Oil Hammering Commuters

[aa3]

A guy I know drives a Land Rover, that gets very poor gas mileage. He lives way out on a nice property and an ok house. Hes not that high up in the bank, but does pretty well. Anyway talking to him I found out his drive takes about 55 minutes, on a highway most of the way. Works out that to drive in to work and home each day, he pays around £35 pounds.

This guy makes about £40 an hour, so he can handle it. But still it is non-trivial, out of his 7.5 hour day of pay, over 1 hour is gone to pay for the cost of petrol. Remember he is on salary, so pays for gas in after tax income.

I notice a lot of people don't neccessarily commute so far.. but drive incessantly. Like if you tally up all their trips in a single day it is quite impressive how far they have driven. Just look at used cars only 3 years old, often have 60,000 miles on them. It seems hard to imagine, until you realize some people spend their lives going from one place to the next, spending relatively little time at each spot.

In NIMBY utopia, which much of the country is, homes are far spread out, from stores, from recreation centers where the kids sports are, from schools, and from work.

[sossij]

A guy I know drives a Land Rover, that gets very poor gas mileage. He lives way out on a nice property and an ok house. Hes not that high up in the bank, but does pretty well. Anyway talking to him I found out his drive takes about 55 minutes, on a highway most of the way. Works out that to drive in to work and home each day, he pays around £35 pounds.

This guy makes about £40 an hour, so he can handle it. But still it is non-trivial, out of his 7.5 hour day of pay, over 1 hour is gone to pay for the cost of petrol. Remember he is on salary, so pays for gas in after tax income.

I notice a lot of people don't neccessarily commute so far.. but drive incessantly. Like if you tally up all their trips in a single day it is quite impressive how far they have driven. Just look at used cars only 3 years old, often have 60,000 miles on them. It seems hard to imagine, until you realize some people spend their lives going from one place to the next, spending relatively little time at each spot.

In NIMBY utopia, which much of the country is, homes are far spread out, from stores, from recreation centers where the kids sports are, from schools, and from work.

Buy a smaller car?

Edited March 24, 2011 by sossij

[aa3]

People will not lay down their vehicles and excessive driving, until they go broke, and literally don't have the available balance to buy gas/insurance/car payment/maintenance.

Can the price of oil go higher? Yes as long as you see most people still on the road, it means they haven't yet buckled under the cost. Its only when you see demand destruction that the price can come down.

[200p]

Buy a smaller car?

That would mean not keeping up appearances, losing face, going down in the world.

Like those rent forever loser plebs who still use buses at 40.

[sossij]

That would mean not keeping up appearances, losing face, going down in the world.

Like those rent forever loser plebs who still use buses at 40.

Heh heh

I have boundless contempt for anyone who uses a Land Rover as a commuter vehicle, and certainly zero sympathy if they can't afford to run it.

[Ash4781]

People will not lay down their vehicles and excessive driving, until they go broke, and literally don't have the available balance to buy gas/insurance/car payment/maintenance.

Can the price of oil go higher? Yes as long as you see most people still on the road, it means they haven't yet buckled under the cost. Its only when you see demand destruction that the price can come down.

Rubbish.

He works for a bank!

[chronyx]

A guy I know drives a Land Rover, that gets very poor gas mileage.Hes not that high up in the bank, but does pretty well.

The 4 wheel drive system must come in useful for climbing the money piles.

[frenchy]

Heh heh

I have boundless contempt for anyone who uses a Land Rover as a commuter vehicle, and certainly zero sympathy if they can't afford to run it.

ditto

[Bloo Loo]

thousands of very fast Range Rovers on the M25...I think the minimum speed for one with a 10 plate is 90 MPH.

[jfk]

I was on the bus mon and tue morning commuting to work in manc (going along the main commuter route via wilmslow road / oxford road through didsbury/withington/fallowfield/rusholme) and the traffic was horrendous. It was nose-to-tail ... no sign of people cutting down YET

[Olebrum]

Can't he find a productive job closer to home?

[rxe]

55 minute drive - in the UK that would be about 30 miles, because the traffic is so slow. So say a perfectly normal commute from Maidenhead into Central London. Nothing extraordinary about that. The train costs £10 each way if you ditch the Land-Rover, so £20. You have to get to the station in Maidenhead, and home again, so £1 each way on a bus. When you're in London you need to get from Paddington to work, so £2 each way on the tube. Total cost by public transport: £26. So he's only paying £9 for the Land-Rover. If he had to pay to park at Maidenhead station, it would be cheaper to drive the whole way.

You sound like you are in the US, so 55 minutes might be quite a long distance, but even in my 18 mpg 4.6L V8 Land-Rover, it is about the same price as getting the train to pretty much any destination.

