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Your yearly mileage...do you still enjoy driving?


Butch

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Fortunately for me my annual mileage is quite low, around 5k miles pa, which saves me money on my insurance and also means I'm not on the road as much as I used to be. The Mrs did drive a lot more pre covid, around 14-16k miles pa, but this has dropped dramatically also.

Driving on UK roads isn't a great experience I find, we've got average speed cameras, poor lane discipline and "smart" motorways etc. Even going for a blast on the local B roads has become less fun, due to speed limits from 60 mph down to 50 in some places. It's come to a point where I would much prefer to be driving in Europe now, especially off the beaten track.

I found that driving in Thailand I find is pretty good fun once out of the big cities, but it's something I've only done a couple of times, the same applies to the Philippines, once out of Manila Metro and heading the opposite way from Quezon, the roads are actually very good.

For me though, the fun has pretty much drained out of driving these days. I've only done 129 miles in my classic this year, and as yet have still not bothered to re tax it, despite it being MOT & Tax exempt, but then again the weather has been pretty crap as well. I've even considered dusting off my old mountain bike and using that, which is only one step up from being a bus wanker.

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love driving in Thailand (once out of pattaya :)) - before covid shit we were doing pattaya -> uttaradit every 2-3 months. doing around 15000 kms each year. Have only done 6000 over the past year - i still like to head out each week for a little jaunt around chonburi / tak area.

 

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About 6 to 7 thousand on the bike, mainly spring/summer. As Butch mentioned, driving on UK roads ain't as much fun as it used to be. Use the bike year round as it's my only transport, but winter drops down to under 50 miles a week for commuting. 

Going out most of the weekend as its going to be scorching. 

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During my career as a millwright, I would travel all over the States, usually with enough notice but some last minute jobs.  I was called one afternoon in Florida to be in Detroit at 7 the next morning.  I drove all night and worked a twelve hour shift in a car plant as soon as I got there.  It was rough, but it was three months of work.  I started going out to California in 2000, driving across country, three or four times a year.  My longest drive was from east of Boston to San Francisco. Eventually, I was getting enough work in California, that I moved there.  Until I retired, most of my jobs were close to the house, only a few jobs in Denver, Washington or LA. 
Since I retired, I hardly drive at all, maybe I fill up once a month, probably less than that.

The only time I’ve driven a car in Thailand was one night in Bangkok, the wife and I went out drinking with her girlfriend and that girl’s husband. He is a taxi driver, so we had his cab.  I don’t drink and the other three were hammered, so I drove the taxi back to the hotel off Ratchada Soi 3.  

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For me, cars have always been about getting from point A to point B. So can't say I ever enjoyed driving, but sure enjoyed arriving at my destination. When I decided to make the move to Thailand in 2009, had no regrets selling the last vehicle I owned, a Jeep Cherokee.

Motorcycles are a whole different matter. I have many good memories of road trips on my Ultra Classic with good friends. Put thousands of miles each year on my bike up until my move and was reluctant to part with that bike. Even considered holding on to it for my annual trips back to the States, but in the end figured it would be much more cost efficient to rent than store a bike for only a couple of weeks of use each year.

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My yearly mileage is now less than 2k 

Driving in London is no pleasure for me at all these days and I find it quite stressful at times. 

Speed cameras and restrictions, parking restrictions, traffic jams, road rage, endless Sleeping Policemen, yellow boxes with cameras aimed at them, fuel gone up. In price..............

The only place I enjoy driving is in the countryside on B roads.

Since I got my Freedom Pass, I have been using public transport more although less during the Covid pandemic. 

I worked out a while ago that it would be cheaper to use Uber than my car when taking Road Tax, Insurance, Mot, Servicing and maintenance and fuel costs plus annual value depreciation into account. 

Yet, I have always owned a car and not having one would seem strange

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1 hour ago, Nightcrawler said:

I worked out a while ago that it would be cheaper to use Uber than my car when taking Road Tax, Insurance, Mot, Servicing and maintenance and fuel costs plus annual value depreciation into account.

That got me thinking for a minute or two, but the back of a fag packet calculations says no (for me).

