How much does your car cost per month?

[ashleyman]

Basically man maths caught up with me and I finally worked out how much it costs to keep my Golf R on the road. It's not good and I need to spend less and save more if I want to have a deposit for a property anytime soon. Thought process behind the Golf was we didn't want to buy something older that could be a money pit so ended up on the PCP bandwagon which is still a money pit. Looking at other cars it doesn't look like there's much saving to be had unless we stop the finance and buy something older for cash.

I just wondered if we were being realistic with what it costs the average person to run a car. Doesn't matter what it is.

If anyone could put down the make and model of car and what it costs it would really help me to understand if we were about average or had unrealistic expectations about actual costs of car ownership.

Monthly Payment - unless bought outright
Insurance - if you pay per year, divide premium by 12 or put in monthly Direct Debit
Tax / VED
Fuel

Mine looks like this:
Monthly Payment: £342.43
Insurance: £100.87
Tax / VED: £15.41
Fuel - £195 (We use on average about 3 tanks a month @ £65 a tank)
Total: £653.70

All of £7800 a year.

Any replies would help and I probably deserve the roasting I'm going to get but looking at PCP numbers on lesser cars it seems like there's not much more than £100 a month to be saved, I know that's £1200 a year but still not enough to make any dent in saving up the £30k I need in less than 6 years!

Any suggestions for a cheap reliable automatic? ha

[PHuzzy]

Having just ventured into the world of leasing I find it much easier to keep track of how much it costs.

Seat Leon Cupra 300 DSG

Monthly figures
Car - £288
Tax - £0
Insurance - £25
Fuel - £200 (averaging 20.7mpg shows how it gets driven )

Total - £513 or just over £6k a year.

This could easily be reduced by a) driving more sensibly and b) choosing the manual Leon which was £249 a month.

That could get me down to about £420ish a month.

[designforlife]

over 12 months ownership sofar, cost per month as follows.

Car+parts+servicing - £620
Insurance - £36
Tax - £20
Fuel - £50

So an average of £726 a month over a year.

Needless to say the car/parts/servicing costs will drop over time...it's just had a respray which has put that averaged figure way up.

[treeroy]

Fiesta ST, got it new in May this year.

I pay:

£193 for lease
£35 for maintenance plan (servicing, tyres, consumables)
£80 petrol
£79 insurance

I'm pretty pleased with it.

Edited by treeroy on Thursday 9th November 10:42

[L0gan5]

What about servicing, tyres etc ?

You're looking at it the wrong way - if buying a house is your priority you need to figure out how much you can save each month after all your essential outogings. What you have left can go towards your transport.

Unfortunately I think you already know the Golf has to got to go and you'll probably be driving an old banger for a few years.

[kambites]

I went down the "buy something older for cash" route. Average for my Elise S2 111S over the time I've had it (bought at three years old, now owned for ten years):

Depreciation: £5
Insurance: £33
VED: £13
Fuel: £34 (basically a tank a month because I don't do many miles)
Servicing/repairs/upgrades/tyres: £48

Total: £133, or £1592 a year.


If you assume the £16k I spent on it would have been in my mortgage otherwise if I hadn't spent it on the car, you need to add on another ~£50 a month in extra repayments I've made (although some of that would be capital repayment). So say £180 a month total cost including that? If I was doing your mileage I suppose it'd be more like £250 a month.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 9th November 10:47

[RizzoTheRat]

Octavia vRS

Monthly Payment - None
Insurance - £25 ish
Tax / VED - £12.50
Fuel - £120 (assuming average mileage, in reality I've not filled it up in 2 months as I'm working abroad at the moment)
Depreciation - £130 (rough guess, could be higher but max of £150
Servicing - £20 (assume one major and one minor service every 2 years)
Tyres - £13 (again a rough guess assuming I get 30k out of a tyre)

So £320/month or £3850/year for a diesel warmhatch.

[Toaster Pilot]

Buy a 90s Toyota Avensis for less than a month's outgoings with a long MOT and a half decent set of tyres and brakes

Insurance will be cheaper and I can't see any of the other outgoings going up much. No amount of maintenance will equate to £340 a month.

[akirk]

ashleyman said:

Mine looks like this:
Monthly Payment: £342.43
Insurance: £100.87
Tax / VED: £15.41
Fuel - £195 (We use on average about 3 tanks a month @ £65 a tank)
Total: £653.70

All of £7800 a year.

