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Retirement car maths

I am surprised at this thread as in retirement you need a stash to draw on from time to time over the years. A new car may not be one of them. As time goes on things/situations and priorities change.

DV
 
paul rich said:
And yet another option, which works financially if your mileage is low enough:
  • Sell the Polo.
  • Ask several local taxi firms what they will charge for guaranteed work you will give them each week (eg your shopping trips etc)
  • Choose the best taxi firm offer
  • Rent a car for the odd week you for example take a UK touring holiday
Some advantages:
  1. No parking costs
  2. No parking fines
  3. No speeding tickets
  4. No congestion charges/restrictions
  5. No breakdowns, punctures or maintenance to deal with
  6. No admin: tax, insurance, MoT of the Polo
  7. No petrol station trips
  8. No hassles in the event of a minor shunt, dealing with insurers etc
  9. No theft or vandalism of the Polo to deal with
  10. Stress free travel, you are being chauffeured everywhere now!
  11. No parking outside of your house/fighting with neighbours over spaces issues.
Disadvantages:
  1. You might need to travel off peak to save money/get a short notice booking
  2. The taxi interior might not meet your standards for cleanliness
The bloke over the road from my parents sold his car and went down this route. He had no regrets. Do the arithmetic, it might make sense for you too.
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That sounds a great idea.. but a few years ago I injured myself and relied on taxis for over 3 months
It was great until one day I couldn't get a taxi for over 2 hours to get home, it happened again a few weeks later. I rang all the local firms in desperation, but still ended up doing the wait.
 
Darth Vader said:
I am surprised at this thread as in retirement you need a stash to draw on from time to time over the years. A new car may not be one of them. As time goes on things/situations and priorities change.

DV
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It’s more that I’ve never needed to own my own car and my wife had always ringfenced an
set amount each month to finance her own car ownership. That includes the purchase cost of her next car.

We have index linked pensions and a stash of savings so the amount she attributes to that can approach could easily continue.

What I hadn’t considered before reading responses to this thread is that if you aim to have ringfenced £30,000 in ten years time, you end up spending it. Indeed that’s probably why she has the car she has now. It was the best new red car her budget could stretch to.

I’ve got a few years to nudge her in another direction.
 
Steve 57 said:
That sounds a great idea.. but a few years ago I injured myself and relied on taxis for over 3 months
It was great until one day I couldn't get a taxi for over 2 hours to get home, it happened again a few weeks later. I rang all the local firms in desperation, but still ended up doing the wait.
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That’s the situation my dad’s in. He’s not driving after writing a car off a couple of years ago. Thought taxis would be fine. Bloody nightmare. Trying to get him to have some refresher sessions with a driving instructor but seems reluctant. Time to move into town and be able to walk to everything really.
 
Cars will absorb as much cash as you are prepared/ daft enough to throw at them.
I'm fairly confident that my present 18 year old Civic will continue to run smoothly for another 5-10 years. I'm less confident I'll do the same.
Mrs Mull's last car lasted her 15 years and I found her a spotless Fabia 1 as replacement for less than £2k
The interesting thing to me is that reliability doesn't seem dependent on age. I've had as many issues with new purchases as s/h.
I'd keep the VW and find an independent VW specialist to keep it serviced as already observed above.
Mrs Mull is beginning to talk about giving up driving, so we may go down to one car.
OTOH, if both cars died tomorrow I'm confident I'd find something adequate for a couple of grand.
If Mrs Red VW is intent on having top of the range motors even through retirement...all bets are off.
 
Ultimately if you can afford to drive a nice car & want to then don't fret about it. Retirement should be enjoyable, don't do what my granddad did, died at 95 with £100K in his current account. We can often spend so much time acquiring money that we forget to actually spend it.
 
Woodface said:
Ultimately if you can afford to drive a nice car & want to then don't fret about it. Retirement should be enjoyable, don't do what my granddad did, died at 95 with £100K in his current account. We can often spend so much time acquiring money that we forget to actually spend it.
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i keep reminding my wife of that :D
 
Ponty said:
That’s the situation my dad’s in. He’s not driving after writing a car off a couple of years ago. Thought taxis would be fine. Bloody nightmare. Trying to get him to have some refresher sessions with a driving instructor but seems reluctant. Time to move into town and be able to walk to everything really.
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I've not driven for about 25 years as I live in the city centre. Trying to book some refresher lessons so I can ferry ageing parents about and I'm being quoted October !
 
When we retire in about 3 years, we plan to go down to 1 car, probably an EV, as range will mostly not be an issue. If we need to drive to the far end of the country, we will get a rental for a week. Selling the existing cars will finance about half an EV, we will have to use part of my pension lump sum to buy the EV. EVs are expected to be long lived, and we won't use it for large mileages, so there is every chance that we will stop driving before it wears out. In particular, I doubt I will drive much after I am 70, but my wife will probably carry on for longer.
 
PigletsDad said:
When we retire in about 3 years, we plan to go down to 1 car, probably an EV, as range will mostly not be an issue. If we need to drive to the far end of the country, we will get a rental for a week. Selling the existing cars will finance about half an EV, we will have to use part of my pension lump sum to buy the EV. EVs are expected to be long lived, and we won't use it for large mileages, so there is every chance that we will stop driving before it wears out. In particular, I doubt I will drive much after I am 70, but my wife will probably carry on for longer.
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Don’t rule out using the EV for longer journeys. I’ve just arranged a swap of my Zoe for a Fiat which will charge twice as fast. My next long journey is St Albans from Rochdale. I’m expecting to get there in two stops, one whilst I charge and eat and the second whilst I have a coffee. Each one will take about 30 minutes. If you plan carefully, use Osprey. Instavolt, Fastned or MF-UK chargers which seem to be the most reliable, it shouldn’t be difficult.
 
Lordsummit, it is not just range. For day to day use, a moderate size car will be fine. But as we have two dogs, long trips involve space for travel crates, dog beds and so on, so we need an estate car or SUV. But if we only do that twice a year, why run a big and expensive car the rest of the time?
 
Fair enough! So much nonsense talked about EVs, and I’ve seen my share on here, I do try to point out it’s nowhere near as difficult as some would make out.
 
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