How much does your car cost to run in terms of maintenance?

I thought this would be quite interesting, my instructors car has just had its 30,000 mile service which cost him £400 (£300 plus two new discs).

Ok our car bought for £850 in August 07 with 62k on the clock and 12 months MOT.

August - The day after we bought it the thermostat went, we were not happy! Cost £30 to fix.

October - First service cost £65 inc oil, filters, hand brake adjustment but no plugs.

November - Idle control valve and MAF cleaned, £10.

Feb - Four new pads - £80

April - Two new suspenson bushes £90

August MOT - Brake pipes, fog slight switch, rear drum adjustment, wiper blades £200 inc cert.

August - Two new Kumho tryes, £90.

Sept (today) - Oil and filter change, new head lamp, £25.

So thats £470, the next big job will be the clutch slave cylinder but my machanic reckons another 20k can be had before that needs doing, and the car will probably be scrapped by then anyway.

So in total 12 months motoring cost £1320 plus running costs, but the car is still worth the £850 we paid for it so thats a car for £470 a year which works out at £9 per week :eek.

 

Thinking about maintenance on it's own is absolutely pointless.
You need to be taking into account:
- Insurance costs
- Road tax
- Fuel costs
- Maintenance
- Depreciation
- Opportunity cost. e.g. if your car keeps breaking down, do you lose your job.
Ignoring some of those is just stupid. eg. the people who insist on buying a brand new car based on the fact that it's 5mpg more efficient and slightly cheaper on road tax, completely ignoring the fact that on driving out of the showroom, that it lost £2000 in depreciation.

 

My green galant was pretty good.

Over 46000 miles in 4 years and 1 week, it required the following:

Front discs (twice) - £135
Front pads (twice) - £45 (one set I won in a competition for free)
Rear discs - £90
Rear pads - £20
Auto Fluid - £100
Oil/filter changes - £450
Tyres (P6000s) - £245
Tyres (KH15s) - £180
Front bumper - £95 (s/h, resprayed)
Driver's side headlamp (stone chip) - £60
Driver's side headlamp (cracked bracket + condensation) - £50
Sparkplugs - £36
Air filters - £60
O/S/F balljoint - £120
Brake Fluid - £40
Tracking/balancing - £80
Wipers - £50
Battery - £45
HT leads - £36
Various other mitsubishi rip-offs: £200
MOTs: £150

£2287

About £5400 in petrol

My second galant was worse. Over 12000 miles:

New battery £60
Front discs, rear discs, pads all round, front shocks - £380
Oil/filter changes - £130
Air filter £10
Tyres (Goodyear excellence) £270
Coil Packs £120
Spark Plugs £50
MOT £40

£1080

Plus about £1750 in fuel. There was a LOT needing doing when I parted with it, however (new steering rack end, new osf wheel bearing, engine work, gearbox oil, air con leak, etc).

The Honda (2500 miles so far):

MOT £40
Tyres (2x goodyear eagle F1) - £200
Pollen filter - £23.50
Grease for clutch - £6
Spare set of wheels with almost new michelins - £180

£449.50

About £370 in fuel.

 

unless its a mercedes

 

Just to gate crash ATs thread a moment I often think it would be ineresting to plot fuel costs on graph....gals against time......i've never got arouind to trying it. Anyone know of an easy way of doing this btw?

NO I don't think any of these comparisons are that stupid Mr S.....some might be more imformative than others.

 

Fuel is a bad thing about the Fiesta being a push rod engine it struggles to get 30mpg in town. Insurance is group 4 so about as cheap as it gets but being a Ghia it seem to add £50 a year .

With my dad no car = no job so it is essential but its such a simple little engine not much can go wrong to cause a brake down as we check all the usual break down stuff.

Tryes are very expensive because they are an unusual size. .

The best thing about the Fiesta is its lost very little in value although we would need to spend £200 on a new clutch and slave if we wanted the full £850 back.

The coil pack and HT leads are also original and 73k and 11 years they will need doing at some point.

I reckon my ex's clio has got a £500 bill coming soon, two new tryes, new discs, new cam belt but it does get 50mpg from its 1.2 16v block.

I think with cheap motoring its about getting a comfortable, reliable and cheap to own car, e.g I would not feel save driving a 1.0 litre Alto even if they are reliable.

