Re: how much to give up your car?
 

the thing is increasing the car tax by the amounts on the bigger motors is no point as the ppl wiht the q7's and range's etc can afford them and the increases dont really hit them hard.

but the govt messes up - they want child car seats but those with 3 kids need to upgrade to a bigger car to fit them or else they risk gettin fined etc

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

but Mani, what about reasale value, its all well that they can afford it whilst they keep it but the second hand market probably wouldn't want to so teh prices would drop. at teh moment I recall you lose between 50 and 60% of a cars initial value in teh first 3 years. if that became 75% becasue no one wanted them second had would it influence you to buy it in teh first place?

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

I guess right now people who buy new cars do it on a 3 yearly cycle, I think that cycle will just grow and more people will change cars every 4 or 5 years.
They wont change my car habit even with the 1000 pound tax, I'll just have to work harder to be able to afford it!

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

I would love to give up my car. I do about 12,000 miles per year mainly business.

I used to use my car less for short journeys but then Blackburn Council sold off the bus service and Transdev decided to cut our buses so now I have to use the car.

I believe that if public transport was more frequent, went where people want to catch buses and was affordable a lot more of us would give up private transport. This goverment seems to think you have to tax people into forsaking their cars when really they should be rewarding us for not using them. We need a national public transport policy that encourages us to move around in a more environmentally friendly way

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

absolutely agree, I cannot get to work on public transport, leaving accy on the first train out gets me to work(well, actually 2 miles from work with no regular bus service so I'd have to walk or taxi) at 10:45. Buses would need 3 changes and again it would be nearly 10:30 when I got to knutsford and teh same situation occurs.

I do as much as I can to be environmentally friendly. I use LPG(and have for ~ 7 years), I car share as much as I can (now on about my 8th different person over the last 10 years). I work compressed hours making a10 % saving on number of journeys and work from home on probably at least another 10%. Do the goverment reweard me in any way by giving me tax breaks? NOPE. because I have older cars converted( which in itself is environmentally friendly as majority of emissions for a cars end 2 end life are produced during manufacture and decomissioning) I don't even get the road tax discount.

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

I couldnt do without my car, i live too far out in the countryside, and our bus service only comes once every few hrs ( i think its every 3 hrs) and that only takes you to the next village where you then have to wait for another bus to take you to town and its a very small town, you then have to get another bus if you want to go to a bigger town, now that would take me all day and the buses are all different companies so you cant just buy an al day ticket, it would be an expensive do, not to mention all the bags to cart on and off buses

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

That is not quite true. Are you talking about what people wrongly call the booster seat law for kids under a certain height? There is a clause about being able to fit the seats in. Than again you can use the specially tested belts adjusters that I have mentioned before that take up no room on the seat.

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

the law is that they must be on a booster seat unless one wont fit in.. we had this problem with my ex partner, trying to fit 2 baby seats and a booster was impossible but if you go to mothercare world they can advise you on which seats you can fit in..

Child Car Seats : The Law

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

I gave up driving in 1995 and have used taxi's ever since, o it doesn't affect me

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

The law does not state booster seats - it says, and this is from your link

So my 6 year old uses one of these. They comply with the law and only cost £10 at Halfords. They would fit in your handbag to use in a friends car if needed. Mine have the ECE 44-03 labels fitted and a copy of the instructions is in the glove box just in case some smart arse copper thinks he knows the law and says he is not on a booster seat ;)

I wonder how many people have their kids sat on a booster seat from a previous child that is not marked as complying with ECE 44-03. They are breaking the law if they are and could be fined :eek:

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

No amount of money in the world would force me off the road. I need my car to get to and from the airport, at silly times of the day. Although as I am abroad at the moment it is parked at my parents house.

It's interesting to note, that our Government are not doing anything to bring the cost of Public Transport down either.
To give you an example. I am coming home next month for a week, I fly into Gatwick at 12.30pm, BA will fly me to Manchester for £50.
To get the train I have to get the express to Paddington, £15, get a tube to Euston, with cases, £5, get the Virgin train to Preston, £40. so the train will cost me £70 and take longer.
It is better for me to get the train as my Girl gets lost when driving to Manchester airport, so I rely on others to get me home.
Funny how BA can charge less than the train.

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

this is also from from my link and the bit i was refering to

'There are three exceptions where there is not a child seat available. In each case the child MUST use the adult belt instead. They are -

1) in a licensed taxi or private hire vehicle;

2) if the child is travelling on a short distance for reason of unexpected necessity;

3) if there are two occupied child restraints in the rear which prevent the fitment of a third. ,

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

I used to do the 100 mile round trip to Knutsford, combined with at least once a fortnight driving down to London, sometimes to Nottingham (Boots HQ) and Leeds (Asda HQ). I drove a company BMW and got all my fuel paid for so really didn't need to worry about it, only the additional tax I had to pay.

Now, the furthest I drive is Burnley and I won't be doing that very often for much longer. A lot of the work I'll be doing soon will be based at Ossy Civic Theatre so I'll be walking there. I drive a Ford Ka (although it is 2L). In other words, over the last six years I've cut down an awful lot and about to do even more very soon.

However, would I give up my car? Absolutely NOT! For the little that I use it, it is very valuable and so would rather use it less than give it up altogether.

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

Why on earth would you go to Paddington?:confused:

The train from Gatwick comes in at Victoria Station, and from there you'd simply get the Victoria line up to Euston.

Sense of direction not your strong point?:D

Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton & Stansted To Paddington

Gatwick Airport to Paddington
From Gatwick to Paddington the only realistic route is to travel by train to London Victoria, then get the Underground, local bus or a taxi direct to Paddington.

Re: how much to give up your car?
 

Okay so I got it wrong, I am used to going via Heathrow and the Heathrow Express goes from Paddington, now that BA have sold GB iarways the only Viable way for me to get home from Morocco is Marrakesh to Gatwick.

As to my sense of direction, thats why in a aircraft we have IRS's (Inertial Reference System, inbuilt Navagation systems, that use lasers)