what does it cost to run a car?

[ik9000]

so we live in London but are probably moving out at some point since we can afford nothing on the property ladder that we'd actually want to own.

This will mean adios public transport and hello car.

How much does it cost to run a basic family car, say a 1.4 or 1.6 medium sized hatch eg Focus or Fabia or knowing our meagre resources something even cheaper than that.

I know that will depend a bit on mileage, assume no crazy commute (we'd still use train for that) but round town runnings and a couple of long distance schleps to friends family a month.

(forgive the dumb question, but we literally have never owned a car. )

[Saracen]

Simple answer .... hell of a lot.

More complex answer ...

- insurance
- road tax
- servicing, unless you can do it yourself
- MOT, once car > 3 years old
- petrol, deisel, LPG, vegetable oil, etc ... I.e. fuel
- wear and tear. Tyres wear our, exhausts rot, brake pads wear,
- inevitably, sooner or later, repairs. A switch fails, rubber bushes fail, bulbs go, etc.

Putting a figure on it is impossible. It so much depends, especially for insurance, on you. Where the car will be parked (garage, drive, on road, etc). What's your employment? The wife's, if she drives. Accidents? Points, or convictions? The rating of your postcode? etc.

[Dingo]

Simple answer .... hell of a lot.

Although conservative estimates generally price a "normal family car" at around £4000 per annum but this does not take into account purchase price.

£1200 for tax\insurance\servicing
£2800 for fuel and repairs\replacements



For your benefit I would price fuel at circa £150 per thousand miles (all journeys)
Plus whatever you intend to spend on the car written off in straight line depeciation over 6 years (new or seconhand....do your research on sh cars reliabilty)
Plus the £1200 for tax\insurance\servicing


Should give you some idea on your likely spend..............................now you understand the costs are you SURE you can't afford that pad in London!!

[Lucio]

Depends on what you get really, for example my disel Megane is costing me £250 a year in tax and insurance, about £500 a year in MOT / parts / repairs (old car), and fuel is typically £70 a month for about 600 miles.

All in all, it's about £1600 but it is definetely one of the cheaper cars I've owned to run

[wasabi]

Ballpark figures off top of head? Assuming elderly runabout.

buying old car - something is wrong with it. Assume possibility of £600 job the previous owner didn't want to do so got rid.

Insurance will cost you a lot in the first year most likely with no no-claims bonus- - at a wild guess £500 but depends a lot on age/area/history/addons.

Servicing £200

Tyres £250

MOT plus typical fixes £200

Depreciation?

Tax - again varies a lot - probably circa £200

Cambelt need doing? (check service schedule) £250

Brake pads and disks if you don't do it yourself - £250, maybe once every two years. Much cheaper if DIY

[pastymuncher]

It depends on so many variables. The size of the car/engine, age/location of the driver with regards to insurance, annual mileage, petrol/diesel. Then there's cost's if it breaks. You can make significant savings doing repairs yourself if the have the knowledge, confidence, time and tools to do it.

[jim]

It's very difficult to put a figure on it.

I didn't do many miles, so for me the fuel was negligible, and the insurance was dropping steadily.

My big issue was the repairs. Last MOT wound up costing about £1k, plus £200 of incidentals before that, and I decided that I didn't want the threat of it breaking down hanging over me any more, so I got rid.

For me, excluding purchase price, I think £3k is probably on the money when you factor in all of the expenses.

In short, it makes more sense, economically, for me to use public transport when I can, and taxis when I need to.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Money.

[ik9000]

Money.

oh aren't you the comedian.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

oh aren't you the comedian.

I would have said petrol,but you might have a diesel car.

[DanceswithUnix]

Don't think I have a huge amount to add really, I think most of the costings are pretty good.

Depending on your age, lack of no claims bonus will hurt you by varying amounts but it is bound to hurt.

Get a newish car and the VED can be mental even on a fairly standard family car, March 2006 and older it gets capped at £285 per year.

Cheapest motoring I have had was my wife's first car, a small FIAT. Bought cheap from an advert on the notice board at the local ASDA so that in the case of trouble we could just write it off and tell the local scrappie to come collect it, the thing just kept going for years. There is luck involved in motoring costs, we were lucky.

