Author Topic: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?  (Read 1583 times)

gunwharfman

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I'm one of those people who dithered when I shouldn't have. I should have sold my car last year or before that but didn't.

I have a 7 seater diesel car which is now practically worthless in terms of a sale and nowadays I hardly ever use it. I'm retired, I live in a flat city, I have a bus pass, I can walk, the train station is 500yds away, I have a bike - I no longer need a car but I just can't bring myself, at the moment to just 'give it away!'

I'm hoping for some creative ideas as to how to continue to make good use of it? For example, I've offered it free of charge to my niece and her family (they own a medium saloon) if they want to go a motoring holiday. I've said that all I want is for me to start off with them,  they drop me off somewhere so I can hike and then agree to pick me up on their way back. She emailed me this morning saying that they have decided, due to the uncertainty of Brexit they are keeping their spending to an absolute minimum for the rest of this year. That's fair enough, I know lots of folk doing this, they worry they will have lots to lose if it all goes pear shaped.

Another suggestion is that I advertise in my local Tesco's and offer my car to take local off-road runners out to the areas where I run, at no cost to them because I'm already going there myself anyway, but to have a charity container onboard where they can, if they want to, drop in a 50p or £1 a journey. I'm a person who has had his Prostate removed by the Da Vinci Robot, that for me would be the charity that I'd give the money to.

One of my neighbours and his mate each have a BMW motorbike and they use them once a year. They tow their two bikes to the south of France, stay in a hotel, take rides out and eat drink and be merry. I'm thinking of suggesting that if they drop me off somewhere and pick me up later they can use my car instead of their own. As the mate said, nothing worse than having a towing bracket on the back of his Mercedes, people might think he owns a towing caravan! He's just a male Mrs Bucket!

I'm just trying to come up with a workable idea? I have no wish to make any money out of it, I just want my car to be used in a constructive way. Any ideas, please?

richardh1905

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #1 on: 12:46:20, 04/07/19 »

Just get rid of it, gwm.


And would this topic not be better off in the Hiker's Bar - it is hardly walking related? Just saying. :)
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Owen

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #2 on: 13:29:57, 04/07/19 »
Why do you say it's worthless? Does it have a MOT? Is it still running or not?


If it has a MOT and still runs then sell it. If not scrap it. I really don't understand your problem.

tonyk

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #3 on: 14:19:22, 04/07/19 »
 Scrap it.It should fetch around £250.If you were doing charity type runs you would need public liability insurance and perhaps a PSV licence.A load of hassel for nothing and you won't get any thanks.

BuzyG

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #4 on: 16:12:31, 04/07/19 »
Sounds like it is time to get rid.  Noble ideas are one thing.  Unfortunately red tape and reality tend to get in the way of them.  :(

ninthace

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #5 on: 16:54:01, 04/07/19 »
Trade it in for an electric car - ideal runabout for Portsmouth and beyond. I got a good deal when I traded in my 7 year old diesel.
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Petrolhead

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #6 on: 09:47:22, 05/07/19 »
Rip all the seats out and turn it into a camper. :)

gunwharfman

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #7 on: 10:14:38, 05/07/19 »
Funnily enough, I did this in the 60s. When I finished university (I saved as much money as I could as I worked as well, cherry picking was very lucrative in those days) and I owned (in reality it was on hire purchase) a Morris 1000 car and took the back seats out and stowed the passenger seat behind my driver's seat. I had a folding bit of wood which was my bed base on the empty passenger side, I also stowed that behind my driver's seat when not in use. The open area was where I stored everything else. My mum pleaded for me not to go but I was young!

I then drove to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, back to Stockholm and Oslo picking up all sorts of hitchhikers en route. Just put the passenger seat back in held with a couple of wingnuts.  Lots of Americans and Canadians thumbing it in those days and I remember it as a wonderful time of my life! I tried to drive north to get to the Arctic Circle but because of snow, I turned around and then decided that I wanted to go to Greece. I got as far as Trieste and the Yugoslav authorities would not let any young person over the border unless we had our long hair cut there and then! Of course, I said NO WAY! Even today, all these years later, I've never been to Greece.

By now I was running out of money so decided to turn around and go back home. I lived on 'bread and water' rations before I made it back. I remember that Morris car with so much affection, it was a grubby white colour and it never let me down once. I also kept in touch with three people that I had picked up on the road for years afterwards. They are all dead now, I still find it odd knowing that I've outlived them and so many other people from my past.

ninthace

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #8 on: 10:36:21, 05/07/19 »
Those were heady days.  Our first trip to the south of France was in 1961. Dad had a 1950 Morris Minor, split screen with a 750 side valve engine. Top speed with a following wind was 55 mph.  They had not long since stopped using a crane to get cars on and off the ferry and there were no motorways in France then.  We drove more or less due south from Dunkirk to St Raphael, crossing the Alps in the process.  The whole trip took two and half days and we camped every night. Mum wouldn’t let dad stop in the mountains in case there were “brigands”.
Dad only got a fortnight off work so we only spent 9 days actually there.  If you saw another British car you at least flashed the lights and if you were on a back road, you stopped to swap information on the road ahead.  I also remember our garage gave dad a load of spares wrapped in brown greaseproof paper which were on “sale or return” as breakdowns were par for the course on a trip that far.
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Petrolhead

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #9 on: 13:14:39, 05/07/19 »
GWM, that's an absolutely BRILLIANT story. What a fantastic experience. I'd absolutely love to do something like that. Which was probably a lot of the reason for my suggestion in the first place!

Jac

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #10 on: 14:18:21, 05/07/19 »
GWM, that's an absolutely BRILLIANT story. What a fantastic experience. I'd absolutely love to do something like that. Which was probably a lot of the reason for my suggestion in the first place!

Perhaps GWM will give you his car for conversion if you ask nicely - two bird with one stone
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

Petrolhead

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #11 on: 17:22:56, 05/07/19 »
Perhaps GWM will give you his car for conversion if you ask nicely - two bird with one stone


Jac, I've spent most of the last two years trying to convince Mrs PH that we need a camper. Would save a fortune on accommodation in the long run. But she has a fair point in that we already have cars we hardly drive and adding another would be silly!


That doesn't for one minute mean I don't want one!


:)

vghikers

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #12 on: 20:26:16, 05/07/19 »
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I no longer need a car but I just can't bring myself, at the moment to just 'give it away!'

I'm hoping for some creative ideas as to how to continue to make good use of it?

We've all been there I'm sure, and not only with cars.
It seems like an asset but it's not - it's a burden. Get rid.
We were in a roughly similar position last year, debating whether we needed one. Then I totalled ours in Scotland, making the decision for us. Yes, being free of that car and all the associated rigmarole and expense is truly liberating.

ninthace

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #13 on: 21:54:27, 05/07/19 »
Yes, being free of that car and all the associated rigmarole and expense is truly liberating.
Rather depends on where you live.  My nearest town for any shopping is 12 miles away so that is a 24 mile round trip. The bus only goes every 2 hrs which makes a trip a major undertaking.  The nearest hospital is about 25 mikes away in a different direction and requires more than one bus to get there or about an hour to drive there. My dentist is a 30 min drive across country and there is no direct bus service.  My nearest train station is 18 miles away in yet another direction and is a two and a half hour walk from the town it allegedly serves.
« Last Edit: 22:00:18, 05/07/19 by ninthace »
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vghikers

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Re: Any suggestions please how to use my redundant car?
« Reply #14 on: 06:11:11, 06/07/19 »
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Rather depends on where you live.

Indeed, country isolation effectively means dependency on a car. In the case of the OP, he can free himself of the thing and make a few bob too.

 

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