Suzuki Club UK

As the fuel prices slowly rise and with my daily driver being a 2.9 4x4 Sierra I had been thinking recently about taking the bus to work.

Anyway, last Friday, due to some car swapping logistics I ended up at work with no car.

Jumped on the bus for the 3 mile trip home and was charged £2.65 for the pleasure!!

Got a pen and paper out and did some working out...

For me to travel to and from work, Monday to Friday for a whole year on the bus would cost me £1200

For me to do it in my car would cost me just £364 in petrol

Not really a fair comparison I thought as there are other running costs to having a car, so did a bit more working out..

£364 Petrol

£153 Insurance

£215 Road Tax

£ 50 Mot

Total still only comes to £782...

I bought a good set of second hand spare wheels and almost new tyres for it earlier in the year for £80 and just to be safe lets budget for a new battery over the winter £70

Total now is £932

lets round it up to a round £1000 just to cover oil, filters, plugs, screenwash etc.

Now its getting closer, £1000 compared to £1200

Oh, I bought the car for £200, might as well add that into my overall costs.

Ok, so I can buy, maintain and run a (2.9 V6 150Bhp) Sierra to work for a year for the same price as it would cost me to use the bus??

Hmmmm what a dilemma.....

have a 2.9 Sierra sitting at the door ready to use as and when its needed

or....(FOR THE EXACT SAME COST)

stand out in the cold/rain/snow/dark waiting for a bus usually with a healthy consignment of junkies on board (who aren't paying)

Now I appreciate that this is only possible in my case due to me buying cheap cars and doing my own repairs.

Someone buying a more expensive car or indeed even just landing a big garage bill would be better off on the bus.

BUT...

Should I really be able to run a gutsy 2.9 to my work cheaper than it would cost me to take the bus???

Its a funny old game

Yup I know exactly what you mean, I could pay 5.80 a day for a return ticket from my house to bath where I work, its always late and costs me less in fuel per week as long as I park on the outskirts of town and have a 10min walk to work I don't have to pay for parking either. Although there is a bus lane right into town its still quicker for me to drive and then walk to work.

My favorite is that with this bus company they do what is called an 'elevens' ticket that gives you 11 single journeys and is supposed to be their cheaper way of traveling however, once you have 10 of these tickets fully used they'll give you a free 11 journey ticket, however I once worked it out and its actually cheaper just to buy a return ticket everyday so they are just scamming people with the illusion of better value for money

If the government really want more people to use public transport they really need to introduce a fair travel fees scheme where it does actually work out cheaper to use public transport.

Yeah, I haven't used a bus for years and I was genuinely expecting to pay about 50p lol

Will be keeping the car, can't afford to take the bus

Lool getting the bus for a year is cheaper then my insurance alone haha
I got on the bus the other night with my mates and It cost 2 quid when I turned round and said "your having a bubble love last time I got on the bus it cost me 40p" the whole lower tier of the bus laughed me mates said it hadn't been that for years, it's mental how they can charge that, give me an sj any day

2 minuet walk im at work

Fortunatly for me I have a company van. Only have to go cattle class when pissed and then its just outright funny.

i'd use my bike before i consider the peasent wagon

Dont like buses, I've got a company vehicle, amazing how much money it saves. It's usually a Corsa but I got a 110 td5 for the winter. Only had it a week and just filled it up, cost £98. Wouldn't want to run it my self, nearly £400 a month on fuel. Still does better mileage than the rangers we got lol

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muddymesser wrote:i'd use my bike before i consider the peasent wagon

Yeah who'd want to be a bus w4nker?

I have to admit when I went to college 1 day a week, I caught the bus because I lived on the bus route (bus to town every 15minutes) and it was easier than getting a parking space and if I did the SJ was out of sight (which made me worry - I do live in pikey central) Now I work 26miles away so I'd have to catch 3 busses to get to work, not that any would run early enough to get me to work for 6am! So busses just aren't an option for me

Bus is only cheaper if you buy a pass for a year, and you're a child/student/elderly.

Great car BTW. I love Sierra, especially the XR4.