Annual Car costs
Comments
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team47b wrote:Spent the last 6 years without a car, use bikes and trailers, trains and only bought a car when I was sure I really DIDN'T NEED one!
Now I don't RELY on it as my main form of transport, it's there as a hobby and a bit of fun, bit like the bikes.
It's 56 years old (the car not me) no road tax, serviced by me, does about 70mpg. MOT about £25 Insurance £200. Appreciating in value every year!
I think it's the feeling that having no choice but car ownership is the problem, and a bit like an addiction and can take a few years to get over, car cold turkey is the worst!
NIce, but not sure I'd want to be in that in a collision. With anything really.0 -
Bought a wee Pugeot from little old lady at work, she had from new. Cost, £1400, milage - 18,000, 11 years old. Had to change tyres (on since new) as rubber was perishing, £160. VED, £140, insurance £200, fuel, about £5 a week. £120 service and repair. So, just over £2k, and that included the car! Oh, chuck in £100 for roof rack and bike carriers. Not too bad........
"Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"0 -
Whereas your bike is overflowing with crumple zones and air bags?Greg66 wrote:NIce, but not sure I'd want to be in that in a collision. With anything really.
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Don't have it Greg, fight back... fight back!!!Food Chain number = 4
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game0 -
Graeme_S wrote:
Whereas your bike is overflowing with crumple zones and air bags?Greg66 wrote:NIce, but not sure I'd want to be in that in a collision. With anything really.
Well, not really. The crumple zones tend to be, errr, me.
But on a bike I (and I suspect all of us) feel a lot closer to the action than we do in a car; less insulated. Drive around in that thing and I suspect it's not difficult to fall into the mindset that says you are driving a real car with the protection that gives.0 -
To be honest I feel safer and more in control on a bike full stop. You can more easily see the full extent of the extremities that might collide with anything and also have the bonus that you're significantly less likely to kill or injure anybody else in any collision.Greg66 wrote:Graeme_S wrote:
Whereas your bike is overflowing with crumple zones and air bags?Greg66 wrote:NIce, but not sure I'd want to be in that in a collision. With anything really.
Well, not really. The crumple zones tend to be, errr, me.
But on a bike I (and I suspect all of us) feel a lot closer to the action than we do in a car; less insulated. Drive around in that thing and I suspect it's not difficult to fall into the mindset that says you are driving a real car with the protection that gives.
Probably doesn't help that I've been cycling lots for nearly 7 years, but only passed my driving test 3 years ago and have only driven occasionally since.0 -
Solved, what's the FCN of this badboy then?Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
Vitus Sentier VRS - 20170 -
...and when they're a bit older
Seriously I'd love to get something like this, it's a bit lumpy round my way some some kind of battery assist might be an idea but it'd be great.Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
Vitus Sentier VRS - 20170 -
twist83 wrote:jonomc4 wrote:Two Cars.
Total Costs £110K (one is new (just bought) the other was bought about 3 years ago when 1.5 years old)
Insurance - £2,600
Petrol - £100 per week
VED £680
Servicing £1,000 ish
Devaluation - I don't even want to think about it!
Total waste of money and I do about 10 miles on my bike to every 1 in the car - except the very occasional long haul journey).
I think the funny thing is we are almost conditioned to spend on cars - where as with my bikes I really look for bargins saving a few pounds on a sale item or hunting for the best value on the internet.
Ohh what have you got Without a doubt if I had the money I would be buying something exotic!! Which it sounds like you may well have.
Nothing too flash - Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes S-Class. But I really don't use them - the wife uses them to transport the kids around a lot - she really needs a car - but I would only use mine occasionally - sometimes it just sits in the drive for 2 weeks without moving (but still depreciating). I will keep the Merc until it rusts away I think - the depreciation gets less every year and it never breaks down - so far in the 3 years I have had it - only had to change one light bulb (but that was nearly £100!).0 -
Vauxhall corsa 1.0 bought new June 2005 for 5500.
It has now 34000ish miles (I'm a cyclist!)
petrol: 4000miles last year, £550
insurance: cheapest I could find, I don't expect they'll pay out anything anyhow, £160
MOT and service: £45
parking: maybe £40
total: £800-ish a year.
And that's too much.0 -
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daviesee wrote:'s funny.
Us lot think nothing of spending thousands on a bike and the demograph appears that most have decent, if not high wages. The stereotype MAMIL is based on something.