 

two new tryes, new discs, new cam belt


thats not £500......?


the bits you mention are normal running costs

500 is getting a bit close toa big question mark.......

my old escort was quoted 700 for its mot......we got rid

 

Its a very nice car, its an 04 reg and its a top spec Clio so has all the gadgets. She is going to be doing 25k a year in it though, so I have told her to get the above done now, then MOT in march then sell it the following march when it will have 80k on the clock.

Renault want £300 for the cambelt . I am looking into if there is any Renault specialists that will do the job cheaper but still offer a guarentee.

We got rid of my dads Escort when he wanted £300 to get it through the MOT, the clinch was "even then it may not pass" and it required a lot of welding so we got rid, even though the engine was machanicaly perfect at 96k the body was just a tatty rusted mess.

 

300 for a c'belt??

I would shop around


yes i was sorry to seemy escort go.....until i looked underneath it again.....i realised it wasn't a moment too soon.

 

I don't even wanna think about this - in the last mont it's cost about 1k...

got caught by the short and curlies when my brakes failed - went to a kwik-arsefisting (they were convenient!) and had to cough up 710 for a new brake system (full pads, discs, rear brake pipe and rear calipers) then I had to pay tax and it's mot - for that I needed a new rear tyre (40 notes) and a new drivers side (um, forget the name but was 140 notes!)...

thena week after mot the rear suspension started making funny noises - but I think that's ok - needss to get double checked when I take it into the garage to get my newly fucked clutch...

happy daze...

 

That what made us decide to get rid of it, my machanic is one of them don't scrap it brigade but the Escort would have just been made of weld plates, not good in a crash . We had have trouble with a sticking valve too (although not a big job in itself).

 

What car is it? I seem to remember it was something quite ordinary .

 

yeah, it's an S reg primera...

had I of known when the brakes went that all the other costs were going to be incured then I'd probably have sold it...but because I've paid out I lothe selling it at what would be a big loss as I can't afford a new motor just now...

 

y reg focus, 150k+, owned from new

tyres-numerous.
exhaust 1, can't beat a boy racer stainless model for the ever lasting guarantee. £270
1 coil pack £50
2 clutches £180 each
couple of bulbs £20
oil £70.
3 sets of full discs and pads £660 (total)
2 cam belts, £300 inc fitting
plugs £150
and £60 a year for my mate Dan to service it.
Re-gas of aircon, £40

not bad for nearly a decade on the road

 

That's truly dreadful... I've never had a tank below 32mpg in the Accord, and that's just commuting.

 

Doe s sound a shade heavy AT.....unless its first gear all the time?!

YOU're not running rich are you?

 

Yes i know,

the local lad had the van up on ramps....for an mot quote

thebottom looked lke an old oil can

it wsn't too encouraging

 

Indeed, my dad hates large cars though, and I can't afford to insure a large one. You get a lot better value for money with large cars and they can usualy take the miles better as they are often used on motorways a lot.

I don't know if there is a fault on the car, or if its just because its an overhead valve design. It might be worth while changing the HT leads and plugs. It also revs to about 3000rpm when dipping the clutch (I suspect idle control valve) so as soon as I have a spare £30 I will buy one and fit it to see if it makes a different. It idles at around 1100rpm so that must be part of the problem. There isn't any smoke or anything so I assume it is probably running lean rather than rich. It passed the emmisions ok.

The tryes are all inflated as they should be etc.

 

See my reply to Issac, I suspect its lean rather than rich. There is always a miss fire from changing from 2nd to 3rd so it could be ignition related. It probably needs new plugs, new HT leads, new MAF sensor, new idle control valve and possibly a coil pack. But you might remember the old saga of my dads Escort running rich. No machanic could find the fault they kept replacing the sensors, ignition parts etc, my uncle had a look at it and found that a valve was stuck open why they all missed a basic machanical fault I don't know, but we got 15mpg out of that .

 

These things are deceptive......or can be

If you are spending loads of time idling at traffic lights, then doing 70+ on dual carriage ways......also short runs absolutely kills mpg figures.

If you running is pretty give and take with reasonable amounts of economical 50/55mph (which is going to be good speed for fuel from you motor imo) then not getting 30 to me speaks of some thin mechanical not quite right.........thats not not just electronic plugs /HT tweaking. I feel you shouild be getting more than that.

Smallish cars with low(ish) gearing can (I think) be very deceptive.......but......... <30 sounds a bit low to me..





edit sorry...as post 18