Annual Car costs

il_principe

So borne out of people's insistence that having a baby means you have to have a car (even if you live in London), I'm intrigued to know what the car owners on here spend annually on running theirs. By this I mean everything, from parking to servicing to insurance etc. Also interested to know how much people have spent on buying one in the first place. Completely understand that you may not wish to divulge that though. But it'd be interesting to see a rough average (which will be skewed massively by G66).

Thanks!

CiB

I'll buy it.

Spent 8k on a Volvo saloon about three years ago,

VED = £170 now
Insurance is about £200 FC (old, live in the sticks etc )
MOT - £45 last week
Service - seems to cost about £300-£400 every time it goes in now, what with other things that crop up on top of oil, filters etc. Gobbles tyres up at a rate of knots but at fifty quid a corner I don't mind much. It's also had new alternator (£400 in total), DPF + associated fluids & sensor resets (close on £800) in the recent past so I plan to hang on to till it dies now. Better to spend <£1000 a year keeping it going than to spunk £x,000 on something newer that'll likely have the same faults in 2 years time.

Fuel: this year £1555.77 for 9022 miles. (bike: 4322m)

daviesee

Petrol = 4160
MOT = 50
Insurance = 350
Service = 350
Parking = 250

Total P/A = 5160

Purchase = 9000 which will last @ 7 years = 1285 P/A

Grand Total P/A = 6445.

Yowza! :shock: :oops: :shock:

And I cycle commute to work 4 days a week.

davis

Country-dwelling travel-for-business type:


car 1: 2003 Ford Focus 1.8 TDCi (utter, utter crap) ~12k miles per year (6000 normal, 6000 business). Bought 2008 for £5000

Per year costs:
Servicing: £1256.60 (crap, remember)
VED: £135 quid
MOT: £54 quid
Insurance: £350
Parking: Few quid here and there. Call it 5 quid a month = £60 quid
Tyres: £170 I guess
Fuel: 12000 miles / 48 miles per imperial gallon * 1.45 GBP per litre = £1647.96

So... that's £3673.56 on an awful car...

Car 2: 1995 Toyota Hilux Surf 3.0D (absolute gem) ~3000 miles per year. Bought March 2012 for £1400.
Servicing: £817.34 (should be a one-off 'cos I got a lot done)
VED: £220
MOT: £54
Insurance: £350
Parking: naff all, really.
Tyres: None so far
Fuel: 3000 miles / 25 miles per imperial gallon * 1.45 GBP per litre = £791.02

So about £2.2k, although that should drop hugely (one off costs doing repairs when I got it).

Plus about £200 for AA cover.

Over £6k per year. Christ.

Edit: Added, VED.

bigmat

Car cost £8,000 for a second hand Mazda 6 estate 08 - diesel, top of range model with 60,000 miles on the clock so nice car (by my standards!)

Insurance - around £500
MOT - £40
VED - £140
Parking - £40 (street parking) plus a bit here and there
Petrol - £1,500 for around 8,000 miles (this is a bit of a guess to be honest)
Service - not had it yet, I'm budgetting around £300

So that's roughly £2,500 a year all in. Plus depreciation of course. Oh, and Green Flag is another £100 or so, but has paid for itself plenty (nice to get someone else to fix a flat tyre for you / give you a jump start when you've left the lights on etc.)

I reckon its a justifiable expense. We'd probably spend a big chunk of that on train fares otherwise. Its also a lot more convenient than relying on PT / relatives.

Wandsworth Town is a real hell-hole for driving though. Balham was bad enough, but the thought of the Wandsworth one way system in a car sends shivers down my spine. Its amazing how much easier to drive it is if you move just a few miles out (e.g. still close enough to cycle into work). Best of both worlds then - I can cycle, the wife and kids can drive when they need to (to be fair they'll work whenever they can).

greg66_tri_v2.0

Il Principe wrote:

So borne out of people's insistence that having a baby means you have to have a car (even if you live in London), I'm intrigued to know what the car owners on here spend annually on running theirs. By this I mean everything, from parking to servicing to insurance etc. Also interested to know how much people have spent on buying one in the first place. Completely understand that you may not wish to divulge that though. But it'd be interesting to see a rough average (which will be skewed massively by G66).

Thanks!

