"I broke up with my car. And I haven't looked back."

I used to drive to work. It was 30km each way, including a stretch of dirt road and a car ferry over a river.

Scenic? Serene? Not exactly.

I’ve never had a very good relationship with cars. It wasn’t my choice to drive to work, but living in the country, I had no other option.

I failed my driving test miserably the first couple of times. An older work colleague agreed to take me out for a lesson, but when he had to grab the steering wheel to stop us going over a cliff into the river, he refused to take me ever again. My boyfriend took me out a few times, but even he would get a bit concerned when I would forget things like turning on the headlights when driving at night.

Finally I managed to pass my driving test and bought my first car from a classified ad in the paper. The guy who was selling it to me felt so guilty that he knocked a bit off his own asking price and informed me, apologetically, that it was missing second gear.

Just as an FYI, this post is sponsored by Youi. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100 per cent authentic and written in their own words.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the car’s biggest problem. A friend’s husband told me that this particular model had a tendency to burst into flames. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

One day, as I drove onto the car ferry, I saw fire coming from under the bonnet.

“Can you please remove your vehicle?” the ferry operator asked me.

WATCH: The funniest driving lesson ever.

“Uh, no,” I said, jumping out of the car and backing away.

Luckily, the ferry had a fire extinguisher.

Somebody once stole that car while I was at work. I have no idea why. They must have regretted it pretty quickly, because a couple of days later it was found parked just a few hundred metres away.

Smart thieves.

Then there were the kangaroos. Such a cute animal, unless you’re driving at dusk through the country. Skippy was a pack of lies. Kangaroos aren’t smart. They have no road sense at all.

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Sometimes they would stand on the edge of the road, as if waiting for my car to come by before jumping. Occasionally they would casually hop down the road in front of my car.

Did I mention driving on a flat tyre because I didn’t know how to change it? Cooking the engine because I didn’t check the water? The flat battery from forgetting I’d turned my lights on during the morning fog? The plagues of locusts? The blind rabbits?

Eventually I moved to the city. I started renting a terrace house in an inner suburb, and somehow stumbled into an amazing job. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was.

I caught a bus to work, and loved it. I could read while someone else drove me to my office. Even at peak hour, when it was so packed that I was pressed up against other people’s armpits, I didn’t mind.

Another advantage: I saved on car insurance because I wasn’t driving to work. Bonus.

My poor old car sat parked at home, barely going anywhere. But me, I was out and about.

New town. New job. New opportunities.

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Why not make the switch today? Call 13 YOUI or got to youi.com.au