Tag Archives: cost of motoring

cost of motoring, motoring tips

2017 Motoring Resolutions – Spend Less, Spend Wisely

Photo acknowledgement to Scott Webb/Unsplash

This blog has been written by Claire Jones-Hughes of BrightonMums.com.

“On a drive back from a meeting in Maidstone home to Brighton, my Peugeot 308 started to lose power.

There were some rumblings in the engine, it didn’t stall, just restricted the speed to around 55mph with limited ability to accelerate.

Now I do know enough about my car to look after it, get it serviced (which I do regularly) and fixed but I had a worrying suspicion this might be the turbo and feared the worst for the bank balance.

I made it home safely and messaged a diesel-driving (male) friend for advice. It could be a turbo pipeline blockage; it could be the whole thing that has failed. And even visiting my reliable, female-friendly local garage M J B Motors, I was still looking at a pretty packet. And it did need replacing. Ouch!

Could this turbo expense have been avoided?

Although it’s not unusual for turbos to need replacing after a while, especially on cars over 7-years old or after a certain mileage, I now realise there are things I could have done to defer this expense.

Now, I’m not one for making resolutions but in an effort to sort out family finances during 2017, I am embarking on a ‘buy nothing’ or ‘minimalism’ lifestyle to make a difference. This means looking at what we spend your money on and finding ways to cut back, cut things out, mend and repair rather than replace or find stuff you need second-hand or free.

I need the car for work and family errands (visiting my 94-year old grandmother regularly for example), so it has to stay. However, when I read Steph’s earlier motoring resolutions at this blog, it inspired me to make my own in order to use the car more effectively.

So here are some of my commitments for 2017.

1. Don’t run the tank down empty. This most certainly has an impact on the engine and how much residual dirt my 2009 Peugeot pulls through from it’s old tank. This is one of my worse habits as a ‘juggle-mama’.

2. Clean the car inside and out. Shamefully I rarely do. As a business-owner and mum-of-two, this always gets shelved and it’s a luxury to pay someone to do this. Taking care of the paintwork will help prevent corrosion. Taking care of the inside upholstery means if we ever sell the car, it’s likely to be more desirable to buy but also comfortable for us to use. It’s already in fairly good condition but now is the time to start better cleaning habits.

3. Check oil and tyres regularly. During Tyre Safety Month 2016, Steph showed me the 20p check, so there’s no excuse not to check the tread. Especially as we don’t use the car as much as when I was commuting 35 miles a day. Making sure there is enough and regularly clean oil simply helps the engine live happily for longer…

4. Routinely check my mirrors, windows and headlamps for dirt before I set off on journeys. Especially during the winter months, these can get dirty, potentially obscuring vision. Usually I notice this 300 yards down the road, pull over and wipe. What a faff!

5. Re-introduce the eco-driving practices I learned on the Energy Savings Trust course years ago. Especially as I’m stuck with a now controversial diesel car, this is more important than ever until we can afford to buy a new car run on cleaner energy. The last time I did this consistently, I increased the fuel economy by an extra 5 miles to the gallon. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it helps!

What could you do different to drive more economically, eco-friendly or cost-effectively this year?”
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FOXY Footnote:

Thank you Claire. As you explain so well, most of us have learned the wisdom of regular car maintenance and servicing the hard way.

And now we know better, it’s amazing to hear how many motorists still don’t know how to look after their car and why this affects its reliability and their family safety.

We can only hope that when Club members need to buy a used car in future they can find one that’s been owned by a responsible motorist like you that knows the drill rather than one that evidently doesn’t care. In our experience, if a car has been neglected it’ll return that favour in big bills – we call this carma-nomics haha…

cost of motoring

Driving down fuel costs

Did you know it’s LiftShare Week from 1st to 5th October? It’s the nationwide event aiming to encourage and enable more people to discover the benefits of car-sharing – which in turn drives down petrol costs. Everyone wins!

You can see more information on www.liftshare.com, a great site where you can register to share car journeys and reduce your carbon footprint.

