Doing more calculations here and need some help!
I'm just working out the running costs...
How much (roughly) is a tankful of petrol?
How much is an MOT?
How much is an annual service?
Other costs I've worked out are:
Road tax
Insurance
breakdown cover
Are there any other costs I've forgotten about? And if so, roughly how much are they?
I'm thinking of buying something like a Honda yarris or a toyota jazz, if that helps or makes any difference!
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>> I'm thinking of buying something like a Honda yarris or a toyota jazz, >>
Are you trying to confuse us mere males young lady ? (Easy done in my case). :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 23 Aug 10 at 11:43
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Hello Hope :-)
A tank of petrol costs roughly £35-50 but it, of course, depends on how big the tank is.
An MoT test officially costs £50 or thereabouts but there are plenty of garages that offer them cheaper than that, but beware as they can then find things wrong that other garages wouldn't necessarily pick out - they have to make their money somewhere if you know what I mean?
A service should be around £100 for a basic one, up to £200 or so for a more indepth one. It's not really worth using a main dealer as they are generally much dearer than your local independent and as long as you specify to your garage that you want them to use original manufacturer parts, any warranty that you have will still be valid. Finding a good garage can be tricky but ask around and if one name keeps popping up then it's a fair bet that they're a decent garage.
Incidentally, you don't fancy a 2001 Fiat Punto, do you....? :-)
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You will also need to renew the tyres, best to budget for mid range ones. The cheapest can be short of grip in the wet, not good for a newish driver.
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Tyres. If two tyres cost £150 and you need to replace two every 20,000 miles that makes about 0.75p per mile.
Do make sure you put the new ones on the back.
};---)
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you are buying a s/h car things break
just been talking to a bloke who's clutch went yesterday on his pewgot,he aint going to get many jars change out of a bag o sand on this one
so motoring is still a bit of a gamble
you need to roll the dice and hope your number doesn't show
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Another thought, You really need a contingency fund for the unexpected repair, cars are usually reliable these days but a stone cracking your windscreen for example will cost you your insurance excess, £10 or so for a puncture repair, the occasional windscreen wiper replacement £10 to £30, and a clutch will cost a minimum of £200.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 23 Aug 10 at 12:02
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And do allow something for contingencies. You might accept a £500 insurance excess in exchange for a lower premium, but have you got the cash in reserve if you need to make a claim? Similarly, a misplaced 15mm screw from a tradesman's van - and there seemed to be a lot of those in the town I used to live in - can put an unrepairable hole in a tyre you might have expected to last another year. A flying stone can crack a windscreen or smash a headlamp, and if it does it should be an inconvenience and not a catastrophe.
Any of this that you don't use you can simply put towards the eventual replacement of the car.
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Excuse ON and me while we independently make exactly the same thing for lunch.
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Mine is a sandwitch, having just returned from a short cruise with five course meals and 24 hour snacks I am lucky to get fed at all. :-)
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Don't forget the big one - depreciation!
Most £5k mainstream brand used cars today will be worth around £2k in 3 yrs time. If you're only doing 6,000 miles a year, on a cost per mile basis, that's 17p a mile which is a bigger factor than the fuel cost on a small car, and certainly more than you'd expect to pay for 3yrs typical servicing and tyres, even at a main dealer.
Of course, by buying used, you are significantly better off in this respect than buying new, but even on a used car you will lose quite a lot of money over a significant ownership period.
It's one of those things, and you can't do much about it, but if you're calculating ownership costs, you really should factor it in somewhere.
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ON - sorry to confuse you! I knew I'd get the names muddled. I even checked but still got them wrong! I told you I was clueless!
The running costs aren't quite as bad as I'd thought. I thought it was going to be at least £100 for a tankful! (Probably will be in a few years!)
But it's the contigency thing that scares me. I don't like unforscene costs! (Well who does?!)
Must make another spreadsheet and have a good think! I'll have to factor in savings made on not using buses and trains too!
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>>>I thought it was going to be at least £100 for a tankful! (Probably will be in a few years!)
A truly meaningless figure because you have no idea how long that tank will last.
You need to work out on the types of car you'd want what a week or month is going to cost in fuel.
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A lot of it depends on the car, when I had my MK4 Fiesta I was quoted £150 for a new clutch because although its a gearbox out job its such a routine job on an old Fiesta that labour can be cheaper.
I bought a brand new car because I was trying to budget better, my second hand cars were a constant train. I am not spending any more on my brand new motor than I was on my ten year old ones. However I recently lost a key and thats going to set me back £200, that is something I could have never budgeted for. Also I could have a punture next week and tyres are £50 each.
You need to work out how much milleage you're going to be doing. What sort of car are you thinking of buying? What is your budget? Insurance could be anything from £200 a year to £15,000 a year!
If it helps the costs of my three month old Panda are:-
776 miles on the clock
I do 4000 miles a year
£130 a month for the loan
£10-£20 a week petrol
£80 a month insurance
£35 a year tax
£140 a year for the service
No MOTs to worry about until 2013.
My dads 13 year old Fiesta :-
88100 miles on the clock
7000-9000 miles a year
cost £850 three years ago
£30+ a week plus petrol
MOT - always less than £200 a year
Servicing - an oil change £25, I do the rest which is about £15-£20 parts.
Other repairs (tyres, brakes, suspension and other consumables) -£400-£700 a year.
Insurance £350 a year
Tax - 130 a year
As you can see both very different types of cost.
If you're a new young driver then insurance is going to be your biggest costs by a mile.
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>>776 miles on the clock
>>I do 4000 miles a year
Make that 3100 miles a year.
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>> But it's the contigency thing that scares me. I don't like unforscene costs! (Well who
>> does?!)
Stick a little bit aside each month into a separate account and build up a float. That way if the worst happens, you should have it, or most of it, covered.
