Cost of running a car

BrianD3

has anyone worked out how much their car cost them to run per mile or over say 1/2/3 years etc. I have just worked out mine as I have the car 3 years and have done 100k miles. I'm appalled at how much I'm spending. Of course the fact that I do high mileage, bought new and use main stealers for servicing are major factors. On the plus side the car has been pretty reliable and I am a sympatheic driver who gets good fuel economy and is easy on things like clutches and brakes (still on original pads @ 100k) And I haven't had any crashes or mishaps.

Anyway I reckon i have spent 30 cents per mile over the 3 years. Over 100k that's 30 ****ing grand. That includes everything - servicing, tyres, fuel, insurance, motor tax, depreciation, failures outside of warranty, wear and tear, timing belts etc.

Has anyone else worked it out. I think my calcs are right. I will break it down if anyone's interested.

colm_mcm

go on, break it down for the craic, what kind of car is it?

BrianD3

It's a Laguna 1.6 petrol. Just thinking about the calcs some more I may have made an error in that some costs are for the coming year and will cover mileage that I haven't done yet. Eg I have recently fitted a set of new front tyres. These will last me till this time next year so my front tyre cost will be static until then and I will have done more mileage in the meantime. Therefore my cost per mile due to tyres will be less in say 6 months time. Similar story with tax and insurance. I've gone and confused myself now

But OTOH I think I underestimated depreciation by about 3 or 4k and not because I didn't include the coming year, I underestimated the drepciation that has occured up to now. Depreciation is the biggest cost followed by fuel and then everything else added together.

Seth Brundle

I don't want to know mine - I'd just end up selling it!

rubadub

Thats about €28 a day. I remember talking to a young girl in work, ended up it would have been far cheaper for her to get a taxi to work everyday and everywhere else she went.

PaddyFagan

Just because I'm a sad git - I just ran up some figures of my own. Brand new 1.6 Golf Plus (cost price 28k) looks like this:

3 years
deprication (40% of 28K)...11200
Insurance (@600 pa)..........1800
Tax (@391 pa)..................1173
Petrol*............................3960
Servicing...........................450
Total............................18583

*Petrol worked out based on 15000 km pa, 8 l/100km (running somewhere between 7-8 at the moment) and €1.10 per litre:eek:

Just €17 a day - a lot cheaper than the €100 I'd spend on taxi's (because I live in Kildare and work in Dublin )

unkel

BrianD3 wrote:

i have spent 30 cents per mile over the 3 years. Over 100k that's 30 ****ing grand

You sure?

A quick guess would be that your depreciation and petrol alone would cost at least that. Never mind maintenance, tyres, insurance, tax, interest, etc.

With an unrealistically economical 40MPG and a price of petrol of €1.05 and depreciation of say €18k as in say €28k new, €10k now (if you're lucky - high mileage petrol Renault)

Go on, show us a breakdown

Big Nelly

BrianD3 wrote:

It's a Laguna 1.6 petrol. Just thinking about the calcs some more I may have made an error in that some costs are for the coming year and will cover mileage that I haven't done yet. Eg I have recently fitted a set of new front tyres. These will last me till this time next year so my front tyre cost will be static until then and I will have done more mileage in the meantime. Therefore my cost per mile due to tyres will be less in say 6 months time. Similar story with tax and insurance. I've gone and confused myself now

But OTOH I think I underestimated depreciation by about 3 or 4k and not because I didn't include the coming year, I underestimated the drepciation that has occured up to now. Depreciation is the biggest cost followed by fuel and then everything else added together.

High millage and you are driving a petrol? thats half your problem. My old 1.6 was doing about 300 miles to a full tank, same tank of Diesel and I am getting on average between 500-600 miles a tank depending on if I am in Dublin or around the country.

Hopefully starting a new job in Field Sales so my average mileage of 20k per year will go thru the roof but I know I will be spinning around on a nice diesel engine!!

maidhc

Over the past 3 years (50000k mls) I would reckon my motoring costs came to about:

Depreciation..................0 (how much can a 95 mondeo depreciate)
Servicing & repairs..........1500
Tyres...........................300
Tax............................. 1500 (1.8)
Insc.............................4200
Diesel...........................6000 (cant be positive as I fill from the tank at home, wholesale at last fill was €0.99 IIRC, car does about 40mpg)

Total 13500

BrianD3

unkel wrote:

You sure?

A quick guess would be that your depreciation and petrol alone would cost at least that. Never mind maintenance, tyres, insurance, tax, interest, etc.

With an unrealistically economical 40MPG and a price of petrol of €1.05 and depreciation of say €18k as in say €28k new, €10k now (if you're lucky - high mileage petrol Renault)

Go on, show us a breakdown

I did underestimate the depreciation alright but I don't think it's as bad as 18k. Car cost 24.5k in a cash deal. Let's say 15 or 16k depreciation.

3 year fuel costs are around 10k. I get around 43-44 mpg overall (that's over the full 3 years) and I think I averaged out fuel prices over the last 3 years as about 1.00 euro a litre.

The rest of the running cost come to around 8k. I use "cheap" tyres, still 100 quid each though due to the size. I didn't have loan interest or financial stuff to include. No parking charges either and I only pay road tolls around 10 times a year.

So my new estimate is 15k+10k+8k=33k or 33 cent a mile.

I did think about a diesel and % depreciation might have been less but it would still lose a lot at that mileage. And an equivalent diesel car would have cost 2.5k more to buy new and would have cost more in tax, insurance (for me anyway) More frequent servicing would be required and possibly quicker tyre wear too. Plus the diesel Lagunas seem to be less reliable than the petrols. Of course I'd probably get 25-33% more mpg but I prefer the feel of a petrol engine.

unkel

BrianD3 wrote:

I get around 43-44 mpg overall

That's amazing even with a lot of easy cruising. You must be driving even smoother than you say you are

BTW my tax alone is nearly €0.20 per mile :eek:

BrianD3

unkel wrote:

That's amazing even with a lot of easy cruising. You must be driving even smoother than you say you are

Yeah I make an effort to get as much mpg as possible while still making progress. And it's a big help that I do mostly long journeys - obviously I didn't rack up 100k in 3 years by sitting in a traffic jam all day

BTW my tax alone is nearly €0.20 per mile

You probably do well below average mileage so. You should lobby for abolition of motor tax and get them to replace it with a tax on petrol instead Even with your humongous V8 you'd probably save a lot

unkel

BrianD3 wrote:

You should lobby for abolition of motor tax and get them to replace it with a tax on petrol instead

Yep it would sure be a more fair system - the polluter pays

Knew a guy who usually owns about 7 or 8 performance cars. He's the only person driving any of them and his mileage is not big. His tax bill would be €10,000 :rolleyes:

Needless to say, he doesn't tax any of his cars...

A stretch limo hummer doing 100,000 miles per year as a PSV costs just €40 in tax :mad:

colm_mcm

Feel good about having a company car now......