How much does your car cost to run?

djcat

forgotmyname wrote: »

You have flushed the autobox 3 times in 13 months? I do advise people to change it every few years or 50,000 miles bt 3 times in a year?

£620 - £800 for a service?

You have spent more in 13 months that i have spent on mine, And I bought mine in 2009.

Thats because it hasn't been done since new and its a 2004 model. You need to change the autobox oil at least three times to get a reasonable amount of new oil in there (around 90%) as with every change you only get rid of half of what the entire system has.

Given the costs of a new transmission, the colour of the old oil and the immediate improvement I felt (smoothness), I think that the £110.00 spent in transmission oil was well worth it. Will not need to do it again this year.

I don't know how many miles you do, but when I got my car it had 41K miles after 8 years. I did stuff that had to be done and I think that £620.00 is not much for changing every single fluid and filter and adjusting whatever can be adjusted. I use that car every day in all weathers to go to work for a 50 miles commute and cross Europe in it several times a year. In other words: I use it.

When I and my loved ones are in that car, mine and especially their lives depends on me and that car working well, I don't care about the money as much as about staying safe.

worried_jim

Saab 93

Expenses-
Car purchase price £495
Insurance £198
Tax £225
Fuel £875.04 (£0.34 per mile)

Brake pads and disks all round- £84
Wiper blades £10
2 x Tyres £60
Lamp relay £13
MOT £40
Welding £35
Locking wheel nuts £28
2 x Bulbs £2.88

Total £2065.92 for 12 months motoring
Total miles travelled since Feb 1st 2012 –3101
I am not deducting anything for depreciation as with 12months MOT I think I could still sell it for the purchase price.
Over the year I have averaged 18.6mpg.

Total cost of £0.67p per mile.

Joe_Horner

1997 Pug 405 TD estate

Notional purchase price £500 (swapped for a Daf)
Cambelt + water pump (self fitted) £156.30
Oil + all filters after purchase £32.27
Antifreeze £5.95
Front brake pads £14.97
6k oil + filter change (garage, was feeling lazy) £35
Fuel £952.06
Insurance (business use, zero no claims thanks to previous classic policy) £296

Total spent £1992.55 since June 2013

Mileage 7521

Cost per mile, assuming write-off tomorrow with no scrap value = 26.5 p/mile and dropping

WTFH

2011 Alfa Giulietta 2.0d 170.
20p per mile for fuel, VED, insurance & servicing in the past year. (Roughly 10,000 miles of "spirited" driving).
Depreciation over the last year is also about 20p per mile.

What you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts, I guess.

forgotmyname

Normally i do a low mileage. Lots of short journeys, With the car sitting idle for days between uses. Normally i do under 6000 a year. But over the past 4 years i have put over 40,000 on the clock. Its now on 170,000

It gets an oil change every 6 months with a proper service yearly whether its done 4000 or much more.

It doesnt get an easy life either. I drive it fairly hard and tow a caravan for the holidays.

As you it must be reliable. Anything not quite right it goes in before it starts to be an issue.
As i used to be a mechanic it helps. Paying the garage to fix it is not so easy.

Now if you want stories on a money pit. I had an MGB GT... It was my weekend fun car. It wasnt fun. Every time i went out it in something else needed to be done.

Weird_Nev

I think it helps if people say what their car actually IS, so others can get an idea of running costs. It's pretty meaningless saying '7p a mile' if we dont know if that's a veg oiled 80's merc or a Aprilla 50cc moped.


Please note I have not included the cost of VED or insurance in the Bold totals - I figure insurance is so highly variable people need to figure it in for themselves, and VED is a constant for all my cars, being as they've all been in the region of £200 a year. All of these cars with the exception of the Subaru were owned for two years or more, and driven 7,000-10,000 miles a year.


1993 Audi 80 1.9 Tdi Avant – 26p
Fuel 8.8p
Maintenance 9.9p
Depreciation 8.8p
Tax and Insurance 5p (not included)


The Audi, whilst not being particularly bad to run at 50mpg, has the dubious achievement of being the only car I've owned where I've spent more on maintenance than fuel.


1997 Nissan 200SX 2.0 turbo Manual -34p
Fuel 18.2p
Maintenance 12.8p
Depreciation 5.3p
Tax and Insurance 10p (not included)


This car got some upgrades like a clutch, intercooler and remap, as well as tyres when it didn't really need them (well, it did, to stop the car killing me). Fun though.


1988 Toyota MR2 1600 25p
Fuel 17p
Maintenance 7.6p
Depreciation 0p
Tax and Insurance 5.7p (not included)

As well as being dirt cheap to run, this was the most out and out FUN of any cars I've had. The maintenance cost includes a complete suspension rebuild with bushes, shocks, springs, and brakes. I tracked it relentlessly, and drove it everywhere like my hair was on fire, and it just loved it. I still miss this little car from time to time.

I mean, look at it!


1997 BMW 328i Touring 29p
Fuel 20.5p
Maintenance 8.2p
Depreciation 0p
Tax and Insurance 4.6p (not included)


This was my attempt at bangernomics. I did a lot of work myself, but fell into the trap of upgrading and improving rather than managed decline! Full brake refresh, new front and rear suspension, lots of servicing. Was a lovely and reliable car though, quick and practical too.


2005 Subaru Impreza WRX PPP 44p
Fuel 23.4p
Maintenance 13.1p
Depreciation 7.1p
Tax and Insurance 11.3p


Now we move onto the big guns! Sadly, I spent out on some early maintenance, a set of tyres, new brakes and a suspension rebuild, but emigration forced the sale so I didn’t get to recoup much value out of them. Even at this cost, it was worth every penny. Miles per gallon don’t mean anything when you’re getting smiles per gallon – and it was actually more efficient than the 200SX. 280bhp in a wagon... 10/10 would own again.

zappahey

djcat wrote: »

Thats because it hasn't been done since new and its a 2004 model. You need to change the autobox oil at least three times to get a reasonable amount of new oil in there (around 90%) as with every change you only get rid of half of what the entire system has.

Given the costs of a new transmission, the colour of the old oil and the immediate improvement I felt (smoothness), I think that the £110.00 spent in transmission oil was well worth it. Will not need to do it again this year.

It's only due every 90000 miles, so a few years I would hope.

Rolandtheroadie

Weird_Nev wrote: »

I think it helps if people say what their car actually IS, so others can get an idea of running costs. It's pretty meaningless saying '7p a mile' if we dont know if that's a veg oiled 80's merc or a Aprilla 50cc moped.

The cars detailed at the top of page 2 and the 7p per mile didn't include fuel.

djcat

zappahey wrote: »

It's only due every 90000 miles, so a few years I would hope.

Oil doesn't only age with miles, but also with time. The stuff I got out of the autobox I would certainly not define as oil and if I do one transmission oil change per year, thats just 4 litres of it but would replace 50% of the oil. I only did three changes to flush it.

djcat

Wow guys, thanks for all the useful replies, makes me feel better that I am not spending unreasonable amounts running my car. More impressive still, even with all the early maintenance I had done and all the miles I have driven, its still reasonable (especially compared to similar sized cars) and cheaper than taking the train :-)