Rent or Buy your Taxi?

This is a question I am often asked and my answer is always the same, if you are going private hire you should rent first buy later. A lot of the time my advice falls on deaf ears for the simple reason that once someone falls in love with the idea of buying their own shiny new car then there is no telling them otherwise.

I will be honest; lot of people go and but their own car and never look back but the main reasons I say you should rent are:

If you are not in a good financial position the last thing you need in more financial commitments, renting will help you build up some cash.

You never know how you will react to driving a taxi, some love it some detest it... You will not know your genuine feelings for weeks or months. It’s much harder to quit with debts hanging over your head.

You have much more flexibility to work if you rent, if you buy a car on finance the bills don’t stop when you have a week off.

Renting often works out at the same cost as buying a new car. My Skoda cost £210 a week to run excluding petrol, to rent the same car from the operator costs £200 so you see there is not much in it.

If you are convinced you want to buy a car or you have tried rentals and it’s time to move on then I would recommend you buy a second hand car, try to keep below £5000. And either pay cash or spread term of the loan so your repayments are lower, I would aim for no more than £160 per month. After all, this will be deducted from your overall income. Try to avoid hire purchase as its very hard/impossible to get out of the agreement and they will have no sympathy if you struggle to make repayments.
It’s worth remembering that some councils require your car to me no older than 3 years.

My Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDi Taxi

Someone emailed me to ask what car i drive so here is my badboy, Skoda Octavia 1.9 TD, i can get 55mpg on the motorway and its as reliable as the sunrise. The picture was taken in the Swiss Alps near the boarder of Italy (no it wasn't a fare from heaven, i just whent on a driving holiday!)
I get a few emails every week asking my opinion on this or that car, im no Jeremy Clarkson but if you want my opinion feel free to send me a message... Safe driving!

Dont become a taxi driver!

Only kidding, hope i didn't have you going with the title. Just a quick post to apologise to my regular readers for my lack of bloggadge (new word?) of late; I have had a lot of stuff going on in my life lately and there is no signs of it slowing but i will be getting another guide done soon, if anyone wants to request a guide feel free to do so.

I am also toying with the idea of moving my blog to my own hosting and tarting it up a bit for a more professional look.. And i want to get rid of all the ads as i hate making people see them but the clicks I get on ads are one of the few things that helps me a little towards paying the bills... but ideas and actions are two different things.

Its been a GREAT week on the taxis this week, most of the kids have been off for Easter so the roads have been dead and the work plentiful. If it was like this every week it would be the perfect job. However the grand national was on last weekend and i was dragged into a shouting match with some old battle axe in the middle of the street; I arrived outside Iceland to pick the hag up having noticed that she had waited 20 mins for me to arrive. Anyway, she thought it would make her feel BIG if she exercised a bit of power and put on a show for all the people in the street by shouting at the taxi driver (me!) and putting him down.. sadly for the hag she had picked the wrong guy to mess with.. I removed all her shopping from the boot and put it in the middle of the road and politely asked her for an apology or I would not be able to drive her today... making herself look a complete fool she backed down and apologised. Even better she was silent all the way home as she listened to me lecture her about treating her fellow man with some respect for 20 minutes.

Now i want to harp back to the blog title if i may, although i wrote in jest i have to confess that i have resigned my stately position as 'taxi driver' today, it wasn't a snap decision, i have been mulling it over for some time. AND it IS going to be hard to say goodbye to my second home in London and my partners p*rn0s being subsidised by the tax payer but i must march on with my chin up just like any one of out glorious MPs would do. The main reason i have quit is that i am chasing my dream career as a web designer, i have been designing sites for some time and i am now lucky enough to have a few clients on my books including my old taxi company! Needless to say my girlfriend is a little miffed that i don't have much time these days but im sure she realises im working toward a better future for us both (hmm...? Doubt it) There are parts of the job i will really miss and parts i am glad to escape... but I'm not one to dwell on the past so screw it its been a hell of a ride. I will of course keep up this blog up to date and you can email me or comment and i will get back to every one of you as always.

By the way... If any of you guys or girls want a site designing i offer sites from £49 (Now reduced to £19 for a limited time), i haven't got my web design site up yet (to busy making other peoples sites!)...Some weeks i made £500 from my self made taxi site so its well worth doing, you will need an operators licence though! If you want an example of one of my cheaper sites check www.taxiliverpoolairport.co.uk. I will be doing a guide on making extra money via yours and OTHER peoples websites soon; so stay tuned.

Its been good to get all this crap off my chest anyway. If you read this go get a cup of tea because you deserve it.

Thanks

Karl