The commute to work each day is getting worse and worse, now up to 50 minutes! £250 a month in petrol!
There was a massive tailback today and I was doing 20mph along with the rest in the rain. All of a sudden everybody braked, car slid as I pulled to the right to avoid the person in front... but ended up bumping into him. Bumper/bonnet damage but nothing major. The guy seemed ok with it and said he almost went into the person in front of him! Police called out but told not to bother in future for minor incidents like that. Going to sort it through the insurance (offered to do it privately but never took up the option). 7 years ago I was paying close to £2k for insurance, now £240. Hopefully that wont go up by much. They mentioned if I have another accident within my insurance year, it wipes out the no-claims discount... and also mentioned something to do with 3 years but never caught that...
Car is Ford Focus 07 plate, 68k miles. Pretty good drive and could go longer but needs timing belt changed. Half-wondering whether to get a new car (trade-in I reckon is £2K) or just run it into the ground. So reluctant to spend any more than I have already, ugh!!
Also, I never buy the "hire car" part of insurance (or do you get that through breakdown cover??) - but I will be doing so from now on..!
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Worlds smallest violin - my commute is an hour plus and my monthly costs are £450 on a good day - if things go pear shaped as they do twice a week, it's two hours to get home...
Fords are meant to be pretty good cars - I'd keep it running till the repairs start being a regular feature.
Offset "(Emp) - a little heavy on the hyperbole."
My commute used to be 1hr30 each way and that really was unbearable.
I'm a poor engineer, though! But £450... wow!!
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Be prepared to get 1,000,000 text offering compensation. I had shed loads following surgery offering compensation following my accident, when I hadn't had an accident.
As for the car, my general feeling is, if it ain't broke, there's nothing to fix. So far it's been reliable, and generally ok, do the service jobs (inc cambelt) and keep running it. If it needs regular repair, that's the time to get rid.
Oh, and hope you're ok following your incident.
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For me, 2 hours means that there have been no pears on the line and it's been a good day.
Holy crap!!! I thought my £350 a month was bad enough!!! (In fact it is bad enough). Is it worth going to work? Get yourself knocked up and be single mum, you'll love it
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Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Years ago in Edinburgh, some old buffer reversed into the side of my car - very little damage done to either, small dents and paint transferred basically - and seemed perfectly happy to just swap details 'to be on the safe side' and get on with life. Later I had a call from my insurance company say that he was claiming that I had driven into his car - physically impossible from the position of the damage, which I had a photo of - and it would need a new wing and other repairs. Wouldn't back down, and my insurance weren't interested in fighting it for a small amount, so I had to settle for 'equal liability', which affected my No Claims and pissed me off somewhat... and that was even when it wasn't my fault!
If you're really unlucky it will be like the singer in my band, who did something similar to you - her car was a write-off, even though not that badly damaged, because it was old and cheap - and the other driver tried to sue her for 'whiplash', which usually translates as 'ambulance chasing lawyers want to take the case on'. I seem to remember it went on for months until it was all sorted out, meanwhile she couldn't take out insurance on a new car without there being a punitive 'temporary adjustment', so she just didn't drive.
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