By far and away the biggest cost is depreciation (unless you have the cojones to buy a big engined 8+ year old petrol car that's done 80-90% of its depreciation, rarely had a stressed day in its life, but might, just might, die instantly on you).

Insurance - ours are c 500pa each, with max NCB and relatively low estimated mileage.
Petrol - sub 20 mpg for a total of maybe 6-8k miles pa. Dunno what that it. I look away when the petrol pump readout is clicking over.
Road tax - they are both in the sub-300 pa category.
MOT and servicing- varies (obv). Say 1-1.5k per annum on ave in total (ie for both).
Parking - lots, but get an iphone app and like all online iphone purchases it seems less painful than it is.
Odds - punctures are pricey if they can't be fixed. Wide tyres cost lots.

The economics of car ownership rarely work out IMO, esp if you're not replacing a train season ticket. OTOH, convenience in my book has a very high value. And to that extent the economics morph into "man-economics" - ie I don't care. Plus I have 14 cylinders and 730 bhp - rawrrr!

This is esp so when going, eg, to an airport. Mrs. IP may not thank you to be sent with luggage and IP jnr to LHR on PT. A door to door cab, yes. That'll be £60, sir. Each way.

One minor thing: I'm sure people do get their newborns home from hospital in taxis and buses somehow, but remember that they have floppy necks for the first six weeks or so. When 66major was released, it was only after we had satisfied the neo-natal nurses that we had a car seat with an additional neck surround for her, and we knew how to put her in it, and we knew how to fix the car seat to the car. A car seat flapping around on the floor/in the back of a cab is not a good idea.

IF you decide to get a car, come back with a "what car" thread. We made a big mistake on that front which cost a lot. At least one of my mates has done likewise.

davmaggs

Having one baby in London doesn't require a car, but once you have two then it does become a requirement. You simply can't get two or three appointments in by using buses.

One thing the lack of car really does do though is impact you socially in that you really need help at times from friends and family, and in London they typically don't live near you. If you don't have a car then you must ask them to come to you, or you have to hire a motor in advance so all spontaneity is lost. Plus you might only need help for an hour or two, which is useless if you spend an hour on public transport dropping them off. In short not having a car can be isolating at the time you need help.

mudcow007

£6000 Vauxhall Signum '57 1.9 tdci (150hp) bought last year 22k on the clock

£150 road tax*

£600 Insurance (liverpool init)

Fuel £10 per week at least

Servicing - non so far but its due soon say £100 - mates rates. Although i think the fuel pump is on its way out :shock:

Mot £45










yeah i know its really ved but just wanted to wind the nazi's up

DonDaddyD

You don't need to have a car. It is just that it may make having a baby and transport with a baby easier.

Mazda 6 2.0ltr petrol - I could have get a smaller, cheaper car. £4,500

Per year costs:
VED: £250 quid (I think)
MOT: £55 quid
Insurance: £636 - with AA cover and fully comp.
Parking: £60 quid - Plus the odd cost of parking at shopping centres £5 a pop.
Petrol: £1800. 10,000 miles - apparently my miles per gallon is quite good. I average 12ltrs of petrol gives me 100 miles of distance (I leave the mile per gallon conversion to the boffins).

DonDaddyD

Greg66 wrote:

The economics of car ownership rarely work out IMO, esp if you're not replacing a train season ticket. OTOH, convenience in my book has a very high value. And to that extent the economics morph into "man-economics" - ie I don't care. Plus I have 14 cylinders and 730 bhp - rawrrr!

This is esp so when going, eg, to an airport. Mrs. IP may not thank you to be sent with luggage and IP jnr to LHR on PT. A door to door cab, yes. That'll be £60, sir. Each way.

One minor thing: I'm sure people do get their newborns home from hospital in taxis and buses somehow, but remember that they have floppy necks for the first six weeks or so. When 66major was released, it was only after we had satisfied the neo-natal nurses that we had a car seat with an additional neck surround for her, and we knew how to put her in it, and we knew how to fix the car seat to the car. A car seat flapping around on the floor/in the back of a cab is not a good idea.

IF you decide to get a car, come back with a "what car" thread. We made a big mistake on that front which cost a lot. At least one of my mates has done likewise.

Yes.

fossyant

We run 2 cars - both we've had since new or nearly new - both are now 10 years old.

