High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4de21c14-2f93-11e5-8873-775ba7c2ea3d.html#ixzz3gh0eBYmR
July 22, 2015 12:12 pm
Why buying a car makes no sense
Michael SkapinkerMichael Skapinker
In most cities, driving is horrible — there are greener, less stressful and cheaper alternatives
This picture taken on May 9, 2013 shows motorists commuting on a road during a traffic jam in Jakarta. The chronic jams cause losses of 1.8 billion USD (17.2 trillion rupiah) a year, according to official figures that take into account working hours lost, fuel wasted and health care costs for illnesses caused by noxious exhaust fumes. AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO (Photo credit should read BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)©AFP
The news this week that James Hind, 28, has raised £5.9m to launch Carwow, an online vehicle marketplace, took me back to the day when I bought a new car over the internet.
It was 2003, when Mr Hind was still a schoolboy, but, even then, Sir Richard Branson was declaring the whole business of going to a dealership and haggling with a salesman outdated.
By reimporting UK-assembled cars that had previously been exported to Cyprus, Virgin Cars was able to undercut the dealers. You chose a car online, made a payment and picked up your vehicle at an out-of-town garage.
The catch? There wasn’t one. When the car alarm went off for no reason, Virgin Cars sent someone around to fix it. And the Honda Civic, still running, if a little chipped and bumped, has not given a moment’s trouble since then.
So when it finally dies, will I buy a new car online? No. Virgin Cars is no longer around. Shortly after I bought mine, Sir Richard decided to get out of the business. Only 7,000 people were buying his vehicles annually, compared with hoped-for figures of over 50,000.
Carwow, which comes after US online sites such as CarsDirect, works differently from Virgin Cars. The company sends your online car preferences to 1,000 dealers, who contact you with their best offers, pay Carwow a commission and then sell to you directly.
I won’t be using them either. I can no longer see a reason to buy a car. It makes no sense. There are greener, less stressful and cheaper alternatives.
Start with the stress. In most cities, driving is horrible. It is stop-start, boring and bad-tempered.
Many people say they drive because they do not like being crushed against other sweaty, disagreeable commuters. I have driven and I have commuted. Fellow passengers are a great deal more civilised than other drivers — and their odours are less offensive than the emissions you inhale in a car.
In many cities today, there really is no need for a car. Public transport and walking can get you almost everywhere you need to go. It is healthier and it is greener. In London, I don’t drive for weeks, or sometimes months, at a time. (Others have taken to bicycles. I do not regard them as healthier — certainly not in London.)
Do not listen to anyone who tells you London’s transport is unreliable. I have taken the Northern Line, London Underground’s supposed “misery line”, twice every working day for 24 years. It lets me down two or three times a year.
Compare that to the hours drivers spent trapped by roadworks, diversions, or other cars. There is nothing convenient about driving.
In most European and many Asian and US cities, it is far quicker and easier to get around without a car. There are apps to tell you when the trains and buses are leaving. And there are apps to get you a car when you really need one.
In a blog post last year, Kyle Hill, chief executive of HomeHero, which provides carers for the elderly, explained why he had sold his Lexus and decided to do without a car — in Los Angeles.
He said he cycled on journeys up to five miles. For anything longer he used Uber. He calculated it was cheaper than running a car, with its purchase payments, interest, depreciation, insurance, petrol, maintenance and taxes.
And do not, he said, forget parking. At a recent dinner in New York, someone told me he paid $500 a month to park in his apartment building. When I expressed astonishment, everyone else chipped in that that was cheap.
A New York Times article in September said that the average residential parking space in Manhattan cost $136,052 to buy, and that some were selling for up to $1m. A secure underground parking space in Knightsbridge, London cost £350,000, the paper said.
Those are extreme prices, but all parking is a hassle, as are parking tickets.
There may be people who really cannot manage without a car: those who live in the country, for example, where there are no good bus services.
But the majority of us are city dwellers, and even in those places without good public transport, there will soon be online taxi services, if there aren’t already.
