The true cost of running a car

[the_rudeboy 12]

£20.17 a day. Ouch!

I don't feel quite so bad now.

[eckerslike 10]

I have just looked over the figures again and they are very misleading. I have just been out for my swim and lunch. The trip in my car was 26 miles and according to the website cost £26.26p. That is totally ludicrous. It didn’t.

 

 

I take your point there foxylady. I drive a Z4 BMW and do a fairly limited mileage in it. The cost per mile is coming up at 82p.

 

It makes you wonder who in Sheffield is doing the most expensive motoring. I can imagine some little old lady in a Metro who only drives to Tesco once a week at a cost of £3/mile.

Edited March 27, 2009 by eckerslike

[altus 537]

I have just looked over the figures again and they are very misleading. I have just been out for my swim and lunch. The trip in my car was 26 miles and according to the website cost £26.26p. That is totally ludicrous. It didn’t.

 

Had I made the trip on the bus it would probably have cost more. That is because most of the costs of running a car are fixed costs that you incur whether you take the car out or not.

 

The website says that my car costs £918/month to run, however most of that is insurance, breakdown cover, road tax, depreciation, servicing etc. The actual running costs like petrol, tyres etc work out at nearer £0.30 per mile rather than the suggested £1.01.

You still have to pay the out money though - that's why it's part of the true cost of running a car.

Leaving the car at home hardly saves money. It merely increases the cost per mile for the travelling done. When I looked at the effect of reducing my annual mileage from 8000 to 7000 it increased the cost per mile by 11p to £1.12p.

 

What I need to do is use the car more. Increasing my annual mileage 30% to 12000 miles would reduce the costs by 25% to £0.75p per mile.

 

WE NEED TO GET OUT MORE

Driving more when you wouldn't normally do so just to reduce your cost per mile is silly. You'll end up paying even more out that you could have spent on other things.

[bearcub24 10]

Mine £7.22, on my 8 year old Passat estate, doing 10000 a year, I'm not even going to try my wifes BMW:mad:

[Cyclone 10]

I have just looked over the figures again and they are very misleading. I have just been out for my swim and lunch. The trip in my car was 26 miles and according to the website cost £26.26p. That is totally ludicrous. It didn’t.

 

Had I made the trip on the bus it would probably have cost more. That is because most of the costs of running a car are fixed costs that you incur whether you take the car out or not.

 

The website says that my car costs £918/month to run, however most of that is insurance, breakdown cover, road tax, depreciation, servicing etc. The actual running costs like petrol, tyres etc work out at nearer £0.30 per mile rather than the suggested £1.01.

 

Leaving the car at home hardly saves money. It merely increases the cost per mile for the travelling done. When I looked at the effect of reducing my annual mileage from 8000 to 7000 it increased the cost per mile by 11p to £1.12p.

 

What I need to do is use the car more. Increasing my annual mileage 30% to 12000 miles would reduce the costs by 25% to £0.75p per mile.

 

WE NEED TO GET OUT MORE

 

The site didn't purport to be telling you running costs, nor to imply that leaving the car at home would save money.

It does tell you the true annual cost of running your car for the mileage you travel and roughly how much per mile that costs, which could be useful in comparing different cars or different means of transport altogether (ie selling your car and catching the bus).

 

As a comparison, the two miles into town from here costs £1.70 on the tram, a true cost of £0.85/mile plus the extra time (and time is money).

The train to Kiveton, about 20 miles costs £5, so that's £0.25/mile.

The train to London (mon-fri return) is £150 and it's what, 120 miles each way? <£1.00/mile.

 

The inconvenience and time wasted in most of those means of transport offsets the true additional cost of a car.

[jfish1936 10]

The site didn't purport to be telling you running costs, nor to imply that leaving the car at home would save money.

It does tell you the true annual cost of running your car for the mileage you travel and roughly how much per mile that costs, which could be useful in comparing different cars or different means of transport altogether (ie selling your car and catching the bus).

