How much do/have your cars cost you per month to own?

[TurboHatchback]

After reading through yet another interminable argument about finance vs ownership I thought it might be interesting to make a straw poll to see what peoples cars cost them per month and how they pay for it. This is not about running costs so I will ignore insurance/maintenance/repairs/fuel/tax etc, I'm just looking at the cost of ownership (not running costs).

I.e. if you bought and sold a car for cash then Answer = ( Purchase price - Sale price ) / Months owned

If you lease a car then it's just the monthly lease payment.

For PCP its a bit more complex but essentially the total cost of the agreement over the entire term divided by the number of months the term covers.

So for me:

1995 Fiesta Si, bought at 13yrs old. Paid £800, kept for 2 years, sold for £550. Cost per month = £10.42

2004 Clio 182, bought at 6 years old. Paid £5000, kept for 3 years, sold for £2850. Cost per month = £59.72

1988 Mercedes 560SEC, bought at 23 years old. Paid £3250, kept for 18 months, sold for £2500. Cost per month = £41.67

2006 Jeep Commander 5.7 Hemi, bought at 6 years old. Paid £8000, kept for 3 months, sold for £7150. Cost per month = £283.33

2006 Golf GTI, bought at 7 years old. Paid £8000, owned 9 months so far, could probably sell it for ~£6750. Cost per month probably around £139 so far.

I had a couple of others but they were older cheaper cars which I either broke even on or made a profit so they're not included here.

Over to anyone else who wants to contribute!

[kambites]

For my current car: Paid £16000; worth about £14000 after seven and a half years - £23 per month in depreciation.

Total running costs have been about £170 a month.

[johnthesifu]

My mr2 turbo owned for 3 years and nothing ever went wrong. Bought for £1950 and sold for £2100.

Edit; just realised no appreciating cars so ignore this.

Edited by johnthesifu on Monday 24th November 15:42

[alock]

Honda S2000 bought at 3 years old for £14K. Now 9 years old and worth about £8K which is about £55/month.
Skoda Octavia bought new for £17K. Now 9 years old worth about £4K which is about £120/month.

[Abagnale]

Current car cost 21k. Owned for two weeks = £42,000 per month. Hoping that will decrease a little.

[R2T2]

Current car:

Bought for 3500.

Cost me £490 in repairs
£250 in tyres

Cost me 92.50 to run over the last 8 months. Soon to go up, as booked in for new clutch, and needs a Zorst soon!

[Mr E]

The high pitched whistling noise you can hear is the Merc continuing to depreciate.

[Catatafish]

Abagnale said:

Current car cost 21k. Owned for two weeks = £42,000 per month. Hoping that will decrease a little.

Jesus, did it come with a mafia loan shark in the boot?

[boroandy87]

Peugeot 206 - Purchased £4000 - Spent £1000 on repairs (turns our accident damaged and on the register) Sold £2200 3 Months owned So £933.33 p/m March 2006 - June 2006

Citroen Saxo VTR - Purchased £4200 - Sold £2800 Owned 12 months. Cost p/m £100. June 2006 - June 2007

Honda Civic VTI - Purchased £3400 - Spent on modifications £3000 - Sold £3300 Owned 12 Months - Cost P/M - £258.33 June 2007 - June 2008

Nissan 180sx - Purchased £4000 - Spent on Modifications £7000 - Broken for £7500 Owned 2 Years - Cost P/M £145.83 June 2008 - June 2010

Honda Civic 1.4i Purchased £950 - Sold £800 Cost P/M £50.00 May 2010 - July 2010

Honda Civic 1.5 vtec Purchase £1500 - Scrapped - Cost P/M £125 August 2010 - August 2011

Honda Civic EK9 - Cost £7500 - Broken for £6500 Owned 19 Months. Cost P/M £52.63 August 2011 - March 2013

Ford Fiesta Zetec - S - Cost P/M £200 - Lease March 2013 - February 2014

Renault Clio 172 - Purchased £1100 - Sold £650 Cost P/M £39.29 August 2013 - October 2014

Peugeot 206 1.4 - Purchased £300 Cost PM so far... £100 August 2014 - November 2014

Average cost per month...

£162.38

Edit - Dates might not be accurate. Can't recall much of 2008-2012

[Glosphil]

2005 Honda Civic Type-S bought for £10,500 in September 2006 and traded-in for £2,500 in June 2013; so £99/month in depreciation. I rather wish I hadn't calculated that. However, total repair costs in that time were under £300.

Edited by Glosphil on Monday 24th November 17:11

[siovey]

2008 to 2011 - BMW 330CI E46

Cost £7000
Sold for £2500

£125 p/m in depreciation

2011 to 2014 - BMW M3 E46
Cost £12250
Sold for £10500

£60p/m in depreciation. LOTS more in running costs! lol

All previous cars were company cars or bought through work on a cheap pcp deal

[BoRED S2upid]

Last 2 cars:

Mk1 mx5 bought for £1100 had it for 3 years sold to a fellow PHer for £750 so what's that less that £10 a month.

57plate SEAT Ibiza 1.9tdi bought for £3000 2 years ago I don't expect it to loose more than £50 pm.

[Max5476]

Car:
K11 Micra, Paid £1100, owned 17 months so far, WBAC will give me £750 for it now (not sold yet), so currently £20.58 a month, but that's only going to get better.

Bike:
SV650S - Paid £1450, sold for £750 after 35 months, (but 2 very harsh winters) £20 Month

It all goes out the window when you have to service, insure, tax and buy consumables for them, and the worst cost is fuel!

[Jasandjules]

Without wishing to be rude, if you are looking at finance/purchase, then the factors which are included in finance need to be accounted for do they not?

[cib24]

This thread isn't very useful at the moment. You should include running costs and modifications to show the true cost of ownership of some of these cars. Add up your petrol, oil, spark plugs, cool rims, lowering springs, ecu remap etc and convert that to a monthly calculation to see the real damage.

I bought a cheap car as a track day toy with the intention to rebuild the engine and do a few other things to make it kick ass on the circuit whilst still being comfortable on the street. As a result, I have spent about 4x the car's value in a rebuild, suspension, brakes, tyres, servicing, petrol and other miscellaneous costs...The car is amazing to drive now but when the mod bug hits you it is difficult to stop because there is always something in your eyes that can use tweaking!

I tell myself that I wont do this with my next car but I am only lying to myself because I enjoy it even if my wallet doesn't!

[Matt UK]

No running costs accept depreciation?

Ok, bought a jag for £6.9k, sold 12 months later for £7.5k.

So it made me a steak dinner once a month.

[carreauchompeur]

Interesting topic.

I've kept a detailed list of costs since buying my E36 M3, and it's eye watering - but actually pans out at follows:

Bought for £4000 3 years ago. Basically worth the same or slightly more now, so zero depreciation.

However, £7200 in maintenance/tyres etc so £218 a month.

[Bill]

Jasandjules said:

Without wishing to be rude, if you are looking at finance/purchase, then the factors which are included in finance need to be accounted for do they not?

My 12 year old Discovery has probably depreciated by £2k in the three years I've owned it, but repairs have cost the same again.

[Justin Case]

Bought for £8k just over four years ago, now worth about £3.5k so that works out at £90 per month. On the other hand our toaster is just as exciting and has depreciated at the rate of £1 per month, so the car may not be such a bargain

[JQ]

Matt UK said:

No running costs accept depreciation?

Exactly. This thread is not about how much cars cost to own per month, it's just depreciation.

I sold my Mk1 MX5 for 31% more than I paid for it. However, factor in what I spent on the car during my ownership and the cost per month was rather high.