Mine - Primera Petrol 2002 Saloon

VED - £220
Insur - £300
MOT - £40
Servicing - £300 - do it myself
Fuel - £500 (4000 miles only - mainly traffic 25-30 mpg)

Total £1260 for a car that sits on the drive all week.

Now that's actually not bad. The car has only been into the garage a few times in the last 10 years:-

Tyres - had 3 sets over 80k miles - £1200 (£100 each)
Balancing/Tracking say £200 over the life
Air Con - New condensor/refil - £400 - punctured radiator - road debris
Anti roll Bar links - £90
Rear Pads - £100 (bugger to do - fronts are easy)
Front Pads £50 fitted by self

Now I'm actually quite handy with cars, so minor stuff I do myself and that saves a fortune - e.g. being able to change a central door locking motor (£50 part would have been £200-£300 from dealer), if you can't do those things - e.g. no space, then build in a wedge for servicing.

Depreciation - bank on at least £1k-2k per year - keep them longer the less you've got to worry about.

Our other car, a Yaris is similar in cost, but does about 10k per year but it's better on fuel, so probably £1.2k on fuel - similar running costs.

So I reccon at least £2.5k per year, per car (no financing needed) !! Having two cars - there goes my new carbon superbike each year !

Oh and if you don't have the wedge to buy the car, factor in repayments and interest on-top of the depreciation. Now that can turn the £2.5k p.a into £5k - £6k to buy the car !

Tip about buying a car - go for a nearly new - I saved £7k on a £18k car that was 10 months old !

alan_sherman

I did bangernomics, but about to change. 6 years ago bought a 10 yr old golf estate:

Car: £2,000 then, now maybe £300

Depreciation of about £300 per year
insurance/breakdown £400 per year
Tax: £220
MOT £25-£50 per year (Kwik fit deals are cheap)
Parking: £120 per year to council to park on the road
Petrol depends on usage. For a while i used it for work so that was expensed
Servicing varied depending on what went wrong. Spent £1000 on it a couple of years ago and decided that the next big bill would see it go. Since then I changed the oil last summer and that was the service!

I had a spreadsheet where it worked out at about 50p per mile all in So a minimum of £1000 per year, depending on what breaks. Usage of about 2000 miles per year!

However for the convenience of being able to take bike to places (races or MTBing), do shopping trips, visit family, take stuff to the tip, go on holiday, and now with child it is much easier to cart them to hospital, swimming lessons, other peoples houses for gatherings etc. Also I want to take the bikes and family abroad next year on holiday so it'll probably have more use for that than during the rest of the year.

The electric window just broke so now looking for a new car..... I'll want something newer and more reliable!

gabriel959

Got 2 cars too.

Ford Focus 1.6 LX 2006 - bought in 2007 with 10k on the clock. The wife uses it for commuting, it has ISOFIX for 2 baby seats at the back, plenty of room for 4 people and we take this on holidays, etc

VED - £165
Insurance - £380 (with Roadside assistance and fully comp)
MOT and Service (do both at the same time) - £250
Fuel - £1500 (around 11k to 12k a year)
Parking - very little as we get free parking in town

I have only replaced the aircon unit which was £300 and tyres which were another £250 since I've had it. Really really good car.

As above go for a nearly new, I saved £5k on my Focus which was not even a year old!

Second one is a bit of a waste

Volkswagen Fox 1.2

VED - £145
Insurance - £330 (with Roadside assistance and fully comp)
MOT and Service - £200
Fuel - £400-£500 - (around 4k/5k miles a year)

Used mainly for when parents are here visiting, to drive minigabriel959 to nursery and then drive to work 3 times a week.

Bike use - around 2500 miles a year

il_principe

Greg66 wrote:

One minor thing: I'm sure people do get their newborns home from hospital in taxis and buses somehow, but remember that they have floppy necks for the first six weeks or so. When 66major was released, it was only after we had satisfied the neo-natal nurses that we had a car seat with an additional neck surround for her, and we knew how to put her in it, and we knew how to fix the car seat to the car. A car seat flapping around on the floor/in the back of a cab is not a good idea.

This is the only thing that concerns me. Hoping that if it's a problem I'll be able to call on my sister (who also lives in Wandsworth and has a car) to come and pick us up. Should probably look at car seats though as we'll at least need one of those.

