[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by 1100D

Your car won't turn your commute request down! (Unless it is unwell)

This should be merged with the thread for the new gen app bases cab (Uber Ola etc) thread

Tell me about that.

Just today morning, I booked an Ola from the service station. The driver called, asked where I had to go, and then refused. His justification, he won't get a return ride from there. He asked me to cancel. I said, "you do it". Booked again, this time a smaller cab. The driver calls up, and says, he is too far from my place.

Finally took an auto.

Can't match the freedom your own car gives.

ps: This is in Trivandrum.

[speedmiester]

Cabs or self drive rental cars are feasible as alternatives for Car ownership only during planned travels.
A personal car is a must in case of emergency and for the peace of mind it offers.
Somethings can never be valued in terms of money.

[ashua]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

Cabs or self drive rental cars are feasible as alternatives for Car ownership only during planned travels.
A personal car is a must in case of emergency and for the peace of mind it offers.
Somethings can never be valued in terms of money.

Exactly my thoughts. All the Cabs or rentals require some amount of planning. This is true even for the 'Ride Now' type cabs that you won't find during the peak times. Commute becomes another thing on your mind that you need to plan about.

The second part is about the feeling of ownership. You never feel as much for a rental car as you for your own. You take extra care of your own car, keep it clean inside out. Make sure you avoid the pot holes and slow down for the speed bumps. The car adapts to your driving style. None of this you will get by driving a rental which typically always get abused as they are driven so much.

[rockyjee]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

Truth is, a car is a quarter of a home.

Hiring a cab might make economic sense than owning one, but there is much more in life than saving money.

Originally Posted by DCEite

A car ownership is not just means of transport from point A to point B.
Its a instrument of freedom and flexibility. Freedom to go wherever you need to and whenever you need to, with whatever you need to.

Originally Posted by Kumar R

Some things are priceless. Having a secure means of transport that is available anytime, anywhere, any weather, any destination with on-the-fly route change, storage and security is invaluable at times.

Epic quotes by fellow BHPians! I wish others could have shared the same thought...

Your own car, your own safe and secure zone cannot be paralleled by a shared taxi.

How many of us are comfortable in taking their wives and children in a cab shared by dont-know-who drunks-taking-the-cab-back-to-avoid-cops...

Your own car, just like your other earthly possessions, is your thing, you use it for taking your wife home after marriage, taking her to the doctor for your child's birth, taking your child back from the hospital, to school on the first day.

So there are some things that money can buy, and there are some things that it cannot, even if that thing depreciates, its worth it!

Fun comparison, no hard feelings and its

But, you know that a wife will cost more, its much cheaper to maintain a girlfriend
there are no annual anniversaries (insurance), no quarterly servicing (trips to the mall and parlors), no maintenance (again trips to the mall and parlors), no depreciation ()

Yet most of us take the plunge, right?

[sourabhzen]

My Swift is about to complete 1,00,000 km run in a couple of days time. When I installed Maruti's App on my phone, I did a broad cost analysis of my ownership. I considered the following for analysis:

1. Average petrol cost over past 7 years
2. Servicing and repairing cost
3. Battery replacement, alloy wheels' and tyre change costs
4. Depreciated cost of the car

The average per km cost of ownership came to INR 9.74. I have 2008 Swift Vxi with 1.3 L engine. The figure will definitely improve for a diesel car or a car with better fuel average.

[Joyb]

There are many instances in our daily life when only your own vehicle can save the day:-

1) Baby's milk and diaper over, rush to the chemist 1 kms away to grab them quickly;

2) Suddenly you have guests coming over, rush out and in a 3 kms radius you find everything from snacks to drinks to food etc etc..

3) Medical emergency at home, grab your keys and you are at the hospital in 10 mins flat;

4) A friend needs urgent help, rush out and you are there along with him on the deserted road giving moral and practical support- 15 mins flat


There can be many more examples, the basic point is that the cabs are helpful only in planned situations like getting dropped of at Airport, going for a party etc. For everything else: Saadi Gaddi is the Best

[blackasta]

I for sure would not hail a OLA / Meru / Uber in times of emergency and wait !
My car is like my extension - wherever it is possible/feasible/realistic, I try to drive.
The peace of mind knowing that your trusted ride is just beside you in any/odd hours is so very comforting!

[Rajeevraj]

The Firstpost article focuses purely on economics and that too is quite over simplified. Takes a specific set of numbers and builds the argument around it.

In my view all these complement each other. Buses, Metro, private cars, bikes, radio/app based taxis, autos all have their pro's and cons. If the focus is on economics, as a consumer, it is up to me to see how to use all these to minimize my economic impact while at the same time ensuring my requirements are met.

Specific to the argument relying on cabs and not buying a car, based on recent experiences, of the top of my head I can list the below reasons why it is not possible to rely on cabs alone

• Availability: Although number of cabs on the road has increased dramatically, there is no guarantee of getting one when you need. Especially during the peak times which is when typically everyone will need a cab.
  
