Real world supercar running costs

[R8Reece]

After 5 1/2 years of ownership & 12,557 miles I've just sold my 2008 R8 V8 coupe.

Ignoring the fact it may or may not be a supercar, over the 66 months I owned her she cost me £24,245 all in which includes depreciation, petrol, MOT, serving, tax, parts, all maintenance, selling costs and breakdown cover.

This works out at £367 a month, £4,408 per year or £1.93 per mile.

How does that compare with other marques?

Edited by R8Reece on Wednesday 15th June 13:24

[Sarnie]

In normal times, you would expect to lose that sort of amount in depreciation alone............each year.

More in a lot in instances.

[kbf1981]

400 quid a month is cheap. A new 911 would probably cost the average owner 2k a month if they bought it new and sold it after 12 months. Thats just in buying and selling

[av185]

kbf1981 said:

400 quid a month is cheap. A new 911 would probably cost the average owner 2k a month if they bought it new and sold it after 12 months. Thats just in buying and selling

All new 911s and not just GT models are selling over list and will be for some considerable time.

Limited production due to many factors not just supply chain issues has caused lengthening lead times on new orders.

[Bispal]

I have some figures for my cars BUT I don't include petrol, insurance, tax, consumables or servicing as I find these costs much of a muchness and you would be doing the miles whatever you were in anyway. For instance an Audi S5 I owned for 2 years cost me the same to insure as my McLaren 12C, used the same amount of petrol, cost the same in tax and the annual service was £700 as opposed to £1,000. So general running costs very similar for a supercar to a 'prestige' car. My figures below include depreciation, abnormal costs (repairs) and warranties. I have included some more normal cars for reference. (-) is cost per mile if (+) means I made money on the car. All cars are now sold apart from 675LT so these are real prices and a brief selection of the 35 cars I have owned and collected data on.

E39M5 = -53 pence pre mile (ppm) over 15k miles
NA MX5 = -1ppm over 75k miles.
996 Carerra 2 = -39ppm over 35k miles
McLaren 12C = -114ppm over 14k miles (including £6k in warranty)
Elise S1 = +63ppm 3k miles
Ferrari F333 = -213ppm over 4k miles
Lotus Exige 350 = -50ppm over 2k miles
981 Boxster Spyder = -156ppm over 8k miles
986 Boxster S = -33ppm over 3k miles
BMW M635CSi = -250ppm over 2k miles
Audi S5 = -59ppm over 12k miles
675LT = +356ppm over 8K miles (still own and includes £10k in warranty)

So the older cars, M635 & F355 were pretty abysmal. Normal decent modern classics like a 996 or M5 were acceptable. The 12C was pretty good for a supercar and the 675LT is currently riding the wave of appreciation.

Edited by Bispal on Wednesday 15th June 14:28

[r o n n i e]

Bispal said:

I have some figures for my cars BUT I don't include petrol, insurance, tax, consumables or servicing as I find these costs much of a muchness and you would be doing the miles whatever you were in anyway. For instance an Audi S5 I owned for 2 years cost me the same to insure as my McLaren 12C, used the same amount of petrol, cost the same in tax and the annual service was £700 as opposed to £1,000. So general running costs very similar for a supercar to a 'prestige' car. My figures below include depreciation, abnormal costs (repairs) and warranties. I have included some more normal cars for reference. (-) is cost per mile if (+) means I made money on the car. All cars are now sold apart from 675LT so these are real prices and a brief selection of the 35 cars I have owned and collected data on.

E39M5 = -53 pence pre mile (ppm) over 15k miles
NA MX5 = -1ppm over 75k miles.
996 Carerra 2 = -39ppm over 35k miles
McLaren 12C = -114ppm over 14k miles (including £6k in warranty)
Elise S1 = +63ppm 3k miles
Ferrari F333 = -213ppm over 4k miles
Lotus Exige 350 = -50ppm over 2k miles
981 Boxster Spyder = -156ppm over 8k miles
986 Boxster S = -33ppm over 3k miles
BMW M635CSi = -250ppm over 2k miles
Audi S5 = -59ppm over 12k miles
675LT = +356ppm over 8K miles (still own and includes £10k in warranty)

So the older cars, M635 & F355 were pretty abysmal. Normal decent modern classics like a 996 or M5 were acceptable. The 12C was pretty good for a supercar and the 675LT is currently riding the wave of appreciation.

Edited by Bispal on Wednesday 15th June 14:28

You are clearly a man-maths expert!

[Trev450]

R8Reece said:

After 5 1/2 years of ownership & 12,557 miles I've just sold my 2008 R8 V8 coupe.

Ignoring the fact it may or may not be a supercar, over the 66 months I owned her she cost me £24,245 all in which includes depreciation, petrol, MOT, serving, tax, parts, all maintenance, selling costs and breakdown cover.

This works out at £367 a month, £4,408 per year or £1.93 per mile.

How does that compare with other marques?

Edited by R8Reece on Wednesday 15th June 13:24

A sad day, Reece. Was that to pay for the wedding?

Jokes aside, I hope you enjoyed the years you owned it and at least you can say you've had one.

[R8Reece]

Trev450 said:

A sad day, Reece. Was that to pay for the wedding?