SteppenHerring

Surely it would be much easier and cheaper to get a vasectomy.

Been toying with the idea of going down to one car. It would save a shedload of money and also do me some good on those cold mornings when the snooze button calls.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Il Principe wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

One minor thing: I'm sure people do get their newborns home from hospital in taxis and buses somehow, but remember that they have floppy necks for the first six weeks or so. When 66major was released, it was only after we had satisfied the neo-natal nurses that we had a car seat with an additional neck surround for her, and we knew how to put her in it, and we knew how to fix the car seat to the car. A car seat flapping around on the floor/in the back of a cab is not a good idea.

This is the only thing that concerns me. Hoping that if it's a problem I'll be able to call on my sister (who also lives in Wandsworth and has a car) to come and pick us up. Should probably look at car seats though as we'll at least need one of those.

If it turns out to be a problem, I can pick you up.

It's not just for that journey though. You're going to need a car seat for every time the bambino travels in a car. 12+ years ago the limit of tech for a newborn car seat was that it was rearward facing and secured by the seatbelt. Some of the ones I see now have huge pedestal things that brace the seat on the floor of the car. Not particularly easy to fit in a minicab, and no idea how they work in a black cab.

As I say, it's perfectly plain that a huge number of people manage newborns/infants without a car. So it's not impossible by any stretch. It all comes down to convenience and the quasi-monetary value that holds for you.

DonDaddyD

Now your on the spiral to get trapped.

Get a car seat that works with the travel system: Pushchair, pram, stroller combination. Even my Maclaren had a car seat option - we never attached it to the pushchair mind, Ms DDD had it in her head that the baby shouldn't be in a car seat for more than 2 hours.

Mine:

http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 6603_10001 - Was £120 when we bought it.

Of course you're gonna want the base. Means not having to faff about with seatbelts and makes the seat a hell of a lot more secure. Also, click into the car. Unclip, click into the travel system. Easy!
http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 6836_10001

He went in this after 8 months: http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 7048_10001 - This never leaves the car.

Also, by UK law on child seats: The law requires all children travelling in cars to use the correct child restraint until they are either 135 cm in height or the age of 12 (which ever they reach first) .

In a licensed taxi or licensed hire car, if a child restraint is not available then the child may travel unrestrained in the rear. This is the only exception for children under 3, and has been introduced for practical rather than safety reasons. You should always think about ways to make sure that a child seat is available.

Edit: If you want I can see if Ms DDD is willing to part with our new born car seat (and carry cot that goes with the pushchair - this attachment if you go with the Maclaren XLR). We don't use it anymore and it will be obsolete by the time we have the next, you can attach it with the seat belt or ISOFIX base. I'll be honest the advice is never to purchase a second hand car seat as you don't know if its been in an accident. I assure you ours has never been even dropped on the ground, not once.

il_principe

DonDaddyD wrote:

Now your on the spiral to get trapped.

Get a car seat, that works with the travel system: Pushchair, pram, stroller combination. Even my Maclaren had a car seat option - we never attached it to the pushchair mind, Ms DDD had it in her head that the baby shouldn't be in a car seat for more than 2 hours.

Mine:

http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 6603_10001 - Was £120 when we bought it.

Of course you're gonna want the base. Means not having to faff about with seatbelts and makes the seat a hell of a lot more secure. Also, click into the car. Unclip, click into the travel system. Easy!
http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 6836_10001

He went in this after 8 months: http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 7048_10001 - This never leaves the car.

Also, by UK law on child seats: The law requires all children travelling in cars to use the correct child restraint until they are either 135 cm in height or the age of 12 (which ever they reach first) .

In a licensed taxi or licensed hire car, if a child restraint is not available then the child may travel unrestrained in the rear. This is the only exception for children under 3, and has been introduced for practical rather than safety reasons. You should always think about ways to make sure that a child seat is available.

Thanks DDD. Still seems like the trick will be just to get a car seat. TBH we barely travel outside of SW London anyway (apart from for work). A car seat + zipcar or car hire should be fine and still be cheaper than running a car.

wgwarburton

Il Principe wrote:

So borne out of people's insistence that having a baby means you have to have a car (even if you live in London), I'm intrigued to know what the car owners on here spend annually on running theirs. By this I mean everything, from parking to servicing to insurance etc. Also interested to know how much people have spent on buying one in the first place. Completely understand that you may not wish to divulge that though. But it'd be interesting to see a rough average (which will be skewed massively by G66).

