Commuting by car advice

[Fat Langers]

My old man used to do a similar journey for many years, but went up to sunbury instead of South. He used to leave a 6am every morning but could leave a little earlier so he missed some of the traffic. He did rack up a lot of miles and wear and tear but looked after his cars (regular servicing etc..) and they ran up to 160k and 133k quite easily. It will be tiring though. But it's only for a short period of time and it's a job.
Good luck with it all.

 

[brighton bluenose]

I worked in Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire for 9 months which was 90 miles each way but rather than commute I got a room in a lovely house with a nice family for £100- a week (no grub included!) and that worked really well - OK if you're single I suppose but if you've got young kids might be a problem!

 

[Shoreham Gull]

I travel 86 miles round trip takes 2Hours 15 mins a day, Eastbourne - Reigate...

I do hate the commute but can't find the money around here, I have to leave Reigate by 4pm or it's a nightmare to get home.

I drive 2.0tdi vw passat £145 tax, 55-60mpg at £50 for 420 miles..
Definitely get a diesel car, think it would cost you £14-16 a day in a good mpg diesel car

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Is the train really not an option? I commute to paddington everyday - 3 hour round trip. Its not as bad as it sounds. If that really isnt an option, I would get a diesel car as generally much better on fuel economy. I have a nissan Qashqoi desiel tax is £150 and it does about 600 mpg on a 70 litre tank.

Congrats on the new job and good luck with commuting whatever route you choose.

Bloody hell - that's a good mpg! !!!!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Surely no job can be worth that on a permanent basis. Find a pub or somewhere that will do you a room or B and B deal. Even with the most thrifty car in the world you would probably be knocking on £40 a journey there and back, taking depreciation service and fuel into account.

This.

 

[BensGrandad]

Imagine you support Palace and buy a caravan to stay in plenty of sites around there or find a friendly publican with a car park.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Is the train really not an option? I commute to paddington everyday - 3 hour round trip. Its not as bad as it sounds. If that really isnt an option, I would get a diesel car as generally much better on fuel economy. I have a nissan Qashqoi desiel tax is £150 and it does about 600 mpg on a 70 litre tank.

Congrats on the new job and good luck with commuting whatever route you choose.

Blimey, I thought my Fabia's 55mpg was good.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I do quite a bit of work in Guildford and the surrounding areas. From Burgess Hill I usually go the A281 route, but mostly because I drive that bit of the M25 a lot and it's a bit of a bit of a change for me. If I leave before 7 it takes an hour, after that it can take anything up to 2 hours. Last Thursday I left at 07:20 and arrived just before 9 because there's roadworks and I got stuck behind a lorry.

I've got customers in Farnborough as well and there's basically no good way to get there - the M25/M3 and the Guildford>hogs back>a331 routes are both horrible and slow in rush hour.

IMHO whether it's viable on a daily basis without being soul destroying is entirely dependant on what time you leave. If you leave hove at 6am every day it'll take you about 1.5 hours and I'd say leaving Farnborough anything after 15:30 to 16:00 at the latest and it's going to start taking you 2 hours. Factor in accidents and roadworks over that time and it REALLY doesn't sound appealing.

If they want you to work 9-5 you'll be getting home 12/13 hours after you left pretty much every day and paying about £100 a week in fuel to do it. Only you can know what's best for you, but if it was me I'd want seriously better money than what I'm earning now to do that.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Just realised none of that has anything to do with what you actually asked!!!!! Sorry, don't know anything about cars!

Congrats on the job, guess you've just got to swallow the travel for 9 months - not the end of the world.

 

[BensGrandad]

Slightly OT but we flew home from Malaga sat next to a chap who lived north of Fuengirola and worked in Farnborough. He worked flexi hours and did his 42 hours in 3 days and flew back to Spain for 4 days. So anything is possible if the rewards justify it.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Is the train really not an option? I commute to paddington everyday - 3 hour round trip. Its not as bad as it sounds. If that really isnt an option, I would get a diesel car as generally much better on fuel economy. I have a nissan Qashqoi desiel tax is £150 and it does about 600 mpg on a 70 litre tank.

Congrats on the new job and good luck with commuting whatever route you choose.