Based on this you would think that there would be a higher than normal level of cars too yet according to this thread, most buy second hand bangers and run them into the ground.
Skewed posts or skewed stereotypes?jonomc4 wrote:Nothing too flash - Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes S-Class.......
Ahhh. That's better...... None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.0 -
Ford Fiesta bought (given to us by Father in law as a gift) brand new in 2008 - £9000
VED - £130 p/a
Insurance - £450 p/a including the finance cost (Me at 31 years her at 25, both clean licenses, both no claims etc etc. 10 year NCB)
Fuel - £55 gives around 350 miles (roughly 40 mpg but she does most of the driving, closer to 50 mpg for me)
Two new tyres - £100 for fronts replaced at 28k. The original rear tyres will probably give me another 10k.
Two MOT's at £45 each (last year and this one too).
Horn replaced for this years ticket - £20 fitted but it was one cable and two screws. My 11 year old son could have managed it by himself so could have been done cheaper I just couldn't be bothered.
Five headlight bulbs at about £7 each on average fitted.
Service plan was costing £15 per month for the first three years and covered everything up to 36000 miles or 3 years whichever first kinda deal with the main dealer. We didn't bother with it after that and the service this year will cost something like £100 for the basic 48k one.
Probably have it washed/cleaned 4 times a year at £10 a go.
All in all excluding the cost of fuel it stands us at about 12 grand for 42000 miles in the last 4 years. Likelihood is we'll keep the car at least another two years reducing that cost by about £800 per year based on the cost of the car Based on today's prices for fuel (£1.39 per litre) it works out just over £6600 but really is relative to driving style/type of driving/type of car etc etc.
Haven't even bothered with car parking because I get a free bus pass for myself and HID through work (bus driver) and if we ever pop into town it's always on the peasant carrier or park and ride which my company operates and is free for us anyway. I think the last time I paid to park was at Thorpe Park about two years ago.
About 42p a mile based on me not selling the car for any money today. It's probably worth about £3500 now so if I sold it tomorrow it'd work out to something near 29p a mile.The only disability in life is a poor attitude.0 -
Joining this a bit late and lots of pages so don't know what the consensus is.
You can cope without a car. I promise. I've got two kids and haven't had a car all that time. Hire cars for some long journeys trains for others, bus/walk into town, pay by the hour car scheme for emergencies. Transport costs are probably around £100 per month. Just keep some car seats for when you need them.
Lots of journeys are on the bikes. Having kids is just another great excuse to buy bike kit. Littlest (coming up to 4 months) is getting his first ride in the double trailer today!Riding the Etape du Tour for Beating Bowel Cancer - click to donate http://bit.ly/P9eBbM0 -
Wow there are people spending a lot on cars here.
If you get something small and old (5-10 years) its really not going to be much or any more to run than Sky Sports, once you own it.
I guess the question is, where do the grandparents live and how else will you get there? Parents responsibly herding children through the northern line never seem to be having that much fun and neither do the kids. And you don't sound poor to me, but you will be very time poor, so why not "buy" the time a car gives you?
[ And aside - Classic cars are great, but if you drive one you make yourself part of a lot more kinetic energy than when you are cycling, and most of them have crumple zones which include your legs and a spike directed at your chest (assuming you haven't died already because of the absence of a head restraint). ]0 -
First Aspect wrote:Wow there are people spending a lot on cars here.
True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost.
Our family bus is an Audi A8. Now 13 years old. We have it MOT'd and serviced annually by an independent German car specialist. I estimate annual costs there are 400-700. We've had more expensive years in the past, but not so much now.
We bought it at 6m old for 42k. It's now worth less than a Cervelo frameset. In fact, it's worth less as a car than it as parts. Too many people are too scared of an old big engined petrol former luxo-barge for it to have a decent market value as a car per se. And it's been like that for a few years now.
So we've spent a lot on depreciation. "Spent". It's not depreciating a penny now, as it has no lower it can go. But averaged over time the depreciation has dwarfed all other expenditure on that car by a mile.
The Pork, OTOH, should be fairly close to the bottom of its depreciation curve, as long as (a) it continues to be well maintained (b) the Govt doesn't do something wankerish to devalue it (eg road pricing via compulsory GPS that will also remotely monitor speeds 24/7 and dispense speed tickets. Reckon my licence is good for about 4 hours in that world). Fortunately, it has a bit more value in it than the A8.0 -
Greg66 wrote:True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost....We bought it at 6m old for 42k.
