The man who lives in his car in Cornwall says he has never been happier

Living in a car may sound like a nightmare to most people, but Maciej Bober, 41, who quit his job, left his home and drove to Cornwall, says life that he has “improved enormously” and that he now embraces a new freedom. He arrived in Penzance on the night of June 1, 2023 and says he has never been happier or “less stressed”.

Previously, Maciej lived in Northampton for 10 years and held “lots” of different jobs while struggling to maintain a relationship and cope with the loss of his father in 2017. Deciding he needed to make a radical change life, left behind a £550-a-month house sharing an eight-bed property and headed west.

He got a job as an UberEats driver, earning between £300 and £400 a week, and later moved into his Fiat 500 which he parks on side roads and in car parks. All his belongings are stored in the boot of his car and his salary goes on car insurance, food and a £45 gym membership just to use the shower.

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When it comes to food, Maciej says he mostly eats takeout — for “convenience” — but also buys bread to make sandwiches. Since moving to Cornwall, he says he has made lots of friends in the Cornish town where he was on holiday in early 2023.

Maciej, from Gliwice, Poland, visited Bodmin, Saltash, Newquay and Truro but says Penzance was “by far” his favorite town. After packing up his life, he traveled to Penzance that same night and pitched a tent.

He lived in various campsites for six months before realizing it would be cheaper for him to stay in his car.

He explained: “I decided that I spend so much time in my car that it wouldn’t make any difference if I slept in it too. However, there are good parts and bad parts – but my experience has been mostly positive “.

Since moving, Maciej has gone on a number of ‘adventures’ while living out of his car – including climbing Land’s End and traveling from campsite to campsite.

He said: “I met a lot of great people here, I even met someone camping for a while. My friend from Truro, a climber, took me to Land’s End. It was nice.”

According to Maciej, he says it’s no comparison to Northampton, which he always disliked because of the “greyness”. He claims his seven colleagues often kept him up at night and he felt the area was unsafe.

On March 2, 2023, his owner asked him to leave via email. He decided that this would be the best time to uproot his life and leave the city for good.

“Northampton is a depressing place,” he said. “There’s something about it – it’s quite gray and dirty. It doesn’t have a safe atmosphere either.

“Some things happened in my life that were quite traumatic for me; I had a few heartaches and my father died. It got to the point where everything about Northampton reminded me of depressing things.”

Maciej is loving life again and has exciting plans to live in his car elsewhere in the future.

He said: “Living in my car makes me feel free – and for me, freedom is the most important thing. I don’t have to pay rent and I can live wherever I want.

“When I decide to leave Penzance, I can go. I’d like to live in Glastonbury for a while or somewhere in Devon.”