Any replies would help and I probably deserve the roasting I'm going to get but looking at PCP numbers on lesser cars it seems like there's not much more than £100 a month to be saved, I know that's £1200 a year but still not enough to make any dent in saving up the £30k I need in less than 6 years!

So if you need £5k a year towards a deposit, then you are going to find it difficult to run a car on £2,800 a year or £233.33 a month
ignore the car and you are currently paying over £300 a month on fuel / insurance and tax

So you logically need to do several things:
- have a zero cost car
- lower the running costs considerably
- drive it less - more walking / bikes / etc.

a zero cost car will almost never be found in a newer car (unless you buy a fancy Ferrari going up in value!) so your choices are:
- nicer car in better condition which has zero depreciation
- less nice car - zero depreciation - do the work yourself

of my cars - so far the e39 M5 is the nearest - as there is zero depreciation and the condition is good enough that no work has been needed in 6 months and 6,000 miles - however a car like that is a high risk strategy, and consumables will still hit hard (e.g. £6-700 for a set of tyres), my classic range rover has so far increased in value by more than has been spent on it - the z3 is pretty neutral - slight increase in value probably matches running costs - so there are three fun cars all with virtually zero running costs...

so logically your best option would be a car at the bottom of its depreciation curve - do any work on it yourself - fuel efficient - low insurance
you are into bangernomics - the reality is that there will be lots of people driving cars for a total cost of under £200 a month (depending on miles) - you just need to find the right car - it won't be a Golf R - but there can be a great satisfaction in earning the deposit by not spending money

[ashleyman]

L0gan5 said:

What about servicing, tyres etc ?

You're looking at it the wrong way - if buying a house is your priority you need to figure out how much you can save each month after all your essential outogings. What you have left can go towards your transport.

Unfortunately I think you already know the Golf has to got to go and you'll probably be driving an old banger for a few years.

If having a car is an essential outgoing that needs to be reliable then I can't ignore the fact that running a car will have associated costs. I'm already cutting down in other areas and so far I know I can save £400 a month after 'essentials'. Ideally I want to be saving £650 per month so that in 4 years I could have at least the £30,000 I need.

I think I'm being realistic and I know the Golf definitely has to go. But looking at replacements it doesn't seem like we can get anything but a banger which I don't want to risk therefore asking what other people are paying on their cars might help me get an idea of what's cheaper than a Golf but isn't a banger! I do not want to sell the Golf, buy a shed and then be faced with £1500 bill for repairs, unlikely but possible.

Edited by ashleyman on Thursday 9th November 10:49

[kiethton]

My Lotus Exige is a little bit of a weird one....

Tax - £305
Insurance - £885
Fuel - £850

So £170pm in running costs.

I do also pay HP at £450pm (to clear the balance quickly) however the car does not depreciate so I'm actually gaining equity/savings.

So out of my pocket costs = £620pm

But taking back the equity and allowing for finance interest costs only:

~£200pm

[kambites]

If you want something reliable and cheap, IMO your best bet is probably going to be to buy something mainstream at around three years old. If you're paranoid about reliability, buy a Kia which still has four years of warranty left.

[Nickp82]

kiethton said:

My Lotus Exige is a little bit of a weird one....

Tax - £305
Insurance - £885
Fuel - £850

So £170pm in running costs.

I do also pay HP at £450pm (to clear the balance quickly) however the car does not depreciate so I'm actually gaining equity/savings.

So out of my pocket costs = £620pm

But taking back the equity and allowing for finance interest costs only:

~£200pm

I quite fancied an Elise/Exige previously but based on this thread I think I need to get myself in to one tout suite!

[Toaster Pilot]

If you really can't have a banger because it'll be so terrible and break down every 5 minutes costing you £1500 I'm pretty sure you can get something st for about £150 a month on lease or PCP like an Astra or an i30 or something...

EDIT - maybe £200 unless you want something like a Corsa - new car pricing is ridiculous!

Pretty sure my local dealer was advertising a higher spec Dacia Duster for £159/£159 when I was in the other day buying roof bars for mine...