Personally I'd always go for something 2-3 years with c40k miles on it.
Let someone else have the eyewatering early years depreciation.“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
TailWindHome wrote:Greg66 wrote:True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost....We bought it at 6m old for 42k.
Personally I'd always go for something 2-3 years with c40k miles on it.
Let someone else have the eyewatering early years depreciation.
Well, yes, but this was a dealer principal's car. We got it for 2/3 of the new price at 6m old. So not cheap, but as deals go, pretty good.0 -
The point with buying something like an Audi is that you CAN keep it for 13 years.
I just did a check on Autotrader, and within 200 miles of where I live in the frozen north there are 74 cars for sale which are less than 7 years old and have less than 40k miles on the clock, for between £1k and £2k. They aren't very exciting cars, I'll grant you, but there are some decent looking Fiestas, Polos, Clios and Meganes in there.
Depreciation would be a few hundred quid a year, they would have low VED and would be cheap to ensure. If you want a car but resent the cost, this is the way to do it.0 -
WGWarburton wrote: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.
Certainly rural life is significantly easier with a car. I live in the Peak District, in a small town which does have reasonable public transport to Manchester and a couple of smallish supermarkets within a mile.
We manage with one car - whilst most people I know have two. Yesterday I worked out my total SC stats, and realised that I am on course for 20000 miles bike commuting since 2008.
Can't really answer for costs of car ownership though...0 -
One thing to look for which you wouldn't realise until is pissing with rain someday and you are trying to get the kids belted in. Some cars have seat belt 'sockets' which sit flush to the seat, some have sockets which are raised on 'stalks', the latter are far easier to work with.“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0
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This is so true.TailWindHome wrote:One thing to look for which you wouldn't realise until is pissing with rain someday and you are trying to get the kids belted in. Some cars have seat belt 'sockets' which sit flush to the seat, some have sockets which are raised on 'stalks', the latter are far easier to work with.
Anything with sporty seats is a nightmare for fitting seats. I dare say coughing up for ISO seats helps in this case.None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.0 -
15 miles each way commuter (soon to be 20)
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TailWindHome wrote:Greg66 wrote:True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost....We bought it at 6m old for 42k.
Personally I'd always go for something 2-3 years with c40k miles on it.
Let someone else have the eyewatering early years depreciation.
It's also surprising that no one seems to factor in the opportunity cost of pouring all that pretty polly into metal boxes.0 -
What does this mean?Cycloslalomeur wrote:TailWindHome wrote:Greg66 wrote:True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost....We bought it at 6m old for 42k.
Personally I'd always go for something 2-3 years with c40k miles on it.
Let someone else have the eyewatering early years depreciation.
It's also surprising that no one seems to factor in the opportunity cost of pouring all that pretty polly into metal boxes.0 -
Not any more they're not.First Aspect wrote:The point with buying something like an Audi is that you CAN keep it for 13 years.
It's amazing how German cars have kept onto this reputation for reliability when the facts have pointed the other way for years. But hey, anyone who can sell a diesel rep mobile with stupid wheels and skinny tyres as 'sporty' obviously has a good marketing team.0 -
First Aspect wrote:
What does this mean?Cycloslalomeur wrote:TailWindHome wrote:Greg66 wrote:True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost....We bought it at 6m old for 42k.
Personally I'd always go for something 2-3 years with c40k miles on it.
Let someone else have the eyewatering early years depreciation.
It's also surprising that no one seems to factor in the opportunity cost of pouring all that pretty polly into metal boxes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost
Basically, just think of all the other things you could have done with the money you paid for the car as a lump.0 -
UndercoverElephant wrote:First Aspect wrote:
What does this mean?Cycloslalomeur wrote:TailWindHome wrote:Greg66 wrote:True. It's also surprising how few acknowledge depreciation as a cost....We bought it at 6m old for 42k.
Personally I'd always go for something 2-3 years with c40k miles on it.
Let someone else have the eyewatering early years depreciation.
It's also surprising that no one seems to factor in the opportunity cost of pouring all that pretty polly into metal boxes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost
Basically, just think of all the other things you could have done with the money you paid for the car as a lump.
Uummm, such as hand it over to taxi drivers and car clubs? 0