Why go to Farnborough, buy one of these & go to Sydney on a single tankfull

 

[Bry Nylon]

Slightly OT but we flew home from Malaga sat next to a chap who lived north of Fuengirola and worked in Farnborough. He worked flexi hours and did his 42 hours in 3 days and flew back to Spain for 4 days. So anything is possible if the rewards justify it.

I know of at least 2 firefighters in Essex who have moved to Spain. They fly into to Stansted in time to do their 2 day shifts followed by 2 night shifts then fly back to Spain as soon as they come off Watch for their 4 days off.

 

[BensGrandad]

I asked the chap why and his answer was cost of property, general standard of living and the discipline in schools for his children.

 

[theboybilly]

I used to commute daily from Shoreham to Eastleigh by car everyday. If the hours I worked made a commute by train viable I'd have done that rather than drive. There's nothing worse than being stuck in traffic, at least on a train you can read, sleep or watch a film.

 

[marshy68]

I totally love my qashqoi... its bloody brilliant!!

 

[marshy68]

Bloody hell - that's a good mpg! !!!!

Blimey, I thought my Fabia's 55mpg was good.

Why go to Farnborough, buy one of these & go to Sydney on a single tankfull

I bloody love my qashqoi!

 

[Kaiser_Soze]

I live in Horsham and work in Bagshot. Not a world away from Farnborough.

I usually leave about 7.15 and get to work for about 9 whichever way I go. The A281 isn't too bad in the morning. Most people driving it are commuters and drive it daily so drive at a sensible speed. In winter you shouldn't struggle so much with tractors. It tends to get a bit sticky at Cranleigh crossroads and Bramley. Then you're clear till you get to the Black Water Valley junction on the Hogs Back. That can queue quite badly.

With the M23/25 you're generally clear of traffic until Leatherhead. It does sometimes clog up going past Gatwick. The M3 can be shocking specially with the Smart Motorway works which run till 2016.

I tend to check Google maps for the best route before I leave although bear in mind whichever way you go, in the 45 minutes or so it takes you to get to the M25 or Guildford, the traffic conditions may have changed a lot and you don't have many options for other routes.

 

[Springal]

It's not that bad if you get used to it and time it right. My office is Bracknell and I do 1-3 days a week there, but always a Friday. Mon-Thur I leave about 6.30 and usually get in the office for 8-8.15. Getting to the M3 coming home can be shitty, but still usually under 2 hour drive coming back. The 50mph average speed should help the M3 having a slower consistent speed rather than constant speed up / slow down / changing lanes.

Fridays can be a complete pig though, especially the M3 for some reason. From Guildford should be a tad easier though.

It can be a pain, but invest in a half decent car, somewhere to plug phone / iPod in and stock up on podcasts!

 

[solly]

Job is paying ok, but not enough to cover staying away all week. It is based in Fanrborough so either 70 miles each way via M23/M25 and A or M3; or about 55 miles via Horsham, Guildford on A roads.

I travelled to Sandhurst for work for a year spent £3.5k on a diesel Volvo S60 returned me an average 40mpg could do it on a tank ful a week (just) using the route to Angmering via Petworth then A3 Hogsback left at 5.50am arrived at 7am left site at 4.45pm home at 6.30pm 6pm on a good day. Avoid the M25 if possible
A mate very often booked a premier inn in advance for around £22-£25/night on a Monday night and a Thursday night which meant he was only doing there and back journey on a Wednesday.
It is tiring but you do get used to it maybe you can carshare with someone locally to do 1 week on and 1 week off or similar.
Good Luck

 

[Publius Ovidius]

I am based in Crawley, but I work from home a few days a week nowadays. I get up to hounslow once a week and that takes around 1 and 3/4 hours each way, whichever way I go...a27/a23/m23/m25/m3 to Heathrow. Yes it is soul destroying but you get used to it.

I recently had a redundancy scare and looking at contracts around brighton,( looking for ITIL positions), it was obvious that to get the money you are back to commuting to London or down Southampton and Portsmouth region.

I drive a BMW 116 sport, which is the diesel one and it costs around £60 to fill my 50 litre tank and I get around 520 miles out of that. The only thing I would say with beamers that may put me off getting another one is the cost of servicing, especially if you are putting in the miles