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Car clubs offer alternative to second car

Thursday, 03 Jul 2008 13:36
Car club members could halve the cost of driving by joining up, apparently
It is becoming increasingly difficult to run a second car in today's economic climate, but what other solution is there?

City Car Club offers one, granting members access to locally parked cars at all hours of the day, every day of the year.

The vehicles can be booked for less than £6 per hour, used easily for supermarket shopping, the school run or other such tasks.

The club pays for all the insurance, maintenance, road tax, breakdown cover and even throws in 50 miles of free fuel every day.

A survey carried out on UK families who own two cars has shown that those asked spend only 4.6 hours a week actually driving the car, which would cost members of City Car Club around £26 per week for this kind of usage, and that includes petrol.

City Car Club chief executive, James Finlayson, said: "The recent budget and the credit crunch have made running a second car an unaffordable luxury.

"But also it’s unnecessary because for most of the time the car lays idle but costs for parking maintenance, insurance, road tax, breakdown cover and depreciation still have to be paid, and so families end up paying a fortune for a second car that they hardly use.

"It’s only when you look at how much it effectively costs per hour of use that you realise how crazy it is."

According to RAC figures, a motorist driving 4,000 miles a year in a Ford Mondeo would pay around £2,400 in insurance, petrol, maintenance, depreciation, road tax and parking. A City Car doing the same mileage will cost just £1,200.

City Car Club has seen membership shoot up by as much as 228 per cent in some regions since the Budget this April in which the tax rises were announced.

It has signed up over 1,000 new members in the last three months and now has over 6,000 members in UK.

Using the car club is really easy. Bookings can be made directly from the cars at a moments notice, on the internet at www.citycarclub.co.uk or over the telephone on 0845 330 1234.

Cars are parked in designated parking bays and, once booked, members gain access with their personal membership card (totally keyless access).

Their PIN is entered onto the onboard computer and then just drive away. Journeys made are itemised on a monthly statement.

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