Well, I called the Toyota dealer. The expectation was that, if they could offer us something that made financial sense, that we would stick with the (or "a") car. I mean, it wouldn't make sense to go car-free from a dollars and cents point of view if we could, say, get something for $100/mo. We decided on a price threshold.
Once we were in there, we started looking around. It would be nice to get a Prius. They're very fuel efficient, and the new Prius V (the wagon) has lots of people room and lots of storage room. Too bad they're far too expensive.
Long story short, it dawned on me just how good the mileage was. That would save us probably $70/mo in gas. And it turns out that it is $20/mo LESS to insure each month, as it qualifies for a "green vehicle" discount. A little more figuring, and it turned out that, the cost of owning the Prius would be no more than the cost of owning the Matrix. We'd have more people room, more cargo room, and would be reducing our carbon footprint significantly.
That, and with our East-Coast road trip on the horizon, it will knock about $600 off the price of gas for that trip. It seemed a no-brainer.
In five years, the lease on the Prius will be up. Perhaps we'll go car-free then.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Saturday, October 6, 2012
October 6, 2012
Well... you know how I said in the last blog that most people were really supportive of the idea of us going car-free? Well, the fine folks at Toyota were a little less enthusiastic. Of course, you can understand their position. Basically, we have three options:
- Pay out the remaining twelve payments of $385. Total cost $4620. OUCH!
- Buy the car outright at its appraised value from Toyota. At that point, it is ours, and we can sell it for whatever we want. Nah thanks.
- Find someone else to buy out or take over our lease.
Neither of these seemed like that an idea, but our friend Jo suggested a website called www.leasebusters.com. People we knew weighed in and said that it helped them break their lease too. Unfortunately, this seems to be a service for people who *really* want to get out of their leases, rather than those who simply think they might like to. Consider:
- Listing fee of $295
- Many 2010 Toyota Corollas and Matrixes (Matricies?) currently listed at around $250/mo. This is partly because many listings offer incentives like covering a payment or paying the customer to take over their lease. By the looks of things, there is no way we'd be able to just get someone to take over our lease of $385/mo.
- lease transfer fees (never suggested what they might be, but...)
- inspection fees, security deposits, etc.
In the end, it looks like it might cost us upwards to a grand to get out of our lease. That might be fine if we were in a dire situation, or a situation that made this an otherwise worthwhile expense. Hey, it sure beats defaulting and owing over four grand.
But to spend that much money on going car-free? No, not yet. We just might wind up waiting out the lease. This is not to suggest that this process is over. It's just on hold pending new information or a change of circumstance.
September 2012
Well, we discussed the possibility of going car-free with the family. Our two youngest were curious and a bit unsure of what to make of it. Our eldest daughter declared that she would be embarrassed being part of a family that did not have a car. Point noted, but...
There are a couple of considerations we discussed.
My own parents were a bit gob-smacked at first. Upon some discussion, though, they were really quite supportive and interested in the idea. Living out in suburbia-land, it is an idea that would be neither practical nor desirable to them themselves, though.
It hasn't been brought up with Jacqui's family yet. Of course, the irony that we're blogging this on the world-wide web is not lost on us. Haha.
Overall, though, based on my Facebook post on the topic, there has been a really strong sense of support and encouragement. Of course, our friends don't really constitute a "representative sample" of the population as a whole... but we don't really care much about that. In fact, the marginal subversiveness of going car-free is also appealing. (of course, it's all fun and games until you're the poor sucker out at the bus-stop in January when everyone else is driving by in their nice warm cars....)
To do list:
There are a couple of considerations we discussed.
- Travel time: I spend about 45 minutes a day driving to and from work. This is basically "dead time." All I can do is drive. If I take the bus, I will be spending at least twice, and closer to three times that time travelling. It is almost an hour each way. The trade-off, though, is that I can do a lot of my school work on the bus. So, instead of sitting in my classroom or at my desk at home, much of that time can be spent sitting and working on the bus instead. Geez, maybe I'll even actually read a book!
We'll need to be more organized for our shopping trips. That's fine. I'd rather just go once and get it over with than go four times for a bit here and a bit there anyways. Of course, if we do need a thing or two here and there, there is a grocery store 800m from our front door. One of us could just jump off the bus early and walk the rest of the way. - Our dog is sick, and our veterinarian is in Brantford. (a 30-minute drive) Fortunately, the emergency appointments are over with (at least for now), and it is mostly just maintenance. These kinds of visits would be a great example of when to use car-sharing, but what if it is an emergency?
My own parents were a bit gob-smacked at first. Upon some discussion, though, they were really quite supportive and interested in the idea. Living out in suburbia-land, it is an idea that would be neither practical nor desirable to them themselves, though.
It hasn't been brought up with Jacqui's family yet. Of course, the irony that we're blogging this on the world-wide web is not lost on us. Haha.
Overall, though, based on my Facebook post on the topic, there has been a really strong sense of support and encouragement. Of course, our friends don't really constitute a "representative sample" of the population as a whole... but we don't really care much about that. In fact, the marginal subversiveness of going car-free is also appealing. (of course, it's all fun and games until you're the poor sucker out at the bus-stop in January when everyone else is driving by in their nice warm cars....)
To do list:
- find out what is involved in breaking our lease
- clean out the garage so we have a place to put our lawn furniture and bicycles. (Geez, I love irony!)
Considering "Car Free"
Reason one - Financial
Like any family, we often wish we had a little more money.
