Do you drive?

[507021]

I passed my test when I was 17, although that was for automatics only. I finally passed my manual test when I was 21, at the moment I drive a 2003 Renault Laguna 1.9 dCi (since May last year) which has been very reliable and a pleasure to own.

 

[Calthrop]

I don’t drive – never have. Except -- in late adolescence I had some tuition –both formal, and “in-“: have driven cars under supervision, in those circumstances. Concluded that it’s an activity for which I lack any aptitude whatsoever, and gave up on the whole thing – have never in fact taken a driving test. There are ways in which I feel that it could have been an advantage for me; but on the whole, I suspect that how things have worked out, has been best and safest for all concerned.

 

[Domh245]

I passed my test last year, but insuring my own car would be prohibitively expensive as a young driver, so I just drive my parents' cars. And besides, I don't really need one when I am at uni, so there is no point anyway.

 

[33056]

Though I am going off on a tangent a bit, I know a couple of people who can drive trains (on the mainline) but not cars. I wonder how common that is...!

I worked at a traincrew depot (freight) around 20 years ago and can instantly think of at least half a dozen drivers from the 40 to 50 based there that couldn't drive cars.

I guess that it would not be so common in this day and age as (correct me if I'm wrong) that having a (road) driving licence is a requirement for being employed by most FOCs; except for drivers who have been there since BR days.

 

[Butts]

I had a V70 2.5 auto a few years ago, got it to 155mph in Germany So I can verify it goes as stated!

I've now a 206 1.4 HDI as I was until recently doing 150 mile round trips each day I needed something cheap to run, now I'm down to around 30 mile round trips. Its doing around 65mpg, and £30 a year tax.

What was it like driving at 155mph ? - was anyone flashing to overtake you

I once hired a Porsche Boxster and drove down the M9 with the hood down and my adult son in it at 140mph...sheer exhiliration but a bit ****tish :roll:

My mode of Transport is now a "Muppet Wagon" - Peugeot 107
Use it for work when no PT available. £20 Tax and good MPG.

 

[me123]

My mode of Transport is now a "Muppet Wagon" - Peugeot 107
Use it for work when no PT available. £20 Tax and good MPG.

If it's anything like its cousin the Toyota Aygo, then it's a bloody brilliant little car! Low running costs, and it's really good fun to drive. I had an Aygo for a few years and it was a pretty good car. Its wee 1l engine kept up with all traffic moving at any reasonable speed (maybe not the 100mph+ brigade). I'll admit to accidentally getting it up to just shy of 100mph on the A74(M), not that I'd recommend that of course.

 

[richw]

What was it like driving at 155mph ? - was anyone flashing to overtake you

I once hired a Porsche Boxster and drove down the M9 with the hood down and my adult son in it at 140mph...sheer exhiliration but a bit ****tish :roll:

My mode of Transport is now a "Muppet Wagon" - Peugeot 107
Use it for work when no PT available. £20 Tax and good MPG.

It was at night, despite the no limit on the autobahn the traffic meant doing much more than 100 wasn't possible in day. It felt alright but volvos are Well built. I had a Saab 9-5 3.0 V6 diesel after which I sold to fund my wedding and the Volvo was better at 155, than the Saab at 125. It actually turned a good time to sell the Saab, it was a month or so before they went bust. Second hand Book price nearly halved when it went bust.

The 107 is probably quicker than my 206, the little diesel lacks power (68bhp, most is once the turbo kicks in)

 

[Butts]

If it's anything like its cousin the Toyota Aygo, then it's a bloody brilliant little car! Low running costs, and it's really good fun to drive. I had an Aygo for a few years and it was a pretty good car. Its wee 1l engine kept up with all traffic moving at any reasonable speed (maybe not the 100mph+ brigade). I'll admit to accidentally getting it up to just shy of 100mph on the A74(M), not that I'd recommend that of course.

Yes me and my son have had it from "Nearly New" (pre-registered). Although it is coming up to 6 years old it has never broken down, 2 sets wipers and tyres all around is all that has been spent on it. Passed 3 MOT's in a row with nothing needing doing although Front Discs/Pads advisory on recent MOT.

Have you moved from Livingston to "Taffland" permanently ?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

About 75% of my mileage is on the fortnightly Tesco run... 7½ miles each way.

Chances are I'll simply cease when the car eventually falls to bits ( it's a December 1996 registered one... ) as I couldn't possibly justify replacement for the mileage I do.

 

[me123]

Have you moved from Livingston to "Taffland" permanently ?

Working here for two or three years in the lland that vowels forgot. The "why" is a bit of a long story. After that, I'll have to see what happens!

 

[90019]

I drive both at work and at home.
I've had a car licence since early 2009, class 2 HGV since 2011 and bus licence since 2012, though it's the bus licence I use at work.

