Motoring 'cheaper than in 1988'

webmuppet

The Beeb have an article citing that motoring is 18% cheaper than in 88 but don't seem to validate the assumption with any actual numbers. Has anyone seen any actual figures for this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7496381.stm

hewhoisnotintheknow

i can belive this, cars are soooooooo much more reliable now than 20 years ago

webmuppet

My rotten Renault would say otherwise

redux

I'd believe it.

Cars have hardly risen in price for years, so compared to inflation they are cheaper in real terms. Interest rates are lower. Service intervals and reliability are better, though main dealer labour rates are somewhere near £100 an hour now. Yes, fuel is double the price it was then, but even that's not much difference after allowing for infaltion, and fuel isn't actually much of the overall cost on newer cars where depreciation is a much larger chunk

Andy_L

The AA archieve only goes back to 1998 & unfortunately they changed from a engine size to purchase price basis
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/index.html

The actual RAC report the BBC refer to is here
http://files.the-group.net/library/rac/files/pdf_1797.pdf page 10 refers

balsingh

Back in 1988, I couldnt drive but my dad used to drive a Nissan Sunny which wasn't the worlds flashest car but was 100% reliable .... so from his point of view, motoring was cheaper in 1988.

steveo3002

maybe owning a brand new car works out ok

but for running a older used car...id swap todays prices for the old on fuel, oil, parts , tyres etc etc

tomstickland

I remember seeing an advert for a Metro in a magazine from the early 90s and it cost around £6K. You can buy a similar type of car for the same or less now. So I believe it.

puddy

well to be honest, as a newish driver (im 36 but have only been driving a year), i dont really find driving to be that expensive when i compare it to the costs i used to pay for public transport. per mile, driving is cheaper, if you are only talking about petrol, i need to work out the rest though, mot, insurance and tax,,, so i know lots of people complain about the cost of petrol and since i passed in sep 07 the price has gone up from 99p per litre to 118 per litre (near me) BUT i still feel its cheaper than what i used to pay for trains, tubes, buses etc (altogether)