Hmm- we live in Rural Scotland and run one car and a campervan. Public transport is, umm, limited, around here and distances (and the carrying of kit) mean driving is the only realistic option for much of our activity.
That said, I cycle to the station and commute by bike+train to Edinburgh.

When you have kids, particularly very young ones, you often seem to need to carry around a lot of "stuff"- nappies, spare clothes, wipes, changing mat, buggy, toys, food etc. If you have a car then it's often convenient to keep a lot of this stuff in it, provided you can park it so this is easy... It can make it easier to share transport with other parents, meet up with them etc.

Whether this justifies acquiring a car you don't otherwise need is a different question, particularly if you have the option of using a car-club.... This avoids the hassle (though obviously not all the cost) of ownership, including insurance, tax, maintenance and so on. If you are close to a City Car Club location, I'd look into this very hard!

Most owners here will probably run a car specific to their needs, with bike racks, space for gear for leisure activities/work and so on... If you just need transport then a rented car into which you can put a child-seat and buggy is fine.
City Car Club have an online booking system that's straightforward to use, so you don't have to do any paperwork, go to an office or anything like that, just enter what you need in a form and then pick up the car from its parking space.
The only likely downside is that it's comparitively expensive to take a car to a destination for a few hours and then bring it back (you have to pay for it while it's parked elsewhere and unavailable for others to use). Other schemes may have different systems...? Still likely to be better value than ownership, though!

Oh- and you can use them anywhere- so if you are visiting another town you can book one there. They do seven-seaters and vans, too, if you need something bigger for a specific trip.

Cheers,
W.

DonDaddyD

Il Principe wrote:

Thanks DDD. Still seems like the trick will be just to get a car seat. TBH we barely travel outside of SW London anyway (apart from for work). A car seat + zipcar or car hire should be fine and still be cheaper than running a car.

From what it sounded like this is the best option for you. (I don't have the liquid funds to rent a car on the fly, I need fixed prices, so I run a car - without a baby I wouldn't drive enough to justify the car I have and I could have a smaller car anyway).

I would advise that from about 36weeks until the baby is born you have a car on standby, just incase. And honestly, there is something really special about taking your family home from the hospital - like carrying the wife over the threshold.

To be honest you could attach the car seat with a seat belt and push the front seat back so it wedges the baby seat in place and stops it from moving. I would have done this but peer pressure made me get the base. The base is better/safer but it limits your options when you move on to the next seat.

rjsterry

Not sold on the need for bases. Our seat is just secured with the seat belt and once you've pushed down on the seat and pulled in the slack like you are supposed to, it doesn't move. Thankfully we've never needed to test it in anger.

BelgianBeerGeek

Car: 12 year old Mercedes estate:
Cost to buy: £1000
Insurance: £200
Petrol: £400
Tax: £225
MoT: £45
Parking etc: £50
Total: £1920
I've had the car for about 10 months, so not serviced it yet. It's awesome for trips to Belgium to buy beer and putting stuff in for tip runs, collecting logs for the fire etc. I can't see it depreciating more, and I only do about 3000 miles a year. And its ace to drive.

wgwarburton

Sorry, duplicate.

bigmat

We got the Maxi Cosi Cabrio which I think (certainly at the time anyway) has cornered the market for newborn car seats for anybody who actually gives a **** about their child's safety in an accident. Used with the base, it was the only seat to get a maximum safety rating (this was 4 years ago). Most things I'm not that anal about, but I kind of figured this was more important than whether it clipped onto the buggy or not.

Damn pricey though (couple of hundred quid including base) and heavy, so not ideal if you're not leaving it (the base) in the car.

gabriel959

BigMat wrote:

We got the Maxi Cosi Cabrio which I think (certainly at the time anyway) has cornered the market for newborn car seats for anybody who actually gives a **** about their child's safety in an accident. Used with the base, it was the only seat to get a maximum safety rating (this was 4 years ago). Most things I'm not that anal about, but I kind of figured this was more important than whether it clipped onto the buggy or not.

Damn pricey though (couple of hundred quid including base) and heavy, so not ideal if you're not leaving it (the base) in the car.