• Cost: I think the honeymoon period on the rates are getting over. I consistently see Uber' surge pricing at 2.6, 2.7 during peak times (few months back it was generally 1.x). Similarly Ola also is doing the same.
  
• Location: Cabs are not available consistently across all locations. If you are a little away from the main roads, it takes a lot of time to get one (if you can get a driver to accept the ride).

Above all, the value of time. The cost associated with the time spent in waiting for a cab/the delays it can cause cannot be quantified in such a comparison. This can be a small impact or can be priceless (say missing a flight/train or getting delayed to an life changing event)


On a related topic: Today's Times of India-Bangalore Edition, talks about self drives: 'Why own a car when you can rent one'

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/47874091.cms

Edit: Again, all this is valid for the people for whom the car is just a means of getting from point A to B. For anyone who enjoys driving even a wee bit, he/she is going to buy a car irrespective of the amount of economics you throw

[speedmiester]

Apart from the economics of car ownership, one has to factor in the liabilities arising out of using cabs/self drive cars.

What if god forbid, one gets into an accident due to ill maintenance of cabs/self drive cars.
There are multiple instances where people have been killed in accidents due to negligent driving by cab drivers. No operator will accept responsibility for poor maintenance and will put the blame on the cab driver/ renter on the incident.

Yes, cabs/rental cars are here to stay, but they can never fully replace self owned car.

[varunanb]

Originally Posted by Cowardly Lion

http://www.firstpost.com/business/ub...p-2317118.html

From the article -

Consider the costs and benefits of owning car.
#1: You are buying a depreciating asset. This is a cost few buyers take into account while buying a car
#2: You have maintenance and related costs: quarterly servicing, accidents and repairs, loan servicing costs (EMIs), parking and annual insurance.
#3: Then you have running costs: you have to pay for the fuel, parking (both at home and where you work), and possibly keeping a driver.

Apart from the above three, the space occupied by it is prime real estate and is not cheaper too.

Even for a car costing as low as 2 to 3 lakhs, you need to invest additional money to park them in your apartment.

But whatever reasons you have to not buy a car, the reasons to buy one however stupid, outweighs the cons.

Women have jewellery cloths etc., but men have only cars, cars etc.

[drsingh]

An added benefit of keeping a small city car for convenience is that you can skip on comprehensive insurance and make do with third party insurance.

And use the savings for topping up your life insurance or health insurance. :-)

[turbo_delight]

In some way economics might look better with ola's/uber's/meru's, temporarily. But, if we wait for a few more months, i don't think the answer will be same. The main reason is that currently, they have venture money and they are spending it as if its their own money.

Now, at some point, the venture capitalist will ask for a return on their investments. At that time, our end user costs will surely be not as low as what we are paying now. Already we can see "surge pricing, waiting time, driving time etc etc". For example, the "surge pricing". This can be easily done artificially, and cab aggregators can easily prove that indeed the "demand" was more, hence the "surge pricing". The moment you see cost of 2x or 3x times, you will want to have your own car.

It won't be because we are paying more , but it'll be because of the feeling that "we have been taken for a ride".

[glenmz]

As expected of the forum, the responses are one sided .
Citing my 2 experiences with 2 different providers.
Once we booked TFS cab after a team dinner. Since it already started drizzling, no other cabs were available. As soon as we got in the cab, the driver started cribbing as he had to drive thru the rains. The rains intensified. My friend who booked the cab has only booked it till Sarjapur signal as she was getting down there. I had to plead him to drop me near Vrindavan tech park.

Second instance, we booked a Uber to Airport. His AC was not working and we didnt want to drive with the windows down since we had a 1 week old baby. Had to sweat it out for 2 hours.

So, I don't think we can put a price for convenience.

[Chetan_Rao]

Funny this thread pops up when I'm conducting this experiment on myself

I sold my car a couple months ago, and yet to decide on a new one. I don't need a car to commute (office transport available) and cabs/self-drives are meeting my 'car' requirements for now, and I haven't really gotten into a situation where I miss owning a car. Add the advantages of not having to worry about parking, rats chewing up stuff and an assortment of vehicle-owner nightmares, and I'm sort of enjoying this car(e)-free period.

That being said, I'm a petrol-head out-and-out and WILL buy a car at some point in the future, but I thought the experience is worth sharing, esp. since it's nowhere near the "I won't have a car when I need one" doom & gloom scenarios.

[@KP]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

Truth is, a car is a quarter of a home.

I couldn't agree more with you on this. There have been situations when my wife and I have had more meaningful conversations during our long drives than the ones we have had at home.

There is something about those conversations during long drives which you cannot describe and you obviously cannot do them during a taxi commute

Also, self-drive car rentals are atleast 2-3 years away before becoming mainsteam