Used cars with monthly costs the same as popular rail season tickets

As the Government urges people to drive to work rather than use public transport in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, savvy commuters can get their hands on second-hand motors for less than the price of a rail season ticket.

Travelling by train isn’t cheap, with the cost of a season ticket into London from Essex’s major commuter town Chelmsford priced at a whopping £4,208 – that’s £350 a month. 

Extend the journey from Peterborough to King’s Cross and the most affordable annual fare is £6,939 (£578 a month). And it’s not just journeys into the capital that are pricey.

Here’s a list of cars you can finance and run for the same cost as popular UK rail season ticket for commuters around the country. 

For those reconsidering their commute to work, online motor seller BuyaCar.co.uk has listed 10 popular cars it has available with finance and money left to spare to cover running costs that are on par with  monthly rail season ticket fees. 

Considering the difficulty of driving into and then parking in central London, it looked only at driving to the outskirts of the capital and some example regional commutes.

A recent survey by Ipsos MORI found that more than three in five (61 per cent) of people polled in early May are concerned about using public transport due to the perceived infection risk.

This research was carried out before the Government suggested workers allowed to return to their jobs on Wednesday use private cars, cycle or walk instead of public transport to reduce the volume of people crammed onto trains, buses and London’s tube network. 

All of the examples given are for three- or four-year-old motors financed over four years on PCP (Personal Contract Purchase), so once the contract ends, customers can either hand the car back or pay a balloon payment at the end to keep the vehicle and own it outright.

Minus the monthly finance figures from the cost of the comparable season ticket price and commuters are left with over £100 each month to cover the cost of to run the car, including tax, insurance, servicing bills and fuel. 

These are just examples of the cost of some models available, though there are likely to be better deals elsewhere for both the new and second-hand car market. 

BuyaCar has deliberately avoided showing only routes into central London, as most of these are not feasible for most drivers due to traffic volumes and a lack of parking.

Many workers in the capital are also likely to be put off driving into their places of employment given Transport for London’s announcement that the Congestion Charge and ULEZ (all 10 examples here are ULEZ exempt) – which had both been suspended since lockdown began – will be reintroduced on Monday.

And in an additional blow to Londoners heading back to their jobs, Sadiq Khan will temporarily increase the cost of the former from £11.50 to £15 a day and make it enforceable for longer hours and weekends.  

With that said, the one example given for capital commuters is for Shenfield into Stratford, which costs £285.70 by rail each month. For the same price a driver could instead opt for a 2016 Seat Ibiza and have almost £172 to cover the cost of insurance, tax, servicing and fuel.

Another example given is a three-year-old Nissan Juke equal to the cost of commuting from Bedford to St Albans using a rail season ticket, with enough change to cover insurance, servicing, road tax and fuel for the 67-mile round trip each month.

Or, for the commuter who wants to switch into the ‘cleanest’ possible public transport alternative, there’s the option of swapping the £362.50 rail fare between Basingstoke and Woking for buying and running a three-year-old Nissan Leaf. 

Again, the difference between the car finance payments and the season ticket cost can cover charging costs, insurance, road tax and servicing.

BuyaCar’s calculations are based on the typical way most drivers fund used cars from dealerships (inclusive of warranties and pre-sale checks) along with common working practices. 

This means taking PCP finance over four years – with no upfront deposit needed in some cases – and working 261 days per year, with one day of teleworking each week and 20 days’ holiday.

For those commuters wanting more luxury a 2017-registered BMW X5 can be financed on the same terms and still save money compared with the equivalent £565.70 monthly rail season ticket between Reading and Swindon.

BuyaCar.co.uk’s finance expert, Christofer Lloyd, said: ‘The motor retail industry is buzzing with talk of customers whose desire to replace their car is partly due to worries about infection risks on public transport. 

‘This is no surprise, but what will surprise many people is that commuters can often feasibly run a car for a similar cost to their normal train commute.

‘With commuter rail routes often notoriously overcrowded we believe many people are looking for affordable ways to avoid them, at least while the Covid-19 crisis continues.

‘Our list of cars that offer comparable costs to a range of typical monthly rail season tickets shows that swapping into a reliable car is a financially realistic option for many people.’