We've got exactly the same, it was the best when we bought it too but as you say it is quite pricey.

Saying that you can treat it as an investment as you will likely have more than 1 kid

Drfabulous0

It used to cost me about £4k a year to run a car, and it was parked most of the time because I was on the bike. Since getting rid of the horrid thing it costs a hell of a lot less to get about by other means and I have 3 kids under 5. I can use the bike with trailers/child seats, walk, get the bus, get a taxi or just rent a car if I should need one. The total cost for transport excluding the bike is around £2k, plus about £1k for the bike which I was spending anyway. So a 2 grand saving which quite honestly I need a lot more than I need a car.

veronese68

You don't need a car. We've gone from 2 cars and at least 1 motorbike to 1 car that doesn't get used much. I also run it about as cheaply as is possible while still looking after it.
Year 2000 Alfa 156 Estate bought 4 years ago for £2,800, now worth £800ish
Tax £200 ish
Insurance £250
Parking permit £60
Petrol £420 a tankful lasts a couple of months
MOT £50 cash (virtually guaranteed pass)
Servicing £15-£100. Do it myself parts cost only. Cambelt next year might be £100 in parts
So £1500 pa. To be honest it's mainly athe conveninence thing. There are times we have to dash off and grab the kids from somewhere. Now that they're older they go off on their own and I do like the peace of mind that I can get somewhere qucikly at all hours if necessary. I can't imagine we'd go without a car, but I kind of wish we could.

rhext

Two cars: 9 year old Vauxhall Omega, bought 8 years ago for just over £10,000 (purchase price 10 months earlier, £23,000 - whatever you do, don't buy a new one unless you're planning on keeping it for a long time).

Don't have precise details, but

Insurance - about £350. But it'll be more like double that if you've not got a no-claims bonus built up.
Tax - £250. If I were replacing it, I'd get a much greener one.
MoT/Servicing. About £300, assuming nothing goes wrong..... Last year cost over £2,000 though because something went wrong, and that's the real problem with the things for me. Every so often something really expensive happens.
Fuel - entirely dependent on mileage, but it's amazing how much you can get through on seemingly 'nothing special' use. Mine gets used for taking kids to activities and the odd trip to work (I cycle most days), every so often a business trip or excursion. I end up spending about £60 at the very least every couple of weeks.

So that's the cheap car: call it about £3,000 per annum for very moderate mileage excluding depreciation.
The other car is a Mercedes, bought from new. If I were to visualise my bank account as a sink which I'm perpetually trying to keep full of water, the Mercedes would be a plughole for which there was no plug, even ignoring the purchase price. I will not buy another one of those.

If I were living in London, I'd strongly consider a combination of public transport, taxis and the odd hire care as an alternative. It really depends on your usage, and how much you and your partner will need the convenience of having your own. But for several £000 per year you can get a lot of alternative transport and you remain immune to the really big one-off costs.

pastryboy

You definitely do need a car if you have kids. There's always places to go, appointments at hospital, birthday parties, etc. We've had to miss out on things because we couldn't get to them a few times - getting to anything in London is fine but getting only a few miles across to Essex/Hertfordshire or whatever is nigh on impossible with public transport unless you're willing to spend several hours at it getting multiple trains/buses. You can rely on relatives for a bit but they soon start whinging and when you have a couple of car seats to take in and and out all the time it's a huge hassle.

I've been nagged and nagged and now, with two kids, I don't have a choice and really do have to get a car. I don't want one and the cost of it is very depressing but needs must.

il_principe

I'm genuinely horrified by the amount of money people are having to spend. I knew it'd be bad, but not quite this bad. Definitely going to stick to hiring/zipcar/taxi for the time being. Zipcars around me are MBW or Golf so assume are ideal for fitting a seat to. Not gonna bother with a base as I need something I can move around. My Mum managed to cart 4 of us around with using seats with a base, and we had no issues. Cars are much safer now as well too.

walkingbootweather

I've got a pretty new car so not yet had to pay out for MOT, consumables etc. So, very roughly annual costs will be
£3,000 Depreciation
£1,500 Fuel
£250 Service
£350 Insurance
£130 VED

Total has got to be circa £5k. As the car gets older depreciation likely to reduce but other costs will increase. But for our lifestyle a car is a necessity