Car costs

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Wed 25 Aug 2004 19:39
Car costs - fastlad
As most people will know diesels cost about £1000-1500 more to buy new over the simular petrol petrol models. If you keep the car along time it shoule work out cheaper in the long run. However if you do an average mileage of about 10-12000 per year and look a three (3) year running cost, how do you work the costs out?????
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Wed 25 Aug 2004 21:42
Car costs - Keith S
Don't forget that about 50% of the extra over cost will be available on resale. So say the extra cost is £750.

The saving might be say 20 mpg. From 30mpg for petrol to 50mpg for diesel.

At 80p per litre the saving over 36,000 miles would be £1745.28

Therefore net saving might be £995.28.

We did a similar calculation when deciding to buy a 1.4 petrol or diesel Fiesta. The Diesel has been excellent, and hopefully the car will be a bit easier to sell because of the engine.

This is just an example, not sure how much diesel & petrol are at the moment. I think diesel is marginally different, but it shouldn't make too much difference to the figures.
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Thu 26 Aug 2004 12:48
Car costs - jones_the_guard
Don't forget to include the additional service costs related to Diesel cars.
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Thu 26 Aug 2004 13:00
Car costs - Mapmaker
& the additional cost of capital (money not on deposit at the bank/money that has to be borrowed).
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Thu 26 Aug 2004 13:08
Car costs - daveyjp
Two commonly held misbeliefs highlighted in one thread.

Diesels cost £1000-1500 more than petrol equivalents - not always the case. The new smart forfour diesel is cheaper than the petrol. Some Mercedes diesels are the same price. Second hand this difference can almost disappear - my 6 month old Audi was only £200 more than the petrol version.

Diesel servicing costs more - again not always true. It depends on the car and the servicing intervals - my Audi diesel costs the same to service as the petrol but needs servicing less often so works out cheaper.
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