For employers and community organisations:

Awareness of car-sharing reaches a peak during LiftShare Week, so it’s a great time to promote a car-share scheme which can help your organisation in the following ways:

Save money in car park management
Increase accessibility and lessen social exclusion
Impress staff and followers with your green credentials
Meet corporate social responsibilities
Achieve CO2 reduction targets
Meet travel plan targets
Plan business continuity
Increase employment catchment areas

If you already have a liftshare scheme in place, well done and don’t forget that Liftshare Week is the perfect opportunity to promote it either internally to staff and colleagues, or externally to people in your area.

And you can feel good about what you’re doing too!

For individual motorists:

Here are five things you should consider about car-sharing:

1. It can save you a lot of money on petrol/diesel costs.
2. It helps lower your carbon footprint.
3. It makes boring solo journeys sociable and fun – unless of course you’re grumpy first thing in the morning, then maybe not!
4. It reduces stress by letting someone else drive.
5. You don’t need a car to sign up. Many scheme members are willing to do the driving in return for a contribution to their fuel costs and some friendly company.

FOXY says: with petrol prices still too high, Liftshare Week is the ideal time for foxy lady drivers (who aren’t doing this already) to try car-sharing for the first time.

And who knows, you might make some great new friends along the way!

FOXY

PS: With thanks to LiftShare for this information.

women's car insurance

The downside to a multiple vehicle insurance policy

I thought I knew all about multiple vehicle car insurance policies but I clearly didn’t. We are now unable to get our 18 year old son insured for less than £2500 per annum on a car worth c£1k.

For many years I have recommended the benefits of multiple vehicle motor insurance policies to others (by word of mouth to friends I hasten to add, FSA) but I have just discovered a downside that I certainly was not aware of until recently.

My husband and I change our family car ‘fleet’ quite often; his hobby is restoring cars. Some stay SORN’d for ages and others come and go at whim. This is rarely a profitable activity I hasten to add…

Which is why a multiple vehicle policy makes best sense for us because we aren’t driving them all at the same time and the risk is therefore reduced on each. All we have to do is phone our insurance broker to say add or remove one and we pay an amendment fee of £20 plus any premium adjustment.

So far so good. Until we come to insure our 18 year old son who is learning to drive this summer. The plan was for him to have c20 hours of paid for lessons plus a further 20 hours of driving with Mum or Dad. Job done we imagined…

But our multiple vehicle insurer doesn’t insure motorists under 25, full stop. And I can understand why of course and I should be pleased if our premiums reflect this, but that’s small beer when this affects me personally…

And if I then extract a low cost vehicle (2001 Citroen) from our multiple car insurance policy to insure Mum (with full NCB) and son elsewhere, I cannot carry any No Claims Bonus with me because it’s being used by our existing insurer. The end result is that to insure us both on a car worth c£1000 it’ll cost something like £2500 for the year with a compulsory £400 excess on any claim.

So, to get our son through the test it’s going to be cheaper for him to have another 20 lessons @ c£480 (AA Driving School rates – we’ve already claimed FOXY’s £36 discount from the first batch of 12) or to shop around for the cheapest driving instructor… which seems to defeat the purpose of choosing the AA Driving School for a fully qualified instructor. And then we start again, looking for car insurance quotes when he has a full license and hopefully will have a part time job to contribute to the cost.

Do we have any other choices? Please tell me if you know better.

To drive uninsured isn’t an option of course, but I’m not surprised to read that others break the rules here. Nor am I shocked to see young drivers actively clawing back the outlay in terms of accident claims (as per the recent Panorama TV programme).

Is this the best way to do it insurers? Shouldn’t you be investing in educating young drivers under 25 not simply washing your hands of them? And to think this will get even worse for female motorists come December 2012.

I’d like to think the motor industry is discussing a better strategy to insure young drivers. But I’m not holding my breath.

FOXY

women

Are floating voters foxy Focus females?

Forget ‘Essex Girl’, ‘Worcester Women’ and ‘Asda Mums’ the latest election target is ‘Focus Female’ because, allegedly, she drives a Ford Focus, according to recent research by the AA.