Modern cars are extremely reliable, and the odds of a <5yr old car with any half sensible mileage throwing a hugely expensive surprise are pretty remote. Of course, you should plan and budget for it, but equally not lose too much sleep over it.
Factoring in public transport costs (or lack of) will make a big difference. Do it. :-)
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all this factoring will do is spin your head
i seem to remeber you were going to spend 5g
i assume you are maxing out to do this so nothing left in reserve
.'. you need to spend less on the initial purchase and put the rest in the bank for a rainy day
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It depeds on the lifesytle on the person too. Having a car only saves me about £20 a month in public transport costs. My old bus pass cost me £11.00 a week (now 11.50) but I now rarely use buses but use the trams more. I use the buses at weekend and that costs me £3.50.
If I didn't live in the middle of the UK's biggest cities and lived some where remote then I am pretty sure my public transport savings by having a car would be a huge.
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Right, these are the running costs for my car which is bigger than anything Hope will be looking at.
I do about 10,000 miles a year now, maybe a bit more sometimes. Monthly costs are:
Fuel: £120
Insurance: £36
Road Tax: £18
Servicing: £30 ( enough for a service a year, plus MOT and some change )
I wouldnt expect a 5 year old Jazz or Yaris to be causing a great deal of heartache with unexpected failures so long as its been serviced every year.
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Its always though extra things though, have a fault bump that could easily be £500 excess.
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THanks for all the replies and figures.
Just thought I'd put you straight on a few things...
I've worked out roughly how much mileage I'd do and how much fuel I'd use. I've also got quotes for insurance for the type of car I want (Well I found one on Autotrader and got quotes for that specific car. They all seem to be roughly the same!)
>>>If you're a new young driver then insurance is going to be your biggest costs by a mile.
I'm not actually! I passed my test over 16 years ago. I've just never needed a car before!
>>>Stick a little bit aside each month into a separate account and build up a float. That way if the worst happens, you should have it, or most of it, covered.
Definitely will do.
>>>i seem to remeber you were going to spend 5g
>>>i assume you are maxing out to do this so nothing left in reserve
That's not maxing out. With a house and a child, I could never max out all our savings, far too scary! That's just a figure we can comfortably spare.
It's also there are so many things we can't do now as they are impossible to get to by public transport or just too awkward with a toddler in tow. If we have another child ever, it's going to get even harder! Especially as people wouldn't be able to give us lifts anymore as we wouldn't all fit in the car.
Now my head is spinning. I must do that spreadsheet!
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You cannot avoid wearing out brakes and tyres.
Check out the cost of middle range tyres also the cost of replacement disk pads and disks.
A battery can fail at any time so price a good replacement like Varta of test the prices at Halfords.
If the car has a cambelt has it been changed on schedule and how much to change it.
Exhausts do wear out ( rust away) another regular cost item.
Cost of a child seat (or two)
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Like Henry says:
Just bought 4 new Michelins for Yaris : £244 incl steering alignment.
Air con regass £25 (half price Kwikfit)
New arb buishes £20 (DIY).
Servicing interim oil and filter £24
MOT £40
Insurance £118
Tax £30.
Fuel approx. £550
Parking approx £20
Running costs estimated 2010 £1200.
And that is for a Toyota Yaris diesel doing 57mpg and a cheap tax band and insurance...
Purchased for c £6.5 k 4 years ago Depreciation £1000pa..
So real annual running costs ~ £2,200pa.
(dirt cheap)
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Our 2 cars do 30000 miles per year between them. Fortunately they're both diesel and we average pretty close to 45 mpg. That means we spend th.....no I can't bear to write it down, it's too depressing! My best effort to date is an £80 fill up on the Xantia - my Dad's Relay based motorhome has a 90l tank which has the potential for a near £110 fill up at current prices - he's not brave enough to let it drop that far and has yet to break a 3 figure fill up.....
My Mate's Mini has a 40l tank or something so costs <£50 for a fill up. Pity it does <25mpg and needs filling every other day or so!
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>>>Cost of a child seat (or two)
Henry - we have car seats anyway. In fact DS needs two at the moment - one for each grandparent's car. If there's a LO2, s/he can use DS's old seat. But having our own car would cost less on the car seat front as we'd only need one for our car, not one for DH's parents and one for mine!
My worst case scenario for insurance, breakdown cover, fuel, road tax and MOT/servicing works out at around £2000 per year, including contingency savings for entropy.
I'm not entirely sure we can afford it!
Might have to wait until the end of the year to see what payraise DH gets. (Sorry, should've said, if DH gets a payraise!)
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>>>I'm not entirely sure we can afford it!
That's the reason you shouldn't have put it on a spreadsheet.... better to have just gone and bought the car like everyone else does :-)
In truth not having a car is very limiting these days... particularly with a child... so much of life is designed around them.
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DS, DH, LO2?
I know CO2...
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Sorry I'm used to posting on parenting boards where everyone using the letters!
DS - dear son
DH - dear husband
LO - little one (so LO2, would be little one 2 or second child!)
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[Bigger Badder Dave mode]
:Pukes!:
[/BBD]
;) Only joking, hope.
The good thing about contingency costs is that they don't (probably) happen every year. And may never happen...
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Mon 23 Aug 10 at 17:54
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>> DS - dear son
>> DH - dear husband
>> LO - little one (so LO2, would be little one 2 or second child!)
DG
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FM, just buy the damned car, it'll be fine!
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Don't forget breakdown cover ("AA" cover). About £70 a year from someone like Green Flag. Not essential but nice to know it's there.
If you go for a Jazz there's a big service every (I think) 2 years. Make sure it's had that done and it's next service (it's first under your ownership) turns out to be the expensive one.
JH
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running costs - Old Navy
