how much would it cost to buy and run a commuting car for a year?

12 mile roundtrip
48 weeks per year

say you paid 1k for a runaround
any idea what running costs would be.

You need to get the proposed car’s approx. MPG, then use the current cost of petrol/diesel to work out fuel costs.
I put £100/month aside for car maintenance, insurance & tax and it usually covers it – we run a 14yr old Passat TDi (approx £1k value).

Other costs are too variable to guess. That Avensis for sale on here would be one cheap way to do it (assuming nothing breaks of course!)

Plus an average of the best and worst maintenance scenario.

I’ve got a 306 hdi which averages 45 mpg but do a 70 mile round trip each day so you can divide my fuel/tyre costs by at least 5.

£2300 diesel
£220 tax
£50 mot
£180 insurance
£300 tyres
£200-300 servicing/repairs doing all the work myself.

Wish I hadn’t just added all that up, need to find a job nearer home now 🙁

Similar commute, i cycle when I can but sometime have stuff to take in so can’t. If I commute every work day it costs me £20 a week in fuel. My cars not the most economical though but it’s been drop dead reliable (touch wood) and never missed a beat.

MarkBrewer – Member
I’ve got a 306 hdi which averages 45 mpg but do a 70 mile round trip each day so you can divide my fuel/tyre costs by at least 5.

£2300 diesel
£220 tax
£50 mot
£180 insurance
£300 tyres
£200-300 servicing/repairs doing all the work myself.

Wish I hadn’t just added all that up, need to find a job nearer home now

Blimey. That’s about what it costs me to run a 3l diesel Jag XF for the same commute.

Well, ok, the tyres are £650, and it’s dealer serviced[1], but the rest is exactly the same.

[1] Jaguar Fixed Price Servicing

A £1k runaround would be getting home serviced and part worn tyres if it were mine.
oil and filter less than £20 and I can get good part worn tyres for similar money.

So simple maths..

60 miles/week
2880/year
So MPG
30MPG = 2 Gallon/Week = 9l = £11.79 Petrol = 565/Year
60MPG = 1 Gallon/week = 4.5l = £5.89 Petrol = 282/Year

Add in Tax MOT & Insurance and thats your base number then whatever you want to allocate for maintenance. Safe to budget the value of the car really.

Should be doable for
Car £1k (with 12 months MOT)
Tax £200
Insurance £very variable
Spare £1k for servicing/bits/replace
Fuel £280-560
Total should come in under £3k max.

If you have to pay for parking that can blow the whole equation out of the water.. Of course if you’ve accepted that you have to have a car to commute, it’s there to use for leisure too, and to a large degree your leisure usage will only cost you the amount of fuel you use…

Insurance and major repairs will be the big unknowns. If you haven’t run a car in a while insurance could be costly, and repairs on a 1k car could be pretty expensive!

Other than that, your tax, fuel, mot and servicing should be well under 1k a year

bensales – Member

Blimey. That’s about what it costs me to run a 3l diesel Jag XF for the same commute.

And the cost of the car/depreciation??

Similar position, my old 1.6 206 (had 13 yrs. so prob worth nowt)

12 mile commute usually ride a couple of days a week and a few leisure trips – fill up once a month on average at £60 / 360 miles so around £750 ish a year

Insurance is £150, tax is £120, mot is around £50ish, don’t service anymore

So around £1100ish. Budget £1500 for bad luck.

I would love to replace it but it just keeps going despite limited servicing etc,.. So I’ll run it till is expires.

Yaris D4D here, value @ £600-£1k
Does about 50 mpg.
Last year cost MOT (£50), two bearings (£130iirc), a new windscreen wiper (£11), tax (£30), Insurance (£160) and a replacement tyre for a puncture (£44). It will get serviced next month (@£150)
It did 9k miles last year.

Running a crap car is crazy cheap, its no wonder people dont see a need to cycle anywhere. £500 fuel for a year in a car you want to have on the drive for leisure use anyway.

Not really too relevant but this thread made me wonder what my motorbike is costing me to run as a commuter.
Fuel (current average 80mpg over 7000 miles) £895
1.3 sets of tyres at £200/set – £260
Insurance – £85
Tax – £65 ish (not sure but it’s about that)
Servicing at £250/8000 miles – £375
TOTAL £1680 or 14p/mile.

Depreciation will be about £600 a year over 3 years I think.

My total running costs (less depreciation) are equivalent to just the fuel on a diesel car doing 45.4mpg….
Interesting to know. 🙂

Must add we have a newer, nicer focus that does most long journeys. But, in the 4 years we’ve owned it has broken down twice and needed approx £900 in repairs (abs pump, alternator). During those breakdowns my wife used the beat up 206 that has had one issue in13 years (cat). Bangernomics is the way to go if you don’t mind turning up to work in the most beat up car in the carpark….

repairs on a 1k car could be pretty expensive

Repairs on the wrong 1k car could be costly.
For a 12m round trip I’d buy something like a petrol engined Mondeo.

New discs & pads all round for £70 on a Mondeo, but if its a diesel & needs a turbo or dmf… 😯

Blimey. That’s about what it costs me to run a 3l diesel Jag XF for the same commute.