Edited by Toaster Pilot on Thursday 9th November 10:55

[keith333]

2012 BMW X5

Depreciation: £350
Interest costs (£20k @ 3%): £50
Servicing (inc breakdown cover): £43
Insurance: £37
Fuel (12,000 miles per annum): £150
Road Tax: £23
Tyres: £30

Total: £683 monthly, £8,196 per annum

I purchased mine outright, so I've added cost of interest so that my costs equate to a leased car. Three percent simply because that's what my mortgage costs me.

Edited by keith333 on Thursday 9th November 14:38

[kiethton]

Nickp82 said:

kiethton said:

My Lotus Exige is a little bit of a weird one....

Tax - £305
Insurance - £885
Fuel - £850

So £170pm in running costs.

I do also pay HP at £450pm (to clear the balance quickly) however the car does not depreciate so I'm actually gaining equity/savings.

So out of my pocket costs = £620pm

But taking back the equity and allowing for finance interest costs only:

~£200pm

I quite fancied an Elise/Exige previously but based on this thread I think I need to get myself in to one tout suite!

I did miss off the servicing/MOT which according to the history averaged about £300pa so another £25pm.

It is a great car, I absolutely love it:

[TLandCruiser]

I've had my land cruiser for years and done over 100k miles -it's never let me down or failed to start.

Monthly cost - 0
Insurance - I think £30 a month
Tax - I think it would be £20ish a month not sure as I pay annually
Fuel - £80 a month as I only drive to the station now:

So in total around £130 a month.

I've thought about buying a new one either on lease or pcp, but I just can't stomach paying so much for a car each month.

Edited by TLandCruiser on Thursday 9th November 11:01

[Nickp82]

kiethton said:

I did miss off the servicing/MOT which according to the history averaged about £300pa so another £25pm.

It is a great car, I absolutely love it:

Awesome colour, just had a quick scan of AT - prices certainly seem to be a lot more robust presently then when I last looked, doesn't seem that long ago you could get a decent looking S1 (Elise) for £10k!

[L0gan5]

ashleyman said:

If having a car is an essential outgoing that needs to be reliable then I can't ignore the fact that running a car will have associated costs. I'm already cutting down in other areas and so far I know I can save £400 a month after 'essentials'. Ideally I want to be saving £650 per month so that in 4 years I could have at least the £30,000 I need.

I think I'm being realistic and I know the Golf definitely has to go. But looking at replacements it doesn't seem like we can get anything but a banger which I don't want to risk therefore asking what other people are paying on their cars might help me get an idea of what's cheaper than a Golf but isn't a banger! I do not want to sell the Golf, buy a shed and then be faced with £1500 bill for repairs, unlikely but possible.

Edited by ashleyman on Thursday 9th November 10:49

Buying a "banger" doesn't mean you are going to be unsafe, there are plenty of old cars which will do the job. Even if at some point you had to pay a £1500 repair bill that's only 2 and bit months of your current car expenditure.

You need to look at bringing down the time it will take to get your deposit. House prices may continue to rise making your future house more expensive. In the meantime your car will continue to lose value.

I did this for a couple of years on my first house, it was uncomfortable but worth it.

[TLandCruiser]

L0gan5 said:

ashleyman said:

If having a car is an essential outgoing that needs to be reliable then I can't ignore the fact that running a car will have associated costs. I'm already cutting down in other areas and so far I know I can save £400 a month after 'essentials'. Ideally I want to be saving £650 per month so that in 4 years I could have at least the £30,000 I need.

I think I'm being realistic and I know the Golf definitely has to go. But looking at replacements it doesn't seem like we can get anything but a banger which I don't want to risk therefore asking what other people are paying on their cars might help me get an idea of what's cheaper than a Golf but isn't a banger! I do not want to sell the Golf, buy a shed and then be faced with £1500 bill for repairs, unlikely but possible.

Edited by ashleyman on Thursday 9th November 10:49

Buying a "banger" doesn't mean you are going to be unsafe, there are plenty of old cars which will do the job. Even if at some point you had to pay a £1500 repair bill that's only 2 and bit months of your current car expenditure.

You need to look at bringing down the time it will take to get your deposit. House prices may continue to rise making your future house more expensive. In the meantime your car will continue to lose value.

I did this for a couple of years and it was uncomfortable but worth it.

I agree, sell it and buy a Toyota or Honda.

I think paying £650+ a month to run a car is quite high