With 3 out of 4 female motorists (who are AA members) saying that motoring issues are very or quite important re who they will vote for in the election, this large group of ‘undecideds’ offer a powerful lure for the party that sets out to woo them.

An AA/Populus survey of c15k AA members found that women drivers were more concerned than men about the cost of motoring, drink and drug-driving, and road safety. These were sentiments largely echoed by younger drivers.

According to the AA this is what a Focus Female looks like…

  • Juggles work / life – uses car to go to work, gym, take kids to school, visit mum and to go to Waitrose
  • Has more concern for road safety – more willing to support tough driver sanctions such as lower drink drive limit
  • Listens to BBC Radio 2 and would ring Chris Evans show to say what wheels she is driving
  • She will have numerous store loyalty cards in her handbag / glove box
  • Ambitious and career minded – keen to progress up the company ladder
  • She keeps her car clean and tidy and won’t tolerate smoking inside it
  • She drives a Ford Focus and aspires towards a premium sector cabriolet car
  • Enjoys an Italian meal with girl friends and will split the bill

Sounds a lot like members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

FOXY

women drivers

ACTONCO2 waste taxpayers money to blame women drivers

I can’t imagine it’s just me that feels irritated by the latest ActonCO2 advertising campaign stating ‘Drive five miles less a week by combining your journeys’.

Not only is this patronising message costing taxpayers millions to promote but it’s obvious that ACTONCO2 thinks male and female motorists are stupid enough to be driving unnecessary miles in the UK and are not capable of working this elementary statement out for ourselves.

Now I might run FOXY Lady Drivers Club, a life assistance motoring club for women, but that doesn’t mean I use my car any more than I absolutely have to, but sometimes I absolutely have to…

On New Year’s Eve, for example, I had some last minute envelopes to post after business so I walked to our local post box and arrived five minutes before the post should have been collected by Royal Mail. I then found that it had been collected early.  So I had to go home, get the car and drive to the nearest Post Office for a 6pm collection.

And last night our 16 year old son travelled by bus and train to our nearest town (c8m as the crow flies) to go to the cinema there with some friends. His return train was cancelled, he then missed the last bus and Dad had to get the car out to collect him.

With a non existent regular bus or train service in our rural situation, what should I have done in these two instances and many more like them? Perhaps I should have blamed the Royal Mail (fat chance) and failed to carry out my business promises to customers or told my son to risk walking home at midnight ‘to act on CO2’…

Last night on TV I caught one of the ActonCO2 ads on TV that told me motorists were the transport bad guys – this might have been featured many times before as I am not a regular ITV watcher. And in today’s Sunday Telegraph an ad accuses women drivers of driving five miles more than we need to. Of course it doesn’t say ‘this is for silly women drivers’ but which is the more likely gender to ‘collect kids’ ‘go to ‘Dry Cleaners’, ‘visit the Chemist’, ‘John’s house’ or ‘Grandma’ as their half page and again very expensive ad so helpfully maps out? That’s my point.

To me these journeys are the essence of what many community Mums do in their busy week, often fitting in part time work, emergency shopping, community good works and multiple children drop offs as well. We need our cars.

As you can see I am fed up with being told what I can or cannot do with my car that I already pay heavily to run. Like most other women drivers, I am not stupid, just a responsible motorist trying to manage a family budget that includes my car.

With the cost of motoring so high already, and on the up again thanks to the new rate of VAT for starters, I do not need anyone preaching at me, especially when it is they who are wasting OUR scarce financial resources to make motorists feel guilty when we have no choice but to drive in typical everyday lives.

Before we know it, everywhere will be like Brighton, the least friendly British city for motorists and one I avoid whenever I can for that very reason…

Please HM Government’s DfT do something constructive with OUR marketing money instead of preaching at us.

To fulfil your green agenda, why not promote FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s free car fitness checks including emissions?

Or explain to women drivers the safety, reliability and CO2 implications of having your car serviced regularly and by a garage that is good enough to do the job professionally and at a fair price.  So many cars have gone without servicing in 2009 for financial reasons…

At least this would be a positive message for a change and could do the motor industry some good as a consequence.

FOXY

“I am only one but I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something”.