Sweet mother of...! (Car running costs)

[yegnold]

For work purposes I just had to work out how much my car is costing me per mile to run.

I've assumed the following (and I realise that some of them are real guesstimates, but it did for the purposes of this exercise)

a) I average 50MPG

A set of tyres costs £200, and a set will do 10,000 miles

c) Insurance costs £1500 per year

d) Depreciation per mile is 5pence

e) Service - average cost is £250.00 and service intervals are 10,000 miles

f) Cambelt change costs £300.00 and a cambelt lasts 50,000 miles.

g) I do 25,000 miles in each year

At these rates, the per-mile costs are:

FUEL: £0.10

INS: £0.06

TYRES: £0.02

DEPRECIATION: £0.05

SERVICE: £0.03

CAMBELT: £0.01

TOTAL PER MILE: £0.26

This means that doing my 25,000 miles a year, my car costs me £6,522.00 per year... and that's ignoring all other parts that may require replacement such as brake pads and discs, etc...

[Maffu]

50,000k for a cambelt? I thought it was 60,000k?

Says me, coming up to my 50k service...

[Chrispy]

60k, or 4 years. With 25k a year (higher than average) it's bound to be pricey. Fuel being a bad culprit, and they're STILL wanting to add 2p a litre in April.

C0cks.

[djswivel]

£1500 for insurance???

I'd be getting a smaller engined car.

[yegnold]

It's not actually £1500, it's more like £800 (I thought I'd paid a lot more than I had)... but I'm going to leave it at £1500 because the only reason it's £800 is because of additional people on my policy

[Babs]

For work purposes I just had to work out how much my car is costing me per mile to run.

Do you work with Welshy?

[yegnold]

I'm probably missing some running joke, but no... haha

[Chrispy]

Do you work with Welshy?

LMFAO. The trolling Welsh Fiat/ BMW toting accountant who keeps looking for discount vRS's in the trader and yet slates everyone for buying one.

Brilliant.

[Tom_vRS]

Don't you pay car tax? Brakes going to last forever? What about repairs when the warranty is out at 60k? Might as well factor in atleast one replacement windscreen, a litre of oil between services, washer fluid??

Your overall figure sounds a little cheap.

Would want a bit more certainty on the depreciation figure too - thats the single biggest cost normally.

[ap0gee1978]

...also, your estimate for tyres is a bit low, but they should last more than 10k, so it should probably balance out.

I reckon for 20k per year, like I do:

Insurance: £700

Servicing (1x oil, 1x inspection, 1/3 towards cambelt + brakes, other consumables): £600

1/2 towards tyres: £200

Tax: £115

Fuel: £1600

1/3 towards windscreen: £20

Depreciation: £2000 per year for 1st 3 years, £1000 per year for next 3 (roughly)

1/3 towards 2nd-hand Dragon box: £57 (one-off payment at year 3)

So in the first 3 years I owned the car, I reckon it cost me about 20p per mile, and it'll be about 18p per mile for the next 3 years (although seeing the way the cost of fuel is going, 20p per mile will probably be more like it... )

[Chrispy]

It could be worse....you could be running a Veyron. You seen the costs of things for them?

Not realistic I know but it's a vain attempt to add some perspective.

[yegnold]

I forgot about Car Tax (oddly)... haha

I'm working on a more accurate estimation now (just for the hell of it...) and may factor in brake cost etc... depending on if I can be bothered or not

[Babs]

I'm not bothered. If I drive my car, I expect to pay insurance, tax etc. I expect to get it serviced. I expect to buy it tyres/brakes/fluids/bulbs/wiper blades.

I also expect it to put a smile on my face

[Tom_vRS]

Just to add - the reason I say the above, is that at 20k a year, I paid £5k with 130k, so I reckon it will depreciate by about £1200 a year. Unless you bought a VERY high miles Fabia then depreciation will be vastly more than this, like double atleast imho.

Just done a quick tot up, average 42mpg, £800/yr insurance, £115 tax, £40 of consumables (oil/fluids) over a year, the proportion of tyres, brakes and cambelt, plus a service and depreciation, mine costs 26p/mile to run.