I'm in the process of putting mine back on the road after a long while in Thailand.  £200 service and MOT, £200 insurance and £200 road tax are figures I'd budgeted on, and insurance has already come in at £120.  Maintenance is covered in the service costs as that's all it gets each year with my low mileage.  It's long been fully depreciated so nothing there, which gives annual costs of £520 or £10 per week, plus fuel as required.  I couldn't get a taxi to Asda and back once a week for that. YMMV.

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I don't drive in London, no need.

I can and do walk to work, where in live has great travel infrastructure, so it's just another expense for nothing really.

Plus there's a real big push at the moment in London to discourage driving, LTN's etc, cycle lanes, loads of ever bigger cargo bikes doing stuff like house removals and stuff lol.

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Now that I am no longer working, I find I seldom drive more than 1200km a month in the summer, and about 2/3 of that distance in the winter months - and I presently have three trucks and two cars on the road; in the winter I cut this back to one small 4x4 pickup. I live 8km away from our downtown area where most of the stores are, and 3km from my most regular pub - I keep my trips downtown to a minimum because of the traffic congestion (we are a small city but with a very busy downtown core, and just about everyone here owns at least one vehicle because our city is very spread out and transit not very effective) and general impatience with too many idiot drivers. Also, since our ground here is frozen for over six months a year, all of our road construction has to take place in the summer months and every major route in and out of town  has something going on at this time. Now we are faced with our city council about to lower our downtown speed limits from 50kmh to 40kmh to keep the safety numpties happy and it's going to become total gridlock, and all because of inadequate enforcement of the existing limit on one avenue and some pedestrians who lack common sense. 

Vehicles have always been something of a hobby with me and I have had many but I find now that I am getting older I am starting to lose interest - I've always done all of the mechanical work that I can handle and have private contacts to do that which I can't - I will not under any circumstances take any of my vehicles into a "stealership"  - but it's getting painful working under the vehicles out in the driveway as I never did build a proper shop for myself and with today's lumber prices I am never going to. People often ask me if I rent a car or bike when I am in Thailand and I reply that I have no interest in this, in fact NOT having to drive is a big part of any holiday for me, especially when I am cruising the pubs  every night. If I ever sell out my property and move away from here to somewhere overseas, I doubt I will buy another car or truck - maybe a motorbike if I am in a more rural area but if in an urban area I will just rely on public transit. 

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Approx 7,500 miles per annum. Probably ha sip ha sip personal and work mileage, diesel car so average 36mpg.

Looking for a new one in September possibly going back to petrol as Bristol introducing a new ‘zone’ or maybe a Hybrid 

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Mom just took over my late Dad’s lease on his 2018 Equinox, and I’m going to buy it outright soon. He didn’t drive at all his last 5 months, and besides groceries and the odd weekend getaway with his new wife, didn’t use it much the 18 months before his cancer diagnosis. I have put maybe a 1/4 of the mileage it had from the times I flew in and went to the hospital, and since he passed. 
 

Anyway, I accidentally changed the info to Imperial last week, noticed it finally passed 10K…..

 

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Edited by Golfingboy
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I used to do an average of 15,000 miles (24Kkm) pa back in Texas on my vehicle.  TW didn't do nearly as much on hers.  Mostly to/from preschool and short shopping trips. 

Now retired in Thailand with only one to drive we're doing about 7,000 miles (11Kkm) pa. That normally includes a couple of trips to the country house per year, ferrying the kids to and from school,  visiting various attractions in nearby provinces, etc.  With the pandemic I wonder if we'll put on 1,000 miles pa.

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1 hour ago, davethailand said:

I drive for a living so I reckon I do between 200 and 800 miles a week work alone.

🙂

You still doing the old delivery Dave ??

Must be murder these days with all Sadiq Khan's road closures ..... I drive as little as I can these days

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20 hours ago, nampla69 said:

You still doing the old delivery Dave ??

Must be murder these days with all Sadiq Khan's road closures ..... I drive as little as I can these days

Yeah, its ok as although we do the City we also cover all of Essex and a lot of Suffolk etc so its not always the same, spend a lot of time in the depot as well now as step up fleet technician,

🙂

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