Jokes aside, I hope you enjoyed the years you owned it and at least you can say you've had one.

Thanks Trev and no, thankfully not for the wedding! Enjoyed every moment!

However time to move on and up, watch this space

[Trev450]

R8Reece said:

Trev450 said:

A sad day, Reece. Was that to pay for the wedding?

Jokes aside, I hope you enjoyed the years you owned it and at least you can say you've had one.

Thanks Trev and no, thankfully not for the wedding! Enjoyed every moment!

However time to move on and up, watch this space

My breath is baited.

[R8Reece]

Trev450 said:

My breath is baited.

Don’t get too excited - mortgage still needs to be paid and, as far as I’m aware, I haven’t won the lottery

[anonymous-user]

Bispal said:

I have some figures for my cars BUT I don't include petrol, insurance, tax, consumables or servicing as I find these costs much of a muchness and you would be doing the miles whatever you were in anyway. For instance an Audi S5 I owned for 2 years cost me the same to insure as my McLaren 12C, used the same amount of petrol, cost the same in tax and the annual service was £700 as opposed to £1,000. So general running costs very similar for a supercar to a 'prestige' car. My figures below include depreciation, abnormal costs (repairs) and warranties. I have included some more normal cars for reference. (-) is cost per mile if (+) means I made money on the car. All cars are now sold apart from 675LT so these are real prices and a brief selection of the 35 cars I have owned and collected data on.

E39M5 = -53 pence pre mile (ppm) over 15k miles
NA MX5 = -1ppm over 75k miles.
996 Carerra 2 = -39ppm over 35k miles
McLaren 12C = -114ppm over 14k miles (including £6k in warranty)
Elise S1 = +63ppm 3k miles
Ferrari F333 = -213ppm over 4k miles
Lotus Exige 350 = -50ppm over 2k miles
981 Boxster Spyder = -156ppm over 8k miles
986 Boxster S = -33ppm over 3k miles
BMW M635CSi = -250ppm over 2k miles
Audi S5 = -59ppm over 12k miles
675LT = +356ppm over 8K miles (still own and includes £10k in warranty)

So the older cars, M635 & F355 were pretty abysmal. Normal decent modern classics like a 996 or M5 were acceptable. The 12C was pretty good for a supercar and the 675LT is currently riding the wave of appreciation.

Edited by Bispal on Wednesday 15th June 14:28

Based on those figures the smart money went on the 675LT.
Seems people are finally wakening up to how iconic a car it is as prices continue to spiral upwards and supply becomes even shorter

[Griffith4ever]

Hard to tell currently as the used marked is borked.

R8 V10 Spyder Rtronic. 12 years old soon.

Bought 45k. Going rate at present 50k+ (!?)

Services so far, 1 minor £450 inc AC service. Second due on two weeks. Fixed price at £400 ish . Expecting 500 ish with any surprises.

Insurance £180. Fuel. Lots (lol).

Actually cheaper than my TVR Griff 500 overall.

And I was fully expecting my 45k purchase to be 35k the second I drove away.

Warranty has avoided around £1100 in repairs so far (wiring fault caused nose fan to not stop, and failed door locking servo).

[originals]

I never ever do the sums.

Driving my supercars is priceless to me.

That might sound twee, but all the st I deal with during the week, in order to get the funds to buy them, evaporates when I'm behind the wheel of them at the weekend.

The ultimate mood enhancers.

[Griffith4ever]

originals said:

I never ever do the sums.

Driving my supercars is priceless to me.

That might sound twee, but all the st I deal with during the week, in order to get the funds to buy them, evaporates when I'm behind the wheel of them at the weekend.

The ultimate mood enhancers.

Amen to that. Could not agree more.

[Juber]

I am too scared to count the cost of my 360. I daily drive the car.

So far i have spent

• New Clutch - £3500
• 4 new tyres - £1000
• Service - £700
• Detailing - £300
• Petrol - lots

[sparta6]

I tend not to bother keeping track of running costs. I learned such from running a yacht

[Kyodo]

I don't keep track of the fuel or insurance but our 360 cost in the region of 13k over eight years of ownership from 2013 to 2021. That's all the servicing, parts and maintenance costs at a very highly regarded independent. We sold the car for 5k more than we purchased it for so excluding fuel (ok), tax (cheap) and insurance (reasonable), that's just 1k pa.

I'll add that it didn't do many miles with us in the last few years, approx 10k in our ownership but that did include two trouble-free runs across the channel.

Edited by Kyodo on Saturday 18th June 09:56

[DeejRC]

I can spend money on cars or…my wife can spend it.

I suspect this situation is not unique to myself…

[Juber]

DeejRC said:

I can spend money on cars or…my wife can spend it.

I suspect this situation is not unique to myself…

No mate. You can die to tomorrow, enjoy life.

[david-j8694]

originals said:

I never ever do the sums.

Driving my supercars is priceless to me.

That might sound twee, but all the st I deal with during the week, in order to get the funds to buy them, evaporates when I'm behind the wheel of them at the weekend.

The ultimate mood enhancers.

This st right here.

Makes no sense to work your tits off to get into the position to buy something nice, only to then spend the ownership stting yourself over the running costs.

If it's bought it's getting driven.