|
|
This topic comprises 9 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
|
|
Author
|
Topic: What car do you drive?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
|
posted 05-10-2003 02:58 PM
I don't have a car. I drove a 1967 Morris 1100 from 1978 to 1983, mainly because my mother insisted I learn to drive to take her to various local places. I hated driving, was doing about ten miles per month, and tax, insurance etc. was costing a fortune.
When mother and car both expired within a few months of each other, in late 1983, I stopped driving, and have never regretted it.
For short journeys, up to about three miles, I walk, unless the weather is very bad, or I am carrying something heavy. Longer journeys I usually go by bus, occasionaly by train, if there isn't a bus then I generally don't go.
I have never needed a car for work, and there is plenty of public transport in London, where I live. If I lived in the large part of the country which has little or no public transport, or I had a family, then a car would probably be a necessity, but I don't, so it isn't.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 05-10-2003 06:08 PM
My first car: a hand me down 64 VW beetle. Engine broke down on a trip to L.A. (I dont even WANT to go there!) BUT, it DID have over 200,000 miles on it. My FUNNEST experience was when the brake pedal assembly broke on me while abo8ut to cross a major intersection that was feding off the end of a freeway. Fortunately, the light was GREEN!
Second car: a 62 VW Beetle. FAR fewer miles on it. Used it for a bit.
Third car: An 84 Mustang. I bought this used from those rental car resales. Had 37,000 miles when I bought it. Had 137,000 miles when it was totalled in a wreck as I was leaving work. I learneed a lesson. NEVER take the first settlement offer the party-to-blame's insurance company offers.
Fourth (and current car): A 93 Toyota Corolla. My first brand new car. Put $12,000 down and enjoyed 66 dollar monthly payments. Over 110,000 miles on it. I still like this car.
My next car will probably be a Toyota gas-electric hybrid. Living in a targeted dirty air zone, I can get both a Federal AND a state rebate totalling $4000.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 05-12-2003 02:22 AM
In the UK there are heavy tax breaks on liquid petroleum gas (LPG) - at UK£0.40 per litre, it's roughly half the cost of normal unleaded petrol, because the government are trying to encourage its use to be environmentally friendly. As I'm quite a high mileage driver (15-20k miles a year) I looked into getting my car converted to run LPG and did the sums.
They did not really add up. It would cost me £1,300 to get the car converted. I spent roughly £1,700 on petrol last year, so I would potentially make a saving of £850 a year on fuel costs. So really I'd need to keep the car for a year and a half in order to recover the costs of the conversion.
Set against which, I have an older car (a '91 Fiat Tempra with 170k miles on the clock) which, if it goes seriously wrong, would be uneconomic to repair. I've always tended to buy older cars for around £1-2k on the basis that new ones cost you a staggering amount in depreciation costs (and a significant amount more in insurance costs), which you can completely cut out that way. The drawback is that you need to do a lot of your own maintenance in order to avoid spending most of the money you save on depreciation on servicing costs.
If I had a newer car I would think carefully about an LPG conversion but as it is, it seems silly to invest £1,300 in what is essentially a worthless asset. At the moment, the car is very reliable with oil and filter changes every 5k miles (which I do myself) and an annual visit to the garage where any jobs which are beyond my capability get done. But when things get to the point at which it starts eating hundreds of pounds in maintenance costs, I shall simply get rid of it and buy another well-serviced saloon or hatchback in the 80-100k miles bracket.
Two other things which make me cagey about LPG are (i) there are only a small number of filling stations which currently sell it, and (ii) there are significant tax breaks on LPG at present, but that might not always be the case. In the '70s and '80s when it was only really commercial vehicles that used the stuff, Diesel was a lot cheaper (mile for mile) than petrol. Then when private cars started using Diesel in significant numbers, the tax shot up, with the result that it is now effectively the same price as petrol. If significant numbers of vehicles start using LPG and the chancellor's fuel duty revenue starts to decrease, I can see him removing the tax break without a second thought, thus wiping out the investment that people have made on an LPG conversion.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 9 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[beer]](graemlins/beer.gif)
![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic