I travel 60 miles to get to work. I start work at 08:30. This is my choice, and I also choose to have a car, as it allows me to get to work. I also need a car in order to visit relatives who live all over the country. At the end of this week, I am going to London with my wife and our youngest daughter. The train fare is £164.50. This is considerably more than the petrol to get us there and back would cost. We are still going by train, but buying a car is not, in my humble opinion, a waste of money.

When I found out that my dad had suffered a heart attack, I had to get to the hospital, quickly. A car meant I managed it. The same thing happened when he had a stroke. And when he was diagnosed with cancer. Waste of money? Naaah.

The last time I seriously looked at buying a car I worked out that I could go everywhere I would need a car for, by taxi for less than it would cost to insure, tax, and put petrol in a car. And that's before I looked at things like like servicing, repairs, MOT or the cost of actually buying one in the first place.

At my last place of work it was often quicker (and usually a lot more healthy and relaxing) to walk the 30 minutes between my house and the office than to attempt the journey by car, and when I looked at my work colleagues, their biggest source of stress was nearly always their car and its associated costs.

IMO the whole car industry is nothing but an overpriced con and I'm glad I've been able to resist buying into it.

I live in Manchester and I go to the north of Scotland several times a year. It's a roughly 850 mile round trip. Good luck getting a taxi that'll take you on that sort of journey. Yes, I can do it by public transport. It takes two days - or at least, it can't be done in one single day - and costs roughly £300 including all fares and overnight B&B stays. Plus two days back and two days forth is a fair chunk out of a week's holiday. And I'd have to carry my luggage between each change over.

I want to get to work every morning for 9AM. This is not actually possible via public transport. The first bus that goes past my house would drop me off at the train station after the latest train that would get to work on time leaves.

Your set of use cases don't support the car as an option. That's entirely fine. But that idea that because of that the entire car industry is ' a con' is possibly one of the more bizarrely self-centred things I've heard in some time.

Haven't bought a car from a 'dealer' in a very long time. We need cars (35 miles each way to work and 78 miles to the nearest parents) but we opted for old classics. I drive a 23 year old Saab 900, Red has a 21 year old Saab 9000 and we have a 'spare' 18 year old 9000 because we can't really be without one. I always buy from people, but then I also have the luxury of being able to repair and maintain a car myself. Most people just aren't interested or able, so they buy a car with at least a reasonable chance of keeping it on the road for a decent length of time without something expensive going bang.

I'd be happy to live close enough to everything in my life that I could walk/take public transport or taxi, but that's just not my life.

OK I don't like cars. I see them as being incredibly overpriced for what they can do for me. I don't like driving. It took me a long time to learn and pass my test, and these days I drive as little as possible. I can't do anything else while I'm driving, and personally I can't even have music on as I find it too distracting. To me when there are already more things I'd like to be doing each day then I have time for, driving is dead and wasted time.

TBH the only car I could contemplate owning would come with a chauffeur.

'Driverless' transport would suit you it seems. As it would most people most of the time to be fair.

Where I currently work, walking to work would be a brisk 8 hour walk there and a further 8 hours back.

Running a car is cheaper than train tickets to work. And it is convinient for shopping - it would be a 40 minute walk to the supermarket and then having to carry 60-70Kg back the same distance...

How do you get all of your gear to gigs, if you or other band members don't have a car or van?

The band owns a van. It's the single largest drain on the band finances, costing even more than our share of the the rehearsal room rent, but having one vehicle that can carry all the band and their gear is more cost effective than everyone making their own way to gigs. In the present musical climate where the live performance is the main source of income for over selling recordings it's a necessary evil. For local gigs we'll normally book a taxi or two (depending on how much gear we need to bring) as the price difference is negligible.

Needed or wanted?

Surely you'd want something else to check for you?

Something?

Someone.
Stupid IPhone.