Just the one car just currently, a 2002 1.2 Polo that we've had for about 8 years.
I usually have two cars, but since moving earlier this year I don't have space for a second one (technically I don't even have space for one) and don't do much mileage anymore as work is a 15 minute walk away.
I'm attempting to buy one of the old Transit Connects from work, but I don't know if/when the next lot will get sold off. They're generally crap, but will be very cheap and parts don't cost much.

 

[Busaholic]

Took up driving as a 40 minute alternative to what took two hours by train, involving two changes, all to be repeated going home. Only ever had two new cars, the second of which I still have five years down the line, an absolute bottom-of-the-range Clio, not even a CD player and air con involves leaving the window open, but 70,000 miles later I've had no problems with it. Driven about 600,000 miles by my estimation these last 35 years but still like public transport, particularly on my London trips.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Currently learning to drive. It's worth it for me as it turns a 45 minute commute on the buses into a 10 minute one.

 

[Starmill]

It would not be a good use of very limited money to pay for driving lessons, because even if I did get a full licence, there's very little chance of being able to afford to drive a car.

Mostly I am happy to use public transport, but it is usually slower and much much less reliable than driving myself would be. Paradoxically, I often wish I had a car for long journeys because it would be cheaper and easier than trying to jump through the necessary hoops to make long train journeys affordably. Finally I'm concerned about carbon emissions and the negative effects if air pollution, and I think too many people drive where they do have the choice not to, which contributes to these problems and makes the alternative public transport less viable. Therefore even if I did drive and could afford a car which I was satisfied with (such as an electric car or the most efficient hybrid), I would not use it where public transport or walking were a viable alternative.

 

[Nella52]

I drive, though mostly only to work, the supermarket and occasionally to visit friends/relatives.
When the car went in for a service earlier in the year and they kept it longer than I expected (needed a part which they didn't have in stock), just the journey to work involved two buses followed by a ten minute walk :roll:.
I would probably ditch the car if we had decent public transport. I tend to let the train take the strain for longer journeys, short breaks in the UK, etc.

 

[WestCoast]

Therefore even if I did drive and could afford a car which I was satisfied with (such as an electric car or the most efficient hybrid), I would not use it where public transport or walking were a viable alternative.

I can drive but don't own a car at the moment on cost grounds and I really enjoy walking. My pet peeve is when industrial units, supermarkets and the like have poor pedestrian or bicycle access, everything revolves around the cars. I often find this at out-of-town retail parks.

I recently walked from Manchester Airport to the Airport's Viewing Park as they offer free entry to those arriving by bus or on foot, even promoting the latter as an option. Let's just say that parts of the route are very much not safe for pedestrians. It's just the fact that you can tell no one has thought about pedestrians when they opened the facility, despite the fact there is probably room to build a path.

 

[90019]

Therefore even if I did drive and could afford a car which I was satisfied with (such as an electric car or the most efficient hybrid).

The majority of a cars emissions come from the production and destruction, so if you really want to be green, buy an old (pre common rail) diesel and run it on used veg oil.

 

[richw]

The majority of a cars emissions come from the production and destruction, so if you really want to be green, buy an old (pre common rail) diesel and run it on used veg oil.

A early mid 90s Peugeot 306 1.9 d (non turbo) I can confirm runs well on used veg oil. Did so with my old one about 8-9 years ago when running on veg oil was the big thing.

 

[90019]

The XUD in the 306 is fine on veg oil, though you want the Bosch fuel pump, as the Lucas one doesn't cope very well with it.
The HDi in the newer 306s won't run on it.

 

[richw]

Mine had the Bosch. It had over 400k on the clock as well, I bought it for less than scrap value from a dealer who took it in as part ex, it had 10 months MOT, and it lasted me until the MOT expired.

(I did the thing Clarkson spoke of when he did the £100 challenge in an old Volvo, to get it so cheap)

 

[Whistlekiller]

I've been driving on a full licence since 1981 and have covered well in excess of one million miles on the roads since, particularly during the intensive period 1989-2012. I have two cars and a van which get shared out to my eldest daughter and my wife as required. I rarely use public transport as it would be next to useless with the stuff I have to carry around (I own a fishing tackle company and fish regularly) and a lot of the places I go are remote from trains and buses.

The only exception to this is when I'm on holiday in Menorca or when I visit London on non-fishing matters, in which case I use the TfL system when there, having driven down first. Fares on the trains from Scunthorpe to London are ridiculously high compared to what I pay for the diesel in the van or petrol in the cars, and even more so if we travel down as a family.

Re: the Volvo V70 as mentioned up-thread.....I had one of the rare V70R AWD models for a few years which I'd had modified a bit. It developed 365bhp and was easily capable of out accelerating and outrunning most cars, including the more well known speed-mobiles. 155mph was no problem.