We pay $385/mo for our lease payment, $115/mo for insurance, and about $200/mo for gas, for a total of about $700/mo. Gas prices are now about $1.30 per litre, and obviously will only continue to rise. Thank goodness we only have one driver in the house! We recently spent $550 on front brakes and other servicing to the car, and were informed that we are going to need two new tires before the snow flies.
We researched what going car-free would cost us, as a comparison. An adult bus pass is $87/mo and my wife and I would each need one. That is less than what we pay in gas in a month. The children qualify for board-subsidized bus passes, at a cost of $85, but that is for the entire school year. A summer pass is $71. So, for three children to ride the bus for one year, it would cost us less than a single month's car payment plus insurance.
We found out about an organization called Hamilton Care Share. For a really moderate price (basically about $4-5/hr, plus $0.30/km, which includes gas and insurance) we would still have access to a car. We'd just need to get to one of the locations to pick one up. There are three car-share cars located within 3 km. of our house.
Even including the occasional taxi ride, when necessary, we could save well over $350/mo.
Reason two - Environmental
We burn upwards to 40 litres of gas in an average week. That's over 2000 litres of fuel in a single year. Sure, the Matrix is a low-emissions vehicle, but every little bit helps, right?
Reason three - Anti-Consumerism
I'm most stores' worst enemy - the person who entirely ignores all advertising, all promotions and all purchase incentives. I actively avoid branding. Our car is our single biggest participation in consumer culture. There is some sense of feeling liberated at the thought of distancing myself one giant step further from consumer culture.
Like any family, we often wish we had a little more money.
We pay $385/mo for our lease payment, $115/mo for insurance, and about $200/mo for gas, for a total of about $700/mo. Gas prices are now about $1.30 per litre, and obviously will only continue to rise. Thank goodness we only have one driver in the house! We recently spent $550 on front brakes and other servicing to the car, and were informed that we are going to need two new tires before the snow flies.
We researched what going car-free would cost us, as a comparison. An adult bus pass is $87/mo and my wife and I would each need one. That is less than what we pay in gas in a month. The children qualify for board-subsidized bus passes, at a cost of $85, but that is for the entire school year. A summer pass is $71. So, for three children to ride the bus for one year, it would cost us less than a single month's car payment plus insurance.
We found out about an organization called Hamilton Care Share. For a really moderate price (basically about $4-5/hr, plus $0.30/km, which includes gas and insurance) we would still have access to a car. We'd just need to get to one of the locations to pick one up. There are three car-share cars located within 3 km. of our house.
Even including the occasional taxi ride, when necessary, we could save well over $350/mo.
Reason two - Environmental
We burn upwards to 40 litres of gas in an average week. That's over 2000 litres of fuel in a single year. Sure, the Matrix is a low-emissions vehicle, but every little bit helps, right?
Reason three - Anti-Consumerism
I'm most stores' worst enemy - the person who entirely ignores all advertising, all promotions and all purchase incentives. I actively avoid branding. Our car is our single biggest participation in consumer culture. There is some sense of feeling liberated at the thought of distancing myself one giant step further from consumer culture.
Our Starting Point
We leased a 2010 Toyota Matrix three years ago. We love it. It has been a great car for us. Especially for when we had two children in car seats, we could still fit the third in the middle who no longer needed one. The hatch has ample room for groceries, basset hounds, and other items one might wish to transport from one place to another.
We live in what I suppose you would call a "semi-urban" area of Hamilton, Ontario called Westdale. It is in the lower city near the university, but about 3 km from what most people would conventionally begin to describe as "downtown." We have good public transit, including a bus stop about 20 m from our front door. Being a university community, we have many amenities within 1.5 km, including a grocery store, pharmacy, movie theatre, restaurants, a bakery, and more. Typical of most "car" families, we travel outside of our community for most of our shopping, and we drive to our favourite restaurants, which are downtown.
I teach at an elementary school 11 km from home and my wife is an educational assistant who works at a school 3 km from home, which I drop her off at on my way to work. Most of my family lives within the city, (a 20 minute drive), but my wife's family lives in Waterdown (a 15 minute drive) and in Dunnville (over an hour's drive).
Our three children walk to public schools in our neighbourhood. Our eldest takes piano lessons a block away, and the younger two play soccer in the local community league. Many of their games are a few short blocks away, but some are in Ancaster, which is about a 15 minute drive. We all like to go swimming, which we do at either of two recreation centers that are a short walk away, and in the winter, the kids and I go skating at one of the local recreation centers.
We drive, on average, about 20 000 km/yr.
We live in what I suppose you would call a "semi-urban" area of Hamilton, Ontario called Westdale. It is in the lower city near the university, but about 3 km from what most people would conventionally begin to describe as "downtown." We have good public transit, including a bus stop about 20 m from our front door. Being a university community, we have many amenities within 1.5 km, including a grocery store, pharmacy, movie theatre, restaurants, a bakery, and more. Typical of most "car" families, we travel outside of our community for most of our shopping, and we drive to our favourite restaurants, which are downtown.
I teach at an elementary school 11 km from home and my wife is an educational assistant who works at a school 3 km from home, which I drop her off at on my way to work. Most of my family lives within the city, (a 20 minute drive), but my wife's family lives in Waterdown (a 15 minute drive) and in Dunnville (over an hour's drive).
Our three children walk to public schools in our neighbourhood. Our eldest takes piano lessons a block away, and the younger two play soccer in the local community league. Many of their games are a few short blocks away, but some are in Ancaster, which is about a 15 minute drive. We all like to go swimming, which we do at either of two recreation centers that are a short walk away, and in the winter, the kids and I go skating at one of the local recreation centers.
We drive, on average, about 20 000 km/yr.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)