When your car breaks down you have a choice as to what to do about it.
One choice is to faff around trying to get the car fixed and miss whatever you were planning to travel to; the other is to abandon the car to worry about later and get on with your life.
Sure, in your case maybe you live too far from the airport to cycle, and there aren't any buses, and there aren't any trains, and you don't know anyone who could lend you a car or give you a lift, and a taxi would have cost more than the £60 you lost; I don't know how far you had to travel. But many people faced with a broken down car just get fixated on dealing with the car, and don't stop to work out whether it would be better to find some other means of transport and sort the car out some other time.
Me, I'd go flying, sod the car.