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Post by Humph on May 20, 2019 12:58:10 GMT
Here's a way of looking at motoring costs.
How much do your cars cost you per hour of usage?
All based on assumptions of course but here we go...
Example 1 my wife's Qashqai
Paid for years ago so no finance
About £1200 a year in fuel
£180 tax
£300 insurance
Say £150 worth of tyre wear a year
Service and MOT, say, £250
Depreciation say £1000 a year now
Total annual costs ( excluding unforeseen repairs mirrors etc... ) £3080
She does about 7000 miles a year so assuming that averages at 40mph the car is actually used for around 175 hours a year.
Therefore it costs her £17.60 per hour of use.
Stick with me here ! 😉
Example 2 my company Mercedes
£6000 a year bik
£50 a month private fuel ( OK more than that on hols so I'll add a bit ) call it £1000 a year
everything else covered by my employer
Total £7000 a year
That car does 36,000 a year so using the same average speed assumption it's used for 900 hours a year
Therefore it costs me £7.77 an hour to use it.
Useless but a bit interesting I thought !
It'd be fun to see Al's calcs on his two cars.
Edit - just done his Aygo, £30 an hour ( low miles high insurance )
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WDB
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Post by WDB on May 20, 2019 16:05:07 GMT
Don’t even want to think about it. Both cars spend most of every week on the drive, but I can’t yet contemplate the faff of trying to live without either of them.
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Post by Humph on May 20, 2019 19:04:21 GMT
Many years ago, I knew an even then, really quite old gentleman who used his car to travel to and from his home, his two businesses and his golf club. The four locations formed an approximate square the sides of which would have been about 10 miles. If you see what I mean?
He was the sort of fellow who always took lunch at the same time at the same hotel, which was adjacent to one of his businesses. He also habitually had two large G&Ts with his lunch before spending the afternoon on the golf course. Having followed this routine for decades, one day he was stopped and breathalised.
Much to his embarrassment and chagrin, he was found to be over the limit and lost his licence for a year.
He sold his car and started to use taxis instead. After the year had passed, he calculated that the costs of doing so were in fact marginally cheaper than running his car ( which had been a rather lovely old Rover ) for a year.
He never went back to driving, but he did continue with his lunchtime snifters.
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Post by dixinormus on May 20, 2019 21:00:37 GMT
The irony is that when many of us get a new car we don’t want to drive it too much; keep the miles down, keep it looking like new and hopefully stave off depreciation to a small extent. Then a business invests in an asset like a new truck or van and essentially wants it running 24/7 to pay for itself!
I guess a vehicle sitting unused is worthless!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2019 21:47:52 GMT
It is. Airlines want planes in the air filled with paying passengers or freight.
If we thought like that we would take taxis unless we were all Humph.
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WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425
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Post by WDB on May 20, 2019 21:56:10 GMT
The irony is that when many of us get a new car we don’t want to drive it too much; keep the miles down... Fleecy thinking rooted in the 1960s, when most cars were worn out by 60,000 miles, and would only get that far if you changed the oil every 20 minutes. I’d use mine more if I had somewhere to go; my working life is either at home, by train to London, or in some foreign city. I drove to Brussels once last year, but otherwise I don’t use the car for any of it. The CLS is nearly six years old and has yet to pass 50,000 miles. I’m looking forward to giving it some serious work on our Rhône Valley trip next month. |
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Post by Humph on May 21, 2019 7:54:19 GMT
I do wonder if a driving culture change is afoot though. My son is just finishing his first year a Uni. He and his contemporaries are 19. On a straw poll of of his halls of residence, only about a quarter of them have got a full driving licence and fewer still have any regular access to a car.
Selective perception on my part maybe, but I seem to think that when I was that age, many of my friends at least had a licence, and most of us couldn't wait to take our tests at 17.
Of course, it was much cheaper to get insurance then and it was also common to drive an "old banger" held together with chewing gum, string and hope.
Edit - oh and none of them have motor bike licences or have ever wanted one apparently.
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Post by dixinormus on May 21, 2019 9:11:17 GMT
Driving ain’t much fun for today’s youngsters Humph. Far more fun to be had gaming, or doing stuff on social media without travelling anywhere... Food (and other) purchases can be made online and delivered to the door, and there’s plenty of taxi apps nowadays.
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Post by dixinormus on May 22, 2019 7:12:10 GMT
You could also argue that there’s not much point in having a flash car if you hardly use it?! Money tied-up etc.
Another reason why I will probably settle for a humdrum Focus or Corolla next time round - perfectly adequate for my 9000 miles/year which is mostly condensed in to two 100-mile runs each week.
Think I would want something a bit pricier if I was spending a lot more time in it like Humph does though.
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Post by Humph on May 22, 2019 7:20:21 GMT
Some of the wealthiest people I know have the most basic cars. If you can be bothered, Google "conspicuous consumption" ...
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