A Good Reason For Not Owning A Car
As I walked to get the paper today, someone had broken down in an almost brand-new BMW X-5. The service van had just arrived and the driver of the BMW had that About-Time-To look on his face. As I walked back the service van was leaving.
I suddenly realised that doesn’t happen to me anymore! It must be a good reason to not own a car!
If my bus or train breaks down, it’s not my problem! When a train was an hour late recently, they sent me some vouchers, which I might use for a trip to somewhere exciting like Margate or Brighton. It might actually be Birmingham, as that appears to be hay-fever free at the moment.
The Anonymous Widower 
As a car driver and a train user, I can testify that the reliability of cars exceeds that of trains by a very large margin. I spent many years driving high mileages on business in the UK, Europe and the USA and I only broke down once, and that was many years ago. I have used trains less, but have been held up due to breakdowns several times. The problem with trains is that they are susceptible to breakdowns of other trains, signalling equipment, and other people. I will of course still use trains as well as car especially if that avoids the use of airlines, which I have learned over the years to hate. I cannot avoid airlines, as they offer the only way to get to some places in a reasonable time, and so I will use them where necessary. As far as cars are concerned, I never fail to be impressed by their reliability, I have an 8 year old Mercedes bought new and with over 120,000 miles on the clock. It has never faltered. It is parked outside, as I reserve the garaging for classic cars. My wife’s BMW is a V registration, bought new, and has never failed. I don’t find new cars interesting and so I only replace them when they show signs of age. Providing they are serviced regularly, modern cars seem to go on for many years without trouble. I still prefer driving old ones, but they do not offer the reliability of new ones, and so I reserve their use to local journeys only.
Comment by John Wright | May 28, 2011 |
I was more commenting on the fact that if a train or bus breaks down then it’s not your problem. I suppose in the last twenty years, I’ve had a car break down on me perhaps twice and been delayed on trains perhaps four times, two of which were caused by suicides and a third by a level crossing accident. I’ve also had about three major delays on airlines.
Comment by AnonW | May 28, 2011 |