[sqwerty]

1.6 Astra cost roughly 4 times more annually than my DT125X.
Granted you can't carry a great deal on the bike but I could get home through traffic about 3 times as quick and it was fun as hell to hoon around on.

[Saracen]

One option to keep costs down is, at least for the first couple of years, buy something old and cheap, but of a type that SHOULD be pretty reliable. I bought (about 7 years ago) an oldish VW Polo with 100k miles on the clock, at £900. It was for work, at I went all over the country in it for a couple of years. The only problems I had were one electric window packed up (switch) and a minor probkem with the vacuum-powered central locking, which again was a trivial fix. I then sold it for, IIRC, £780. So, capital cost, about £60 a year. Repairs, about £40, IIRC. I changed front tyres once, about £120 IIRC, and of course, a couple of MOTS and garage servicing, about £200 in total. Plus petrol, tax and insurance.

And it was a great little car to drive. I sort-of regret selling it, but it was superfluous to need, by then.

[FrodoOne]

Simple answer .... hell of a lot.

More complex answer ...

- insurance
- road tax
- servicing, unless you can do it yourself
- MOT, once car > 3 years old
- petrol, diesel, LPG, vegetable oil, etc ... I.e. fuel
- wear and tear. Tyres wear our, exhausts rot, brake pads wear,
- inevitably, sooner or later, repairs. A switch fails, rubber bushes fail, bulbs go, etc.

While I understand most of the above, could someone please explain what is and the difference between
- road tax
- MOT, once car > 3 years old

The reason for asking is that I am in Australia (Victoria) where the annual charges, apart from "consumables" and "servicing" would be what is here termed as

- Registration (including "Transport Accident Commission (TAC) charges) - specified by the State Government (Agency) - Presumably, this equates to "road tax" in the above.
- Insurance - arranged via an Insurance Company
(This insurance may range between
Comprehensive Car Insurance - all inclusive insurance cover for you and your car
Third Party Property Damage Insurance - a basic level of insurance cover for you - for damage to another vehicle.)

(TAC charges are used to pay for treatment and support services for people injured in transport accidents.)

In addition, in New South Wales, there is an annual "Road Worthy Inspection" required.

In Victoria, a Road Worthy Inspection is required only when a vehicle is (re)sold.
(Not sure about the other Australian States.)

Up until this June (in Victoria), the proof of "Registration" was a "sticker" for the bottom left side of the windscreen - but this is no longer provided, since the police can now check whether the registration is current via number plate recognition and their "in vehicle" computer access.

I guess that my main question is "What is MOT, once car > 3 years old", I presume that MOT stands for "Ministry Of Transport" but what is it and how does it differ from "road tax".

[santa claus]

A duty is payable to use a car on UK roads. It was initially referred to as, and is still commonly (and now incorrectly) called, 'road tax'. 'Road tax' is a misnomer; the current tax motorists pay is actually a 'vehicle excise duty' but it is used by Government for all sorts of public expenditure.

An MOT (Ministry of Transport as you say but administered by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) certificate is required as soon as a new car in the UK reaches 3 years old and an MOT needs renewing annually thereafter. An MOT is a roadworthiness standard....brakes, lights, tyres, emmissions etc

[DanceswithUnix]

I guess that my main question is "What is MOT, once car > 3 years old", I presume that MOT stands for "Ministry Of Transport" but what is it and how does it differ from "road tax".

It is a basic road worthiness test run by the Ministry of Transport, I can't even remember the full title but people just shorten it to "MOT". The idea is that having things like brake effectiveness, wheel bearing slack, steering rack wobble and emissions measured once a year gets the worst of dangerous clunkers off the road.

It costs money, and obviously can be failed in which case rectification work will be needed, but it costs less than a tank of diesel in my small hatchback so I don't consider it a huge expense. In fact if anything the MOT center probably costs less per hour than getting my mechanic to do the checks if the test didn't exist

A car under 3 years old is considered low risk of falling apart so doesn't need testing.