Makes you wonder how people can run brand new cars for work at 40p/mile.

Still, the 14p/mile profit makes for about a grand a year from running a cheaper car. Further savings could be made still with careful choice of car, but I feel my Passat is a nice balance between being comfy, cheap to run and a bit of fun to drive, so ticks all the boxs.

However, at risk of sounding like Welshy - if I had a bit more disposable income I would be running a 2.0TFSI Octy vRS

[Tom_vRS]

...also, your estimate for tyres is a bit low, but they should last more than 10k, so it should probably balance out.

I reckon for 20k per year, like I do:

Insurance: £700

Servicing (1x oil, 1x inspection, 1/3 towards cambelt + brakes, other consumables): £600

1/2 towards tyres: £200

Tax: £115

Fuel: £1600

1/3 towards windscreen: £20

Depreciation: £2000 per year for 1st 3 years, £1000 per year for next 3 (roughly)

1/3 towards 2nd-hand Dragon box: £57 (one-off payment at year 3)

So in the first 3 years I owned the car, I reckon it cost me about 20p per mile, and it'll be about 18p per mile for the next 3 years (although seeing the way the cost of fuel is going, 20p per mile will probably be more like it... )

That sounds pretty well reasoned, but I struggle to believe you get 60mpg

When you work things out like this, it does make you think twice about mods... Fair enough some of them have retained resale value, but I was thinking of suspension, a spoiler and the brakes - total about £1100, so if I keep the car for a year thats nearly £100 a month!! :eek:. Hence I'm now concentrating on being frugal with cash and saving for my new Octy

[Babs]

However, at risk of sounding like Welshy

Nah, I'm not hearing the sounds of goats being ripped to shreds by a strange monster that lives under a bridge....

[ap0gee1978]

That sounds pretty well reasoned, but I struggle to believe you get 60mpg

It's down to the perpetual motion machine Welshy gave me! I connected it to the rear wheels to give me a 4x4 low-emissions hybrid!

(Nothing to do with me underestimating how much I spend on fuel, then! )

[cheezemonkhai]

Sheep being ripped to shreds in a way only a Welsh man knows how

[yegnold]

Here we go, everyone else can feel free to use this tool by the way...

Car Running Cost Calculator

My results:

Car Running Cost Calculator

[TaviaRS]

I'd say that depreciation is approx 10p per mile, not 5. Is it financed in any way? If so you need to factor that in as well - if not then it would also be the lost interest on the capital expended.

[ScoobyChris]

How did you arrive at the depreciation figure? Is it just a number plucked out of the air, or do you have a way of calculating it?

Chris

[yegnold]

I had a look in the glasses guide (admittedly, an old one - 2005) and compared the prices between a '04 vrs that has done 20,000 miles and an '04 vrs that has done 30,000 miles and it worked out to 5pence per mile...

[Ruxpin]

I did the figures quickly for mine and got similar results of about 30p per mile.

Cost per mile is very dependant on the mileage you cover . Someone else at work calculated their costs for a mondeo tdci but only doing 10k a year at nearer 45p per mile

My figures:

2 Years 50k miles 108.0p/l 45mpg

Fuel cost (gulp!) 5455.20

Depreciation 6000.00

Insurance 1000.00

Tyres 2sets at £500 1000.00

Service 5 at £200 1000.00

Tax 2 at £115 230.00

14685.20

Cost per mile 0.293704

[ap0gee1978]

I'd say that depreciation is approx 10p per mile, not 5. Is it financed in any way? If so you need to factor that in as well - if not then it would also be the lost interest on the capital expended.

That's what I based it on: being worth about £6k after 3 years compared to £12k at purchase, spread over a total of 60k miles. Interest is a good point - that'd add another grand (=5p per mile)

[Tom_vRS]

Yeah, interest on any finance/lost revenue on capital is a valid point - but surely, assuming you MUST run a car, then thats pretty constant based on what you paid unless you got a shocking deal on finance... More like 1.5p/mile based on loss of interest on a £5k spend...