

'When they’re a bit older and the son needs to go to football on Saturday while the daughter goes to ballet,' - they can use their free Oyster cards and get the bus. Ditch your car before your children reach teenage years otherwise you're in for a long, thankless haul as an unpaid chauffeur.

Zomby

March 17th, 2009 2:27pm Report this comment

Peter.. er.. not in London they don't. Everyone I know who keeps a car in London (myself included) uses it mainly on weekends. Commuting across town in weekday rush-hour traffic is a complete waste of time and money (what with the congestion charge and crippling cost of parking).