Average used price in December 2011: £31,380
Average used price in May 2012: £26,478
Difference: -£4,902 (-15.62 per cent)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/picturegalleries/9387183/10-used-cars-that-depreciate-the-most.html?frame=2271885

PeterPoddy – Member

My total running costs (less depreciation) are equivalent to just the fuel on a diesel car doing 45.4mpg….
Interesting to know.

Interesting, but pretty dire mpg for a diesel….

Using an assumption of 55mpg, which is a bit on the low side for me…
Last time I worked it out, my current car was costing me 18p/mile all in to run including depreciation and all other costs. But that’s doing a lot of miles so the associated costs get spread out thinner.
Probably an extreme example as I am driving round in car that I’ve owned for nearly 8 years, doing lots of miles.

stumpy01 – Member

bensales – Member
Blimey. That’s about what it costs me to run a 3l diesel Jag XF for the same commute.

And the cost of the car/depreciation??[/quote]

He was asking about running costs, not ownership.

But as you asked. It cost £17k a year ago. It’s probably losing about £1000 a year now. But I figure (and can afford) I’m happier to lose a grand a year on a nice motor and be in a very nice place on the way to a not-so-nice one, rather than spending a grand a year on an old banger.

reason I asked was purely to find out the costs. I came out with the following.

cheap car = £1000
£20 per week fuel = £960
insurance = £350
road tax = £100
mot £30 fingers crossed.

total = £2440

I spend £1000 a year on a new bike, which I use all year.
I am cutting myself short……..;o)

hang on, just checking the maths

12 mile roundtrip

60 miles /week and

£20 per week fuel

Thats about 15mpg what you planning on running?

how much would the fuel be then?

60 miles/week
2880/year
So MPG
30MPG = 2 Gallon/Week = 9l = £11.79 Petrol = 565/Year
60MPG = 1 Gallon/week = 4.5l = £5.89 Petrol = 282/Year

Depends on your MPG

so I can still up my bike spend to £2000. cool 8)

Doing the sums on a commuter car is iffy because you don’t know about variables like exploding engines etc. I decided to go new as I didn’t fancy pottering around in an old banger.

I lease a new uber frugal petrol car

Lease costs 1920 PA (no deposit)
Servicing 0 (included)
Tax 20
Tyres 120
Insurance 180
Fuel around 2000 but I do around 500 miles a week and most people wouldn’t, so assume 800 max the costs become pretty decent (the lease would be less too) and you get a new car.

The main problem is I’m a large bloke and I look like Bowser from Super Mario Cart when I’m in it.

joolsburger – Member

I lease a new uber frugal petrol car

Lease costs 1920 PA (no deposit)

Fuel around 2000 but I do around 500 miles a week

What on earth do you lease for 160 quid a month inc servicing for 25k miles per year? Whenever I’ve looked at leases, anything over 10k miles per year and it becomes cheaper to buy on a finance deal.

At a guess from the description something like a smart car or fiat 500?!

45.4mpg….

Interesting, but pretty dire mpg for a diesel….

In the real world, I think that is pretty usual.

Our Touran does mid 40’s average, 50 on a long gentle run.
The Yaris, despite costing nada to fix and service, is an old push, wheeze, bang type engine, does 50ish.

Moped.

This equation, the fact that my wife wouldn’t be without the car through the week, and the haribo that comes with orders from Wiggle certainly make my bike parts habit less controversial.

I think these days I would be without a car if my wife would accept it. It’s a lot of money I could spend on a cargo bike/trike and some other nice things – and some money left over for taxis/hire cars when needed.

Oh yeah and the fact I lost 10kg when I went to a longer commute, I don’t think I could face losing my cycle commute!

Seat Mii I ought to add that I will be buying it at the lease end as I will have gone wayyyyyy over milage but I reckon I’ll only be a grand down when I sell it on. I actually do around 18k a year 500 is a bad week of being in the office every day. Got a deal on first 4 services for free, but now they also do 0% finance. All moot really car allowance + mileage covered but why spend that on a flashy motor.

45.4mpg….
Interesting, but pretty dire mpg for a diesel….
In the real world, I think that is pretty usual.

I would say thats pretty good to be honest. A lot of diesel cars are a decent size and won’t necessarily return 50s mpg figures unless they are being driven gently on a long trip. I’d go so far as to suggest that the majority of diesel cars on the road never make it over 45 mpg average as they are mostly driven in town but most owners don’t actually measure what they are getting, they just assume they are getting what the manufacturer claims.

Our previous Ocatvia would drop to mid 40’s if it was rammed full and driven hard, apart from that 50 was about the lower line you would expect and easy to get up to 60 on long motorway sections.

More modern ones do better, I’ve had high 50’s from the Blue Motion Golf’s a few years back not even taking it easy.

On a modern car the biggest influence on mpg is the right foot and bad driving.

Our previous Ocatvia would drop to mid 40’s if it was rammed full and driven hard

06 focus 2L oil burner

I’ve not seen anything below 40mpg when booting it. Or much above 60mpg when crawling. Mostly I get about 50mpg for my commute.

As a commuter motor that car has been pretty good to us.