Why bringing your car to uni is not as great of an idea as you may think

You love Winnie, Claire, Cherry, Ricky, or whatever you’ve named your car to bits. You’ve had enough of being a peasant and taking the bus everywhere, so you decide to bring it with you to Liverpool. You soon learn that what seemed like a GREAT idea at first is actually a curse and here’s why.

The running costs of a car

Did you forget that you actually need to buy fuel for your car to run? Thought so. The more you use your car, the more it costs, and let’s be honest, there is no way your Tesco Meal Deal buying self has budgeted for that. Praying that you have enough fuel to get from A to B every time you get in your car is fine until you actually run out of fuel and look like a complete idiot half way up Smithdown Road. If you’re struggling to fill up, you’re never going to have enough money for everything else that comes with having a car. Least of all parking.

£1.10 for half an hour?! No, thanks. I'd rather leave that towards my meal deal

“I can drive home whenever I want”

One of the reasons you used to convince yourself, and your parents, that taking your car up to Liverpool with you is a great idea, was “I can drive home whenever I want. I’ll come home more often!” Next joke please. Although your parents fell for this, and you had every intention to go home more often back in September, the prospect of sitting in a car for around 3 hours (longer if you have to take the M62) one way when you have a 4000 word essay to write by Monday stresses you out. The Carpool-Karaoke-like session will just have to wait for another time.

Convenience or fun blocker, you decide

So pres are on the other side of Smithdown and it’s tipping it down outside. You are most definitely NOT walking there, so what do you do? Drive there. You manage to fit all your housemates in your tiny Fiat 500, and you’re all pumped for the night ahead, when it suddenly hits you that you either can’t drink, or you drink and leave your car at pres and collect it tomorrow. That’s effort that you’re not willing to put in. Have fun you designated driver!

Pres are the best part of the night… if you're not sober

Free Taxi Services

Your mates would never say it out loud, but they do expect you to give them lifts to places from time to time. Free lifts… “Are you going to Aldi? Mind if I come with? I need a few bits and bobs.” “Will you be driving there? Mind if I come with?” You usually don’t mind but it does get annoying from time to time. You might as well whack an ‘Alpha’ sticker on your car door, ey?

Cars make you lazy

Does the walk from South to North Campus tire you out? If the answer is yes, you need to give up driving EVERYWHERE. Although having a car is a massive convenience, especially if you have friends in Kenny and Smithdown, or live ‘too far’ away from Aldi for your weekly shop, having a car also means you constantly rely on it to get you to places you happily walked to in second year. No one is expecting you to go to the gym, but a gentle stroll to Asda to get some milk might not be the worst of ideas.

One bag of shopping and you drove to get it?! You lazy git!

So unless you have an unlimited supply of money and don’t mind missing out on nights out/can have fun being the only sober one, leave your beloved Renault Clio back home. You’ll have something else apart from a full fridge to look forward to when you eventually go home.