I have to keep a records of my car's expenses and recently a few threads and comments from friends relating to economy and cost got me thinking, do people really have a clue how much a car is costing them per mile? More importantly are people buying the wrong car thinking they're saving money only to spend more? I can think of two family members who do low mileage but insist buying a new (ish) diesel is 'saving' them money when they do 6-10k a year. I suspect if they worked it out then they'd find they weren't saving anything.

My 1.4 mpi (68bhp) in Classic trim (non A/C) with 21k on the clock has managed 41.38mpg or 15p/mile over the last 5k, it's cost me 10.1p/mile in service costs (tyres, parts, MOT, VED etc) and 3.7p/mile in expenses (insurance, tools, hands free kit etc). I paid £1500 for it and using http://www.whatcar.com/valuations tells me it's worth £1485 in p/x so i'm £15 down or 0.003p/mile.

I'd be interested to see how that compares to others? I get the feeling people tend to overlook depreciation and on newer cars that's probably the biggest cost. From personal experience this probably isn't the best thing to work out if you've spent money on modifying, it normally made me cringe with my old car.

So what I was ideally looking for is something like this:

Car: 1.4 mpi 68bhp (non A/C) Y Reg

Current Mileage: 26.8k (approx)

Owned for: 5,000 miles (approx)

MPG: 41.38mpg 15p/mile

Service/Expenses: 13.8p/mile

Purchase: £1,500

What Car p/x valuation: £1485

Depreciation: 0.003p/mile

Total cost per mile: 28.803p

I only track mine in fuel terms as part of my mpg tracking. Working out just over 13p a mile on diesel.

I dont want to know :( lol

Blissfully ignorant

Thanks Devonutopia, 13p/mile is slightly higher than I expected for an oil burner, it's been a few years since the Octavia was my daily driver and fuel prices have obviously increased in that time. Ignoring everything else it would save £20/1,000 miles on fuel. Anyone else got a fuel cost per mile they can contribute?

Huxley you're probably better off not knowing, I did this for my old car and was shocked... and not in a good way!

Thanks

Just checked my Fuelly logs. Over the last 19678 miles, it's averaged out at 13.3p per mile just in diesel.

Depreciation works out about 7.5p per mile based on what my car is currently worth looking at classifieds.

These are other costs based on what I can remember off the top of my head, not including modifications.

Had the car almost exactly 2 years.

23,000 miles

Service / MoT - £180

Service : £50

Service/ MoT: £190

Tyres - £330

Console bushes - £90

Brakes - £180

Tax: £110

Tax: £115

Total service items: £1245

5.4p per mile

Insurance is another big factor for me

£650

£850

Total £1500

6.5p per mile

Total rough cost: 32.7p per mile

Fuel costs are the killer.

Fag packet calculations on their way!

Ok, firstly I disagree with the depreciation costs - I appreciate that this is a cost, but only when you sell the car. I need a car, and therefore although the value is ticking away, I do not face this cost on a daily/weekly/annual basis. I don't envisge getting rid of the car until many many years from now. Plus the value seems ridiculously low, and would never trade it in for p/x, I would sell privately.

Secondly, my fuel costs are disproportionately high, as I predominantly use it in & around town (I live in the middle of Bristol), with no daily commute and I tend to run on premium.

Here goes:

Cost £11000

Owned for 4.6 years / 42000 miles

9k /year

Tyres £380 /year (1.5 pairs)

£0.042/ mile

Service/spares £100 /year

£0.011 / mile

Cambelt £65 /year (£250 each 4 years)

£0.007 /mile

Insurance £700 /year

£0.077/mile

MOT £40 / x 2 so far, so 80/4.5 = £17.77/year to date

£0.020 /mile

Tax £115 /year ish

£0.013 /mile

All of the above:

£0.17/mile

Fuel: £1.53/l (premium), 44mpg long term average, 9.67m/l =

£0.158 /mile

Depreciation: What car p/x £5242 so £5758 'lost' over 42000 miles =

£0.137/mile

Total cost: 46.5p a mile

Edited 27 April, 201214 yr by Benjiman

No.

Thanks guys, I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to post figures as it's the kind of thing that i'd have found useful when I was car hunting

Benjiman you're right about the valuations, I took the view that they were probably a worst case scenario at p/x but I needed a fixed point of reference that we could all use and figured a p/x valuation was as good as any. Depreciation I gave some thought to before including, I knew some people wouldn't like it and again you're right to point out it's an indirect cost till realised but I couldn't think of an equally simple or more accurate way of including it but felt it was worth including though it is at best an estimate of a cost and can only be accurately worked out when the car is sold. Fuel wise it varies nationally by more than the difference between regular and premium so i'd not get too excited, it is what it is.

What I find interesting is that even if you strip the depreciation guestimate out the cost to run a petrol and a diesel seems quite close, certainly closer than the mpg figures would suggest. I know a PD130 is a hell of a lot more fun to drive than my mpi (c'mon petrol owners i'm feeling lonely here, even if it's just the cost in fuel per mile it'd help) but this kind of suggests that the price to do a mile is pretty close.

If any petrol/SDI owners have figures i'd be interested?

my PD160 Ibiza has apparently cost me £0.15/mile in diesel over the 38,965miles I've been keeping track of it and the 1.8T Leon has cost £0.209/mile in petrol over 7,467miles

SDI

Fuel 11.2ppm over 8722 miles in the last year.

Had cambelt etc done in last year along with console bushes which skew any figures in the last year unless you take them into account over a longer period but then the fuel price changes skew that.

8ppm over 79953 miles for fuel over 7 years. Only other costs were normal servicing and tyres, all new spares from scrapped Polos at about £35 apiece.

Costs me 12p a mile. Fuel only.

Only got my fuel per mile 14 pence over 26 thousand in the last twelve months.

9k /year

Tyres £380 /year (1.5 pairs)

£0.042/ mile

did you mean you spend £380 per 9000 miles?

A rough calculation gives me 31p a mile for my Bravo for the first 46000 miles

6500 depreciation

1000 interest on loan

5300 fuel

1500 servicing, tax and insurance

My Monte 105 tdi running at 11.0p/mile fuel only

£20 year tax

£300 year ins

Edited 25 May, 201214 yr by Full Monte

1,9tdi

65mpg on 98% of runs

15 - 20000 miles a year

vRS - remapped

£0.114 - £0.143/mile

So far, £75 per mile.

Hi,

 

Your post has been very helpful, I am currently looking at purchasing a Greenline III in the hopes it will substantially reduce my overall cost per mile as it claims to achieve 88 MPG, and travelling in excess of over 30k per year it will save £££. I am planning on purchasing a used Octavia milage around 55k or so. Which lead me to your forum and running the calculations on my current vehicle being a Ford Mondeo. My overall cost is 0.231 pence per mile. 

 

Car:	Ford Mondeo Mk4 1.8 Tdci 125 bhp Edge 57 Plate
Current Milage:	192,899
Owned For:	87,899
MPG:	0.12	p/mile
Services/Expenses:	0.07	p/mile
Insurance/Tax/Breakdown:	0.018	p/mile
Purchase:	£      3,000.00
What Car Valuation:	£          951.00
Depreciation:	0.023	p/mile
Total Cost per mile:	0.231	p/mile