[really_gonna_rock]

I mean....buying a car is expensive. Running a car is expensive. There's petrol, oil, road tax, insurance, MOT, repairs, etc. Not to mention parking costs, etc. As a student, why not just use public transport? Buy a weekly bus pass or travel card instead, and avoid the running costs of a car.

Not wishing to start any kind of argument here, but is there any advantage as a student to having a car, when students are struggling for money as it is?

[Jackso]

I really wouldn't bother unless you would absolutely depend on it. Just wait until you've graduated and then need one for a job, and even then public transport might be better depending on where you live. The disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

[fluttershy]

I paid £300 for an academic years worth of bus travel which gets me too and from University (about 15miles away) and also gives me unlimited travel around the city, so if I go into the city after University it costs me nothing, and I can even visit a friend who lives on the other side of the city for free too. On rare occasions I borrow my parents car, and I can do 5 return trips by putting £20 worth of petrol in, which usually lasts me around a month. I'm in 4 days a week so using the car would cost about £16 a week, and that's without going into the city (add a few £ for buses or even more for parking and petrol). It would have cost me more in petrol up to now than the bus pass did, and that's without paying tax, insurance and MOT if I had my own car. Whilst my parents car is fairly large it will get 35-40mpg, so I'd struggle to get a petrol car that could do much better than that. Not even that much slower. It's an hour on the bus. Can do it in about 25mins in the car with a good run, but that's rare, in the morning 45mins isn't unusual, and it's a longer walk from the carpark to where most of my lectures and labs are than the bus stop.

[JC.]

If you want something in life badly enough you'll work hard until you get it.
When I was at uni, I always had at least 1 car. At one point I had 5.

[Maccees]

Because I love my car, simples haha.

[snufkin_]

Regarding costs - My car was free (nope, not a present from daddy, my friend was moving to australia and needed shot of the car quickly so I took him on), never have to top up the oil (my mechanic sorts all this stuff out for me regularly), road tax is only around £120 a year, insurance is just a little over a grand, MOT it passed with flying colours, and regarding repairs - the only repairs i've had since getting it is when someone broke into it (so i don't really class it as a repair), and it had a slight oil leak, and parking costs? I don't pay any. All in all it works out a LOT cheaper for me to drive then take public transport.

So.. advantages to owning a car for me?

Cheaper than what I'd spend on public transport
I travel every weekend in order to go to work, now it would cost £25 for an open return there/back, and £13 for bus travel. Not to mention the taxis it would cost, when I do the weekly shopping for a sick relative, or take them to hospital appts etc. It costs me around £15 for petrol, as well as buzzing around other places I probably wouldn't go without a car.

Flexibility (i.e when travelling down for assesment centres for grad schemes I had to go all over the UK, much easier to go by car, also when moving flat/getting shopping etc. enables me to do my job, look after a sick relative, go to uni as well as take impromptu trips)

I don't have to depend on the ever unreliable rail/bus network.

Now I understand everyones situation is different, but these are why I personally spend money on petrol and own a car.

[Benj92]

I'm at college at the moment and I have my own car that I've paid for with my own money.

My college is in a town that's about a 30 minute drive from the town I live in. There's a college bus that only £20 for the year (and I've paid for it) but then it only gets to college for 9 and leaves college at 5:15, which is fine when I've got lessons all day or coursework to catchup on. But then on a Monday I don't have any lessons until 1, or on a Wednesday I finish at 12.15 and I don't want to wait around for 4 or 5 hours to get the college bus.
I can get the public bus home but there's no direct bus from college to where I live, so it means having to get a public bus to a city to get another bus to where I live, which will cost me £6 and take a little under 2 hours - I'd much rather have my own car and get home in half an hour.

I've still got another year of college but I don't think I'll be taking my car when I (hopefully) get to university, as I hope to be living in student accommodation near the university and won't have as much need for a car.

[Longorefisher]

I've just brought a car for use at home. I go to uni about 15 miles away from where I live and everything is within walking distance from my accomodation there which is fine (and, due to their regulations, I'm obliged to live in). However, at home, I live in the middle of nowhere. Public transport is VERY limited (no buses Sundays/Bank Holidays, hourly buses to the nearest city in the daytime and then at night - two buses back). For me, in the long Uni holidays, having transport is a necessity to facilitate employment, socialising etc. It was the last five weeks off that sort of made me realise.

A lot of whether you need a car just depends on circumstance. For my other friends at Uni who live in major cities, they can survive very readily without vehicles. For me, that just simply is not an option.

[Emma:-)]

(Original post by really_gonna_rock)
I mean....buying a car is expensive. Running a car is expensive. There's petrol, oil, road tax, insurance, MOT, repairs, etc. Not to mention parking costs, etc. As a student, why not just use public transport? Buy a weekly bus pass or travel card instead, and avoid the running costs of a car.

Not wishing to start any kind of argument here, but is there any advantage as a student to having a car, when students are struggling for money as it is?

There are advantages and disadvantage of having a car during education.
If you need one- for example the public transport in your area isnt great or your college/uni is a longer drive away or whatever- and you can afford to buy and run a car, then its worth having one.
But if theres plenty of public transport about/you live near college or uni/you cant afford to buy and run a car/ or you just dont need one, then id wait untill you ave finished education to get a car.