Can You Share a Car?
Car sharing schemes are springing up all over the place, with one such scheme just opened up now in the UK, following the lead set in the US. People are realising that it isn’t always essential to own a car. There are of course costs in car sharing, usually a registration fee has to be be paid, maybe a monthly ongoing charge, and of course an hourly charge for the use of the car. The schemes are simple to use though. One – Reserve a car, usually using an online system. Two – Unlock the car with your CarShare key fob. Three – Make your trip, and then return the car to the same location you found it when done. To many people, a car is vital, and to those who use them to drive around as part of their job, or, to take children to school, especially in rural areas, that is true. But, what about those who work from home, or are now retired, or moms who are close to shops and schools? How much can doing without a car save? Just taking some rough figures, here is what you could save by doing without. Suppose you pay the full up front amount for your car – $20,000 (if you pay by installments or through a loan there would be additional interest charges on top to add in). It’s a sobering thought that as soon as you leave the showroom you suffer devaluation of about 20% on the vehicle, so you’ve lost $4,000 on the first day. Say you keep the car for three years, and it devalues by around 50% in that period. That means a loss of $10,000, or $3,330 a year. During that time you have it serviced, say twice at $400 each service, that’s $800 divided by three, equals $266 a year. You need say two tires which costs you $300, so that’s $100 a year. Insurance could be a further $500 a year. Then there’s gasoline. $2,000 let’s say for a twelve month period. So, just on the loss in value of the car, plus running expenses, you will have spent $6196 a year to run your car. This information can be found at various Car Forums aroudn the net. These are very conservative estimates. Certain expenses such as insurance will depend on a number of factors such as age, any previous accidents history, where the car is kept and so on. Then there are possible repairs to consider. If you don’t use your car all that often, or use it needlessly, that’s money down the drain. When you go out, could you walk more, take the bus or train, use someone else’s car in the home, (though you’d need proper insurance and to buy gasoline of course), take a taxi, or car share, which was mentioned at the top of the article? If so, you might find you don’t only save some money, you’ll help protect the environment, and you could get fitter as you take more exercise.
