miketually - Member"A bit more maths tells me that its costing me £4000 a year to run my car, about 20% of my wages."
Just think: every Friday you're at work, you're only there to pay for your car.
Depressing, hey?
And here lies the lunacy of commuting by car. There are lots of people in this sort of situation. Add to the cost the time of commuting - see how much that brings your hourly rate down.
Its a crazy mixed up world where this is a lifestyle choice.
Big motorbikes can be very expensive to run. 10 000 miles will be best part of £500 in tyres for a start. Chains another hundred or two. Servicings more frequent as well. Insurance is expensive as is riding kit and repairs
And here lies the lunacy of commuting by car. There are lots of people in this sort of situation. Add to the cost the time of commuting - see how much that brings your hourly rate down.Its a crazy mixed up world where this is a lifestyle choice.
That is where my company car actually pays of. Costs me £120 a month in tax on car and fuel. I have done 44k miles this year so that is 3666 miles per month which comes in at a cost to me of 3p per mile! Obviously the company pay a lot more for it than that but with my wife family living in Yorkshire and my family in Kent and us living in Bedfordshire we easily spend 2 fuel tanks worth of petrol on personal mileage so it saves us money.
The time factor is another issue completley. My 70 mile one hour commute takes the same amount of time as my wifes 12 mile commute so living close to work doesnt always save you time!
Yeah, people tend to assume that if a small car is cheaper to run then a big car, then a motorbike must be even cheaper.
It doesn't work quite like that though. It might for scooters, but not when you take the fuel and tyre consumption of sports bikes in to account.
It'd be interesting to know if anyone's worked out the figures for a bicycle.
People don't tend to trade a bike in for a newer one every couple of years, like they do with cars, so I don't know how you'd factor in depreciation.
it would cost me £50p more per day to use public transport than it does the car, buying a season ticket and getting the bus to and from the station. barmy
My previous cheapy commuter decathlon road bike that i used every day for a few years worked out about 7p a mile IIRC.
And here lies the lunacy of commuting by car. There are lots of people in this sort of situation. Add to the cost the time of commuting - see how much that brings your hourly rate down.Its a crazy mixed up world where this is a lifestyle choice.
Yeah, I cycled to work for 5 years (10 miles each way) and really miss it after changing job, however I dont miss the stress of my old job at all!
I work in IT - there isnt much work about and I badly needed to leave my last job before the stress was too much and I had some sort of break down or lost my wife.
I had to take a job thats 30 miles away from my house, but its a very good job. OK pay, superb people to work with (both the guys in IT and the end users) and the job is interesting and stress free. For that I can compromise and spend some more time in the car.
I dont think I have been happier for a long time. If ever. But I do spend a lot of time in the car!
I commute daily by bike.
Cost me £400 initial outlay in 2008 (for a perfectly functioning, working bike, so will ignore the pointless extras I've spent on it).
£57 for 2 new pairs of tyres (road and CX for this snow!).
In true repair/running costs, I reckon about £30 a year (oil, grease, pads). Yet to have a big drivechain replace.
However, the parking at work costs £35 per month, so after about 15 months the bike is quids in.
Don't know what that is PPM (4 miles each way minimum), but must be heading towards the zero point (given parking is £35 a month and would HAVE to be included in alternative vehicles)
DrP
Car cost 9000 will keep 5 years and assume worth 1k on resale so 8k depreciation or £1600 year
20k mile a year at 10p a mile £2000 year fuel ( jeez thats depressing)
mot £100 year
service and tyres £300 year
Insurance £350 year
so 4300 year 23p/mile
of which my work car allowance covers, but only just....
i also have a land rover but dont even want to think about costs for that
£0.09p / mile depreciation (unless you buy French then its way more)
My first car
Cost £200
MOT £35
New tyre £40
Tax £185
Fuel at 10p/mile £1,200
Died 12k/8months miles later, got £60 scrap for it, plus tax refund.
Insurance £620 (I was 23 with no NCD, 3 points and a 1.6 litre engine)
Total cost = 18p/mile, but a third of that is insurance.
Not worked out current car, 28mpg not good!
New running shoes £50, shop keeper siad they're good for 500 miles = 10p/mile for running!
looking at the missus car, 2005 diesel panda. bought for 4k in 2007 and looking at the cheapest on autotrader its still worth 3250.
35k miles at 62mpg.
3 mots at 40.
3 services at 30 for parts.
Discs and pads at 92.
4 tyres at 52 each.
3 tax at 35
3 insurance at 200
so 13.6p a mile. this is about as cheap as running a car can get although i have used genuine fiat parts and continental tyres so a bit could have been saved there.
The other cars and motorbikes cost far more and i dont want to think about it!
And here lies the lunacy of commuting by car. There are lots of people in this sort of situation. Add to the cost the time of commuting - see how much that brings your hourly rate down.
I was wondering when TJ was going to show up 
It's only lunacy when you get a second car purely for commuting - most of us have a car anyway, if you use it for commuting too it's actually making the most of your investment. Given you'll be spending time getting to work whatever means of transport you choose (ignoring working from home) adding the time as a cost seems a little unfair.
Somehow, I'm not surprised by the fact that the most expensive vehicle by far is the motorbike.
Presumably only because he didn't use it much, or wrote it off on the third ride or something
No, it was a divorce present to myself (Monster) - replaced with a proper bike after 6 months.
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