 

Yes! If you need a car sometimes, and that's often enough to exclude taxis or hire cars, then you are already paying most of the fixed costs. To run to the shop only costs the petrol to get there plus a tiny share of service costs, so only taking the car out twice a week doesn't save much.

 

Imagine a square drawn on paper; Up one side is cost; along the bottom is mileage. That's your fixed costs, whether you use the car or not (but still have it available to use). Now draw a triangle; start top left of the square, and slope upward to the right.

The line on top of the triangle is your total cost of the miles along the bottom; but the added cost of a few miles is only the height of the triangle at that mileage.

The efficiency is the ratio of variable cost to total cost - i.e. highest for high mileage.

Have you tried calculating the nileage below which you sell the car and call a cab?

[bobbie 10]

Mine £7.22, on my 8 year old Passat estate, doing 10000 a year, I'm not even going to try my wifes BMW:mad:

 

 

 

£7.22 to drive your passat, where you want, when you want, door to door

 

Verse

 

Busfare, to wait at the bus stop and share the bus with chavs/smellys/scum and take 4 times longer to do the journey

 

£7.22 per day is cheap money in my book

[khizman 10]

people think fuel costs are the main cost of running a car, hence why they buy crappy diesels, the true cost is depreciation and maintanance.

[jfish1936 10]

people think fuel costs are the main cost of running a car, hence why they buy crappy diesels, the true cost is depreciation and maintanance.

 

As I said earlier, fuel is a major cost of "running" a car; depreciation and maintenance are costs of "owning" a car.

The big saving is getting rid of the car altogether; we can't, because public transport here is poor (from our door, there's plenty an hour's walk away).

But we were able to get rid of our second car, and although it hadn't done many miles a year, the savings were considerable.

 

BTW, diesel engines cost extra in Australia; the fuel savings would take me years to pay back the extra engine cost.

Edited March 28, 2009 by jfish1936

[foxy lady 10]

The site didn't purport to be telling you running costs, nor to imply that leaving the car at home would save money.

It does tell you the true annual cost of running your car for the mileage you travel and roughly how much per mile that costs, which could be useful in comparing different cars or different means of transport altogether (ie selling your car and catching the bus).

 

As a comparison, the two miles into town from here costs £1.70 on the tram, a true cost of £0.85/mile plus the extra time (and time is money).

The train to Kiveton, about 20 miles costs £5, so that's £0.25/mile.

The train to London (mon-fri return) is £150 and it's what, 120 miles each way? <£1.00/mile.

 

The inconvenience and time wasted in most of those means of transport offsets the true additional cost of a car.

 

 

I think that the danger from calculating the figures is this idea of a cost per mile. As I said I calculated a cost per mile of over a pound. But that doesn't mean that if I used an alternative means of transport that I would save a pound per mile. I wouldn't. I would save the cost of the petrol and not much more. Once you own a car most of your expenses are going to arise whether you use it or not. So leaving the car in the garage and taking the bus is a waste of time and money.

[jfish1936 10]

Once you own a car most of your expenses are going to arise whether you use it or not. So leaving the car in the garage and taking the bus is a waste of time and money.

 

Especially if my wife and I go together, more if we take two grandchildren to the library -- thats multiple bus fares against a tiny bit more fuel than driving one person only!

[Cyclone 10]

I think that the danger from calculating the figures is this idea of a cost per mile. As I said I calculated a cost per mile of over a pound. But that doesn't mean that if I used an alternative means of transport that I would save a pound per mile. I wouldn't. I would save the cost of the petrol and not much more. Once you own a car most of your expenses are going to arise whether you use it or not. So leaving the car in the garage and taking the bus is a waste of time and money.

 

I don't suppose the cost per mile is actually that much use, it's not like you can make a direct comparison to public transport as I've never seen that priced in a per mile fashion.