I don't believe the problem is the car (he could fix that by buying something a bit more sensible to commute in) - travel in the UK is very expensive, regardless of how you do it.

[OnlyMe]

I was thinking about commuting costs yesterday and how in the past has affected the housing bubble. Cheap(ish) commuiting during the bubble period allowed had some fairly major effects during it - it allowed the bubble to spread further out (and have more of an enhanced pricing effect) from London and other major cities. Higher wages were dispersed further afield and access to stafff which would have been choked off otherwise was maintained by staff being wiling to add another few hours per week to the commute.

So we have auite a large number of people and companies whose work pattern (or wage structure) is becoming untenable due to inflation. London is busy trying to attract high income squatters from all over the world to buy into the bubble whilst high income (but no way near enough to live there) workers are squeezed by the costs of necessary commutes to even consider working there.

No doubt even more companies bitching about skills shortages to come.

[geezer466]

Commuting distances is the key to all this. Years ago before the motorway network was built most people worked reasonably locally to where they live.

It is most prevalent in London and the SE but occurs across the whole UK where there are fast motorways (Perth in Scotland to Exeter in the SW). People can work 50, 60 miles or more from where they live.

Those that have monitored the M25 since it was built will have noticed the increase in commuter traffic year on year as more people branched out further for work.

[fluffy666]

A guy I know drives a Land Rover, that gets very poor gas mileage. He lives way out on a nice property and an ok house. Hes not that high up in the bank, but does pretty well. Anyway talking to him I found out his drive takes about 55 minutes, on a highway most of the way. Works out that to drive in to work and home each day, he pays around £35 pounds.

Costs me about £4 - £4.50 a day in petrol. Same journey on a bus cost £5.10 last time I tried, which was about a year ago, so it's probably gone up now. Takes at least half an hour longer each way and is frequently missing or standing room only. I'd also have to factor in extra childcare costs of at lest £15 per week. Looking at it this way, I could only justify public transport if I swapped the Mondeo for a Ranger Rover Sport (petrol), and drove like a t**t. (Ok, the second part is given).

Oh, and the place I live once had 2 railway stations which would have given me a 20 minute commute..

[sun n sea]

Buy a smaller car?

Shouldn't that be "rent a smaller car"?

I don't know anyone who actually owns their flashy Merc's or Shiny BMW's... they're all rented off the manufacturer with a vast balloon payment due in 3 years.

[Ruffneck]

You guys are forgetting other ongoing costs related to car use - coolant , oil , tyres , oil filters , other repairs.

[winkie]

You guys are forgetting other ongoing costs related to car use - coolant , oil , tyres , oil filters , other repairs.

...mot, tax, insurance.

[PopGun]

Shouldn't that be "rent a smaller car"?

I don't know anyone who actually owns their flashy Merc's or Shiny BMW's... they're all rented off the manufacturer with a vast balloon payment due in 3 years.

The driving equivalent of the Interest Only Mortgage.

Nothing like keeping up appearances.

Edited March 24, 2011 by PopGun

[erranta]

Commuting distances is the key to all this. Years ago before the motorway network was built most people worked reasonably locally to where they live.

It is most prevalent in London and the SE but occurs across the whole UK where there are fast motorways (Perth in Scotland to Exeter in the SW). People can work 50, 60 miles or more from where they live.

Those that have monitored the M25 since it was built will have noticed the increase in commuter traffic year on year as more people branched out further for work.

It's because they are thick idiots who can't read roadmaps and like sitting in road jams on M25 that their (early) GPS systems lead them into.

[fluffy666]

You guys are forgetting other ongoing costs related to car use - coolant , oil , tyres , oil filters , other repairs.

Which just about make the bus fractionally less expensive. Now, about that hour a day out of my life..

[fluffy666]

The driving equivalent of the Interest Only Mortgage.

Nothing like keeping up appearances.

Yes.. it's slightly annoying at first to see an advert headlining a new car for £99/month. Then you notice the 30% deposit and gigantic final payment..

[Ruffneck]

Which just about make the bus fractionally less expensive. Now, about that hour a day out of my life..

Oh toughen up , use public transport for the good of the environment.CO2 = mankinds greatest enemy.

Or have you finally seen the light in the global warming scam?

[interestrateripoff]

Buy a smaller car?

They could still buy a nice large car and probably get better fuel consumption and no loss of face. Has the 2nd price of these gas guzzlers collapsed?

[rxe]

You guys are forgetting other ongoing costs related to car use - coolant , oil , tyres , oil filters , other repairs.

As with MOT and insurance, these are largely fixed costs. You need to get the car serviced regularly whether you do 2000 miles or 12,000.

The incremental cost of doing a journey is the cost of the fuel. Once you've paid for the car, and paid to have it maintained, there is little incentive to not use it.