Can you Run a Car Without it Hurting?

Whenever we look at our finances it’s a classic move to overlook certain things.

Mobile phone – well, that’s an essential outgoing, right?

Broadband too – hey, suck it up; there’s no way around it.

Car? You know what, it just costs a load and we’ve got to learn to try and ignore that there’s a depreciating drain on our cash sitting on the driveway…

…or do we? Perhaps it doesn’t have to be entirely that way.

I was kindly asked by Europcar to try out their "Long Term Hire" scheme. The idea is really simple: imagine one payment, covering car, mileage, insurance and valeting every 28 days? Much like a lease but easy to either end or continue at the end of the period with a ￡250 deposit.

Even better is that the monthly price is comparable to owning a car. But the difference? You’re not paying out for something that will typically depreciate.

And starting at only a few hundred quid a month for the entry level cars, this starts getting really compelling.

The fun part was that there are two classes of car: core and selection. "Core" vehicles are the standard types – I had 2017 European Car of the Year, the Peugeot 3008 SUV. With a big trip to Scotland planned, 1,000 miles in a car that would subsequently be valeted, serviced and (if I wanted) replaced with a different car, it seemed far more intelligent than using a car of my own.

The "Selection" class of vehicles are the luxury range and I was treated in the new Mercedes GLE coupe – a 250hp monster that could breed a superiority complex in the meekest of drivers!

Sure – this could form an alternative to a lease car. But for someone like me that every so often has an intense period of driving; over August I was running an event in London, had a five hour round trip to Rutland Water and a visit to Scotland. That meant close to 2,000 miles was driven across just four weeks. Not to mention it being the summer holidays and my children need a taxi driver! It was an ideal scheme to make me feel looked after and inject some reliability and comfort into the driving.

I was fortunate to have been asked to try the scheme out, but would I do it myself?

I really would – in those instances when I have a lot of travel on with my events company, coinciding with perhaps a family trip or a business meeting, it makes such sense to arrive in comfort and feel looked after in a nice car.

It also means you don’t push your own car too much and leave it alone for the big trips. If you will own a car, perhaps you leave it in the garage when the alternative is only further accelerating its depreciation by roasting the milometer!

Find out more about Europcar’s long term hire at longtermhire.europcar.co.uk

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