Some will say that none of this matters because cars will soon be self-driving. If so, that is another reason not to buy one you have to drive yourself, whether from a dealer or online.
michael.skapinker@ft.com
Twitter: @Skapinker
July 22, 2015 12:12 pm
Why buying a car makes no sense
Michael SkapinkerMichael Skapinker
In most cities, driving is horrible — there are greener, less stressful and cheaper alternatives
This picture taken on May 9, 2013 shows motorists commuting on a road during a traffic jam in Jakarta. The chronic jams cause losses of 1.8 billion USD (17.2 trillion rupiah) a year, according to official figures that take into account working hours lost, fuel wasted and health care costs for illnesses caused by noxious exhaust fumes. AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO (Photo credit should read BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)©AFP
The news this week that James Hind, 28, has raised £5.9m to launch Carwow, an online vehicle marketplace, took me back to the day when I bought a new car over the internet.
It was 2003, when Mr Hind was still a schoolboy, but, even then, Sir Richard Branson was declaring the whole business of going to a dealership and haggling with a salesman outdated.
By reimporting UK-assembled cars that had previously been exported to Cyprus, Virgin Cars was able to undercut the dealers. You chose a car online, made a payment and picked up your vehicle at an out-of-town garage.
The catch? There wasn’t one. When the car alarm went off for no reason, Virgin Cars sent someone around to fix it. And the Honda Civic, still running, if a little chipped and bumped, has not given a moment’s trouble since then.
So when it finally dies, will I buy a new car online? No. Virgin Cars is no longer around. Shortly after I bought mine, Sir Richard decided to get out of the business. Only 7,000 people were buying his vehicles annually, compared with hoped-for figures of over 50,000.
Carwow, which comes after US online sites such as CarsDirect, works differently from Virgin Cars. The company sends your online car preferences to 1,000 dealers, who contact you with their best offers, pay Carwow a commission and then sell to you directly.
I won’t be using them either. I can no longer see a reason to buy a car. It makes no sense. There are greener, less stressful and cheaper alternatives.
Start with the stress. In most cities, driving is horrible. It is stop-start, boring and bad-tempered.
Many people say they drive because they do not like being crushed against other sweaty, disagreeable commuters. I have driven and I have commuted. Fellow passengers are a great deal more civilised than other drivers — and their odours are less offensive than the emissions you inhale in a car.
In many cities today, there really is no need for a car. Public transport and walking can get you almost everywhere you need to go. It is healthier and it is greener. In London, I don’t drive for weeks, or sometimes months, at a time. (Others have taken to bicycles. I do not regard them as healthier — certainly not in London.)
Do not listen to anyone who tells you London’s transport is unreliable. I have taken the Northern Line, London Underground’s supposed “misery line”, twice every working day for 24 years. It lets me down two or three times a year.
Compare that to the hours drivers spent trapped by roadworks, diversions, or other cars. There is nothing convenient about driving.
In most European and many Asian and US cities, it is far quicker and easier to get around without a car. There are apps to tell you when the trains and buses are leaving. And there are apps to get you a car when you really need one.
In a blog post last year, Kyle Hill, chief executive of HomeHero, which provides carers for the elderly, explained why he had sold his Lexus and decided to do without a car — in Los Angeles.
He said he cycled on journeys up to five miles. For anything longer he used Uber. He calculated it was cheaper than running a car, with its purchase payments, interest, depreciation, insurance, petrol, maintenance and taxes.
And do not, he said, forget parking. At a recent dinner in New York, someone told me he paid $500 a month to park in his apartment building. When I expressed astonishment, everyone else chipped in that that was cheap.
A New York Times article in September said that the average residential parking space in Manhattan cost $136,052 to buy, and that some were selling for up to $1m. A secure underground parking space in Knightsbridge, London cost £350,000, the paper said.
Those are extreme prices, but all parking is a hassle, as are parking tickets.
There may be people who really cannot manage without a car: those who live in the country, for example, where there are no good bus services.
But the majority of us are city dwellers, and even in those places without good public transport, there will soon be online taxi services, if there aren’t already.
Some will say that none of this matters because cars will soon be self-driving. If so, that is another reason not to buy one you have to drive yourself, whether from a dealer or online.
michael.skapinker@ft.com
Twitter: @Skapinker
No comments:
Post a Comment