I keep a book in which I list all my cars as I buy / sell / scrap them. Updating it recently for my newest car (95 ZX TD) I added up the costs to date:
Since Feb 1996 (my first car) I have had 6 cars, costing a total of £6195, 1 has been scrapped, 2 sold on (for total of £290), the other 3 I still have (2 on the road). The cars have covered around 133,000 miles in that time. This makes depreciation a shade over 4p / mile. Pretty good, I thought.
Then I worked out the total cost (I also keep reasonable records of money spent) - I find that my cars run at around 17p / mile all in. This means 133,000 miles has cost me around £22,600. Ouch. I'm glad it's bangernomics for me, and not running new cars with dealer overheads to pay for!
Both current cars just MOT'd (0ne on 102k, the other 113k) for a handbrake cable, track rod end, front wishbone, and drop link - all in under £200 - phew, I was bracing myself for it being an expensive month!
No point to this post really, I was just staggered at the amount of money I have spent without thinking about it!
--
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
|
Richard mate.....
GET OUT MORE!
;-) JaB
|
The cost of motoring is irrelevant really, provided you can afford it. If you sat down and worked out the cost of housing, clothing, hobbies, socialising, holiday's etc you would also be amazed at what each came to.
But then, thats why we go to work each day. The alternative is to have no interests or hobbies except to sit at home admiring your bank balance, ever growing because you never spend anything.
And then you die...
|
In my case at least it's not a so much watching the bank balance grow; it's what I could do with the money if I wasn't spending it on cars i.e. opportunity cost. I know plenty of people who seem happy to lose thousands per year on depreciation, yet moan they can't afford a decent holiday etc. etc.
FWIW a rough calculation over my last few years of 'bangernomics' works out at around 20p per mile.
|
|
|
Danny Baker recently commented on this on is breakfast show on BBC Radio London. You lie there on your death bed thinking of all the money you've built up when WHAMMO! It hits you between the eyes that you've wasted your life. Could have seen Niagra falls, watched the Northern Lights from Mount McKinley, swum with dolphins and watched whales in Puget sound, but no, I sat here and saved my money.....
|
Are you sure Danny Baker said that? Doesn't sound like him to me. Are you sure he didn't say 'It's a Daz doorstep challenge' really?
Living darn sarf as you do, maybe you've missed out on some of the sayings of the wordly wise Northerners. One for this occasion is:
'They don't sew pockets into shrouds'
|
|
|
Danny Baker recently commented on this on is breakfast show on BBC Radio London. You lie there on your death bed thinking of all the money you've built up when WHAMMO! It hits you between the eyes that you've wasted your life. Could have seen Niagra falls, watched the Northern Lights from Mount McKinley, swum with dolphins and watched whales in Puget sound, but no, I sat here and saved my money.....
>>
So thats 1 tick, 2(maybe, does aberdeen count?) 3 tick, 4 no they have all died due to global warming caused by 4x4s in London
|
|
|
|
|
|
The AA did a survey years ago (1980s I think) on the cost of motoring for cars of various ages. They concluded that the cheapest cars to run were 4 to 6 year olds. Newer than that costs you in depreciation, and any older you start to get unexpected bills. This was based on paying somebody to do any work needed, so if you do your own maintenance it would be reasonable to assume that a slightly older car would work out cheaper.
I say, this was years ago so I don't know if the conclusions are still valid today.
|
Well at those kind of costs, you've been lucky (or shrewd) in your choice of purchases. I've suffered low depreciation/high repairs and high depreciation/high repairs. I've had old bangers work out at close to 50p per mile and an Alfa 156 which I dread to think. So now I'm happy to suffer brand new car depreciation in the knowledge that repairs will be low (close to zero, in fact, due to the warranty).
By the way, I'm an accountant - a couple of years ago I would have been the last person on earth to buy a new car as I'm acutely aware of depreciation. The Alfa drove me to it - I used to literally tear my hair out at how much the garages fleeced off of me to (not) fix the car.
--
Mattster
Boycott shoddy build and reliability.
|
Quick calculation time:
My (sorry, I forgot: 'our'!) V70 2003 2.4T, purchased new in March last year, and now covered 13,200 miles: £1.05 per mile.
SWMBO's 1994 306 1.8 SR Sedan, purchased 20 months ago with genuine 14,000 and something miles, and now covered 25,990 miles: £0.34 per mile.
My Honda Hornet 600 motorbike (okay, summer toy), purchased new in 1998, now covered 13,000 fun, fun, fun, miles: £0.53 per mile.