 

[Blamethrower]

Been driving 22 years

Always had my own car apart from when borrowing parents.

I now have a company Merc, but I had to pay over 3k to get out of my old finance agreement.

I will never buy a new car ever again. My circumstances change too much in order to commit to 1 car for 3 - 4 years. I get bored with them pretty quickly, or they break, so I'm going back to buying nails for under a grand.

Old cars = fewer driver aids, manual gearboxes, amazing value for money if you get a good one.

 

[Crossover]

Passed my test within 5 months of turning 17 and then used it mostly locally driving one of my parents' cars. I started with longer distance driving when I got a placement with a motorway service station operator and wouldn't have got the job had I not had a licence!

I didn't have a car at uni - no need as everything was within walking/bus distance locally and the railway station wasn't far away either (in my final year, I actually never used a bus in my uni town once!) but occasionally got lifts from those who did have a car.

These days I am a car owner (a VW Golf TDi) as work is a 23 mile each way commute and whilst theoretically possible by train, wouldn't get me there in time even leaving home an hour earlier than I do in the car)
That said, I do use public transport where practical for other trips - have attended events in Manchester for work and have gone over by train and next week will be travelling to Ashchurch for Tewkesbury station to visit a satellite office nearby and that will also be by train - much less knackering and I can be getting on with things during the journey, though it leaves me a little inflexible at the other end in terms of being stuck in a hotel in an industrial estate rather than being able to get into the town centre easily

 

[richw]

I will never buy a new car ever again. My circumstances change too much in order to commit to 1 car for 3 - 4 years. I get bored with them pretty quickly, or they break, so I'm going back to buying nails for under a grand.

Old cars = fewer driver aids, manual gearboxes, amazing value for money if you get a good one.

I have the same opinion now. I was lucky to be past mid term so voluntary surrendered on my last HP with no further come back, It suffered catastrophic engine failure, and wasn't economic to repair.
my 206 cost me £1500, my Seat before that £1100

 

[Kite159]

I learnt to drive in an old Austin Metro on private land so I was in a good place to pass my test within a couple months of my 17th birthday.

Very useful at getting to college at the time as it saved a long bus detour and a mile walk. Where in theory I could use public transport to reach my place of work it involves a large detour via Andover and a walk from the camp gates to the kitchen

 

[Minilad]

I passed my driving test on a Routemaster bus!
I have been driving since 1987 and currently have 2 cars. I could not function without one due to work times. Having said that I use the train to work when work times allow and I cycle or walk to the station which is around a mile and a half from my house.

 

[Cowley]

The majority of a cars emissions come from the production and destruction, so if you really want to be green, buy an old (pre common rail) diesel and run it on used veg oil.

I'm glad this has been mentioned. My van is now 13 years old and absolutely fine and my wife's car (VW Touran tdi) is 12 years old and really good.

The governments 10 year old car scrappage scheme was ridiculous, especially when you see how many old cars are on the roads still down here. All the scheme did was boost the production of new cars and send many cars that still had plenty of life left in them to scrapyards.
I'm not having it that building a Prious or something similar is better for the environment than running an already existing car for a bit longer.

Both our vehicles are common rail so no option of running on veg oil, a friend of mine tried running his Merc Sprinter on 'bio diesel'. £950 worth of repair bills later he went back to using normal diesel!

 

[Clip]

that is why mine went. It was sat on the drive doing nothing other than soaking up monies!

Dont get me worng I will miss it but ive been using the other halfs more and more of late so whats the point in having one of my own. Mind oyu she doesnt like the lingering smell when I come back from fishing that i leave in it - no doubt shell make me get another once shes had enough

 

[cactustwirly]

Sort of, I turned 17 in April and I'm currently learning.
I practice on my mum's Fiat 500

 

[EssexGonzo]

Well, we've two cars in the family, a 15 yo Audi A2 in the family 11 years and a 12 yo Honda Jazz, in the family since new. Relatively old tech, no DPFs or DMFs like the modern engines. Both unfailingly reliable and both surprisingly roomy. Shared between 2 parents and 2 teenage/young adult offspring.

Cars are essential for us - our family is flung far and wide. We both work in London so they're not needed for that.

Until last year, I was always a company car driver the last one being an Audi A6. Having got rid of it when I left the last job and just using the older cars has been somewhat liberating. No longer am I spending hundreds of pounds a month on depreciation and nor do I care about car park dings.

Not having a massively depreciating car on the drive was a lightbulb moment for us. Yes, I missed a posh car at first but the thousands we've saved have gone into property - improving our main house and buying an investment property to let. Far more satisfying than feeling you have to drive around a car to impress other (at least in part).