So, I'm thinking about selling my car

[giza]

As mentioned in my last post, I'm using my car about once a week. My monthly expenses on it, however, are still the same. Between payments, insurance, and maintenance, I'm paying out about $500 a month in car expenses. That's a lot for not using something every day.

Late last night, I found the website Philly Car Share. It's a non-profit that makes cars available to individuals at any time of day (or night), for an hourly rate. You only pay for what you use. It looks really neat, and I stand to save a lot of money on a monthly basis. If I need a car, then I'd have to take a half hour train into the city for that, but that would be once a week at most. And time spent on the train isn't time wasted anyway. I can always read a book or find other ways to amuse myself.

Benefits of Philly Car Share:

• Maintenance is paid for
  
• Gas is paid for(!)
  
• The cars are rather new hybrids, and there are pickup trucks available for hauling big/heavy things
  
• Assuming I rent a car once per month to get away on a weekend, I can probably keep my expenses under $150 a month, which would be a huge savings.
  
• Using that as a negotiating point with my landlord if they try to raise my rent.

Disadvantages:

• A minimum half hour trip to get a car and half an hour to return it. This may be a moot point if they put a car share "pod" in my suburb, however. I have seen talk about them wanting to expand into the Main Line.
  
• I'd probably need to find another doctor, since my current one is half an hour in the other direction from Philly. But I have already located at least two physicans within walking distance of my apartment.

I still haven't decided on this, but if anyone in the area is interested in buying a 2 year old car with 22k miles on it (average for that age is 30k), please drop me a line and perhaps we can make a deal.

Comments

[firedhusky.livejournal.com]

You are really comited to stay in the city, depend on rides or 1 hour travel each time you want to use a car ?
Cats must be really comited to stay in the city.

how about if trains goes on strike ? i dont know about train schedule in your area but here they only run at certain times and fixed scheduled... so if you miss one, will be in betwen 20 to 1 hour till next one comes.

Is funy they mention that phillycarshare :
-Reduces congestion. Fewer cars mean less traffic.
-Improves public safety. Pedestrians and bicyclists benefit from fewer cars on the road.
- Frees up parking. Each PhillyCar removes 23 cars from the roads as members
choose to give up their cars or choose not to purchase one.

taking cars out of the streets of philly, means only one thing... more space for other cars ! :)

paw waves

FDH

[giza.livejournal.com]

Back in 2001-2002, I commuted on SEPTA every day for several months. They were mostly reliable.

And heck, I've used my car twice this month. At $500/mo, that's $250 a trip.

[firedhusky.livejournal.com]

Thats true, but you are also paying for avaliability n confort of having it right next to you. (specially if is raining or snowing)

FDH

[giza.livejournal.com]

And you are thinking I want to drive in either why? ;-)

[silver-huskey.livejournal.com]

Rain is rain and rain is annoying. Snow... Well I'd rather catch the bus if I could help it. ;)

[drakenhart.livejournal.com]

Question, what are you looking to get for it? What kind of car is it? and are you still making payments on it ( and how much if so )?

[mrianti.livejournal.com]

Just a thought , anytime I have rented a car I have my own auto policy that covers the rental ( amd avided the rental co. ims. ) if something should happen .
if you dont have a car , or insurance ow much do they or would they nic you for Ins. if needed ?

[giza.livejournal.com]

My insurance policy as is does not cover car rentals. (It's Progressive. Blech)

I already checked with one car company, and insurance would be about $45/day. It seems like a lot, but it's not like I rent cars on a regular basis.

[megadog.livejournal.com]

Any way you can get some sort of [possibly work-related] rental deal? A while back when my car was damaged^[1] I was able to get pretty hefty discounts on rentals via the company I was whoring for at the time. Several rental companies viewed me as an 'employee' and let me book cars through my clients' contract. A Ford Focus [ptui!] for the weekend was typically costing me £35 [let's call it $60] all-in; a Jaguar S-type was less than £100 for 4 days.

^[1]it's a rather unusual model so is insured on a specialist policy; I do my own no-fault costs-recovery.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I'd rent a car if I ever had need of one for more than a few hours. And that just doesn't happen to me anymore.

In the event that I do need to rent one, PhillyCarShare does have agreements with AVIS and Enterprise for 10 and 20 percent discounts, which helps.