All are great at what they do, give good satisfaction, and touch wood, never any grief. We intend to keep the Volvo for many years yet, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the cost per mile over time.
Well, with that out of the way, I'll get on with doing what I do best: Enjoying life and health whilst I've got both.
|
SjB,
Many owners have a fixation about fuel economy when buying a new car.
I think your figures illustrate that an extra few mpg make very little difference in the overall running costs.
C
|
Kind of off-thread (well really off, actually) but... SpamCan61?? Any connection with WCs/BBs? Or is that nothing to do with 4-6-2s?
(It'll make sense to a just a few sad souls.)
|
Well spotted 'Mad Maxy' ..my 'handle' was indeed inspired by the works of O.V.S.Bulleid, inlcuding his use of chain driven valve gear* on the Pacifics:-)).
* very vague motoring link...good job he didn't specify vauxhall cambelts instead;-)
|
I really admire people who successfully follow the bangernomics philosophy; I can see there must be something deeply satisfying in genuinely maintaining a car rather than just driving to the nearest main dealer and bending over on an annual basis. Likewise, avoiding 20%+ annual depreciation on what for most is their second most valuable asset.
If you have no interest in a car as anything other than transport, and care not for image and status, then it's the only way to go. Unfortunately for my wallet, I do. At least the CTR has decent residuals (near 60%/3 yrs at the moment), which takes some of the pain out of buying new.
|
It might be possible to run something older (even less depreciation, possibly self-maintainable) which is still quick, handles, and has image and status...
I dunno, how about an Audi Quattro, original BMW M3, *unmolested* Pug 205 Gti, Golf Gti, Jaguar E-type...?
|
|
I enjoy driving my 'Y' reg 1982 Ford Granada 2.8 Ghia auto with 61K miles. It cost £500 3 months ago and is in very good condition. An oil/filter change is £10 every 6 months, a few bits here and there including a precautionary new water pump (slightly loose bearing) at £40, fitted by myself in about 3 hours with a coolant flush. I am a novice 'home mechanic' and cars like this are so simple to work on and parts are mainly freely available at the local motor factors. Also factor in classic car insurance too! So far it is 100% reliable and is incredibly comfortable and handles surprisingly well. It's fully loaded with electrics and has the best main beam headlights ever (ok the driving lamps help!). Fuel consumption 22mpg, but a lpg kit can be fitted fairly cheaply with help from the Granada club which I may look into. Boo to your modern cars! I admit the Granada is only used at weekends as I have to use my company car during the week, but I can't wait to ditch the modern motor on a Friday evening!
|
RP:
MKII Granada V6 - RESPECT...
|
|
Well spotted 'Mad Maxy' ..my 'handle' was indeed inspired by the works of O.V.S.Bulleid
Ah, OVSB had a nice line in designer wheels too. It has been by pleasure to fire 35005 and to clean 34016.
61. That'll be '73 Squadron' then??
|
|
That should read 'my pleasure'. I need to fire the keyboard operator now.
|
Pah
Traveled on the footplate of my dads wagon 70037 "Hereward the Wake" from Liverpool St to Norwich.
Britannias rule!
|
|
|
|
61. That'll be '73 Squadron' then??
A reasonable assumption; but it is in fact the year of my birth:-) I added it because for some account I set up somewhere a long time ago 'spamcan' had already been used by someone else.
Feel free to discuss O.V.S.B's works further via the personal e-mail address included in my profile, before the moderators have us for 'thread drift'....;-))
|
One last bite, please mods...!
Andy SpamCan: no e-mail in your profile but should be one in mine.
RF: Cor, fantastic! I'm dead envious. Your dad must have been a driver at Stratford? Or Norwich? A hero! I saw all those GE line Britannias in the late 50s/early 60s. Loved 'em! I was talking to SWMBO the other day about investment diversification. I said "I'd love a Brit nameplate like 'HtW' or 'Coeur de Lion' or 'Alfred the Great' or..."
|
Dad = Driver at Stratford. I must have been about 6 or 8 so it would have been around 1960ish.
Lionel, his fireman cooked me the statutary eggs and bacon on the shovel, stuffed into a sarnie, tea from the enamel billy hooked over the firebox door.
Poor old Hereward ended its days broken up in Glasgow.
|
>>Andy SpamCan: no e-mail in your profile but should be one in mine.
D'oh....e-mail now uncloaked in profile
|
|
|
|
|
|
