Cars And Frugality: What The Experts Say

I have written quite a bit on saving on cars and car expenses before.  The most recent post gave the options you have, should you decide to buy a used car locally. Here we talked about purchasing cars, and whether it makes sense to take a loan to buy a car, and on this post I gave 5 practical tips to save on gas. If you read these posts, one thing that comes out quite clearly is that I’m not a car expert. Save for the post on fuel that was written by an engineer, the rest are rookie posts, outlining things that have worked for me, which may not necessarily work for everyone.

Today I share practical tips from around the web, to add to your knowledge base on how you can make car ownership as easy on your pocket as possible.

Forbes gives you 10 gas-saving tips you can actually use. Most are painfully obvious, we think about them all the time, but rarely execute on them. For example, changing your car to a cheaper model. Most of us are stuck with inefficient guzzlers because we “like them”, or because we use that once a year out of town weekend to justify the size and 4WD features, and they end up costing us more in fuel and maintenance, than if we rented a similar vehicle.

Cheapism has a good guide for buying hybrid cars. I found it very useful, I don’t know why we look down on hybrid cars. My main issue with them has been engine power, but then again, how many times in Nairobi do you need to accelerate from 0-100kph in seconds? Actually, do we ever get to drive at 100kph at all? Food for thought.

Biking to work isn’t very popular in Kenya, mostly because of road safety, but also because bicycles are considered an inferior mode of transport. After reading these 18 reasons why you should bike to work, I’m almost convinced to learn how to bike. It may not be practical to bike to work every day, but it definitely makes sense for Fridays and Saturdays.

Want to quit your smoking habit and at the same time save on transport costs? Start walking to work. Walking actually reduces the craving for that cigarette.

Have a frugal week!