Average annual running cost for 20 year old 'weekend car'?

[-Pete-]

I'm thinking of buying a 20 year old car which will only do a few thousand miles a year. If you've got something from around the year 2000 +/- 10 years I'd be interested to know what you pay for servicing to get it through MOTs and keep it in reasonable condition? If you DIY it, what's that cost you in £ and time? Exclude insurance, tax, tyres and fuel.

For example, in my experience a Yaris or Mk4 Golf are around £250/year, but a V6 Alfa looks like it'd be around £1K/year.

[-Pete-]

grudas said:

Had my Honda s2000 for a few years now, weekend car, few k miles a year. Being a Honda it costs me servicing and consumables. In the last few years I’ve replaced a brake caliper the rest was mods or consumables. So I’d say around £20 quid a year on unexpected maintenance. But then again. It’s a Honda. Buy a more needy car and it’ll be much higher.

So you spend £20/year on unexpected maintenance, but what about expected maintenance? £500/year? £750? I quite like the idea of an S2000, just trying to get a feel for how much I should expect to keep it in reasonable condition.

[-Pete-]

As I was only asking for the cost of servicing + essential maintenance, this is what I think people wrote so far:

PH-er	Car	Year	Miles/year	Annual cost	Notes
Justin85	996 C4S	2002	4000	2800
Byker28i	Cerbera	2000 ?	?	1875	Resto/DIY
CursedS54	E46 M3	2003?	1600	1600
c5_Steve	Corvette	1995	3000	650
Gad-Westy	Lotus Exige	2007	1000	580
Great Granny	E36 328i	1996	5000	500	DIY
parabolica	Z4	2003	6000	500	DIY
LHRFlightman	S2000	2004 ?	2500 ?	500
Second Best	Impreza WRX	2001	?	500
brillomaster	Boxster S	2000	?	450
DaveH23	MK I Mazda 3 MPS	2007	1000 ?	450
Jakg	Z4	2005 ?	2750	400	DIY
V88Dicky	Monaro CV8	2004	2750	400	DIY ?
Puddenchucker	350Z	2004	2750	400	DIY ?
jeremyh1	Saab 900	1996	3000	300	DIY
shirt	Toyota elise	2006	?	300	DIY
Justin85	205 Gti	1992	2000	220	DIY
Justin85	Citroen Dyane	1971	4000	195	DIY
Jaguar Steve	XJ8	2001	3500	75	DIY
Fady	MR2	2004	?	0	DIY

So if you can DIY most jobs, you can run a 20 year old weekend performance car for £400-£600/year plus tax, insurance, fuel, tyres etc. Doesn't sound so bad... and I'd guess two or three times that, if you're paying for labour?

Edited by -Pete- on Thursday 23 March 22:17

[-Pete-]

parabolica said:

I was doing around 6k a year. Totally doable on those figures if you buy smart, do your research first and find a reliable car. By contract, a friend of my ex-neighbour bought himself a similar z4 to mine last year and he’s had to pile thousands into it to fix various mechanical issues caused by neglect by previous owners, to the point he hates the car now.

I agree, whatever I buy I'll be checking the service history and trying to work out what's going to need doing next. I'm ok at DIY but out of practice, and don't have a lot of free time or space in the garage.

I used to have an Alfa 156 2.5 V6 company car and loved the sound of that Busso engine, so I've been looking at various four seater Alfa V6's and was shocked that the cambelt is a £1K job every 4-5 years. It doesn't look that easy to DIY. They also have very 'consumable' suspension parts, so it doesn't seem like it'd be a cheap car to run. Perhaps a V8 Monaro is the answer, XK would be ok if it was available as a manual.

On the other hand, my last company car was a 530d and that was great in an 'efficient' way, without much character. I can pick up a 328i for the same price as a V6 Alfa but I hear horror stories* about running older BMW's... plastic bits going brittle, built in obsolescence, difficult to DIY. So even though it'd be 5 years younger, I don't know if it'd cost more to run. And they don't sound great.

• *Not all stories are true, that's why I'm asking about other people's experiences.

[-Pete-]

caiss4 said:

-Pete- said:

I'm thinking of buying a 20 year old car which will only do a few thousand miles a year. If you've got something from around the year 2000 +/- 10 years I'd be interested to know what you pay for servicing to get it through MOTs and keep it in reasonable condition? If you DIY it, what's that cost you in £ and time? Exclude insurance, tax, tyres and fuel.

For example, in my experience a Yaris or Mk4 Golf are around £250/year, but a V6 Alfa looks like it'd be around £1K/year .

That prompted me to check how much I've spent since 2013 on my Alfa 3.0V6 Spider. Whilst having a mental note of some of the big bills over the years I'd never added it all up.

Anyway your guess is bang on (excluding petrol and insurance). Over 10 years and 12k miles it has cost me on average £960 per year.

Thanks. And is it worth it?

[-Pete-]

DaveyBoyWonder said:

911Spanker said:

Surely there's no real answer to the question? We all have different cars, maintain them in different ways, use them differently and have different standards of what "level" we want our cars?

Exactly that was my first thought. My 20 year old "weekend" cars in the past have been supercharged Minis. Easy to work on, parts are plentiful and there are a good range of specialists out there for jobs I can't do myself. In the grand scheme of things I didn't spent much on running them apart from fuel and mods. Currently looking at 996s which I guess from a fuel/tax/insurance point of view will be similar but parts/servicing etc will be through the roof vs a Mini.

Hence my question… what are peoples’ real life average service & maintenance costs? I think the answers are quite useful. But if you don’t know, or don’t care, that’s fine too - just enjoy your car.