Cost of running a car

[bookmum08]

One of my biggest regrets in life is never learning to drive. Not having a car is really starting to impact on opportunities and experiences that I feel would make a massive difference in the life I would like to have.
However the cost is obviously a big thing. I know a bit about costs of secondhand cars and how much driving lessons would be but I am completely and utterly clueless on other costs.
Insurance - how much (approx) for a 40 something first time driver?
General repaires and mot etc - again how much monthly?
Petrol - the biggest journeys I would do regularly would be a distance of around 75 miles to parents/mother in law. How much (approx) would a 75 mile journey cost in petrol?
Any other costs?
Thanks

It really does depend, insurance I would do a quick quote on a comparison site to get an idea, pick a random car on a sale site and type in the reg and all your details, obviously insurance does differ car to car but you'll have a general idea.

Petrol, that depends on how you drive, what car you have, whether you're on city roads or motorways etc.

One thing is for sure though, a car will always cost you more than you think.. But generally, once you start you driving you'll pretty much find the money to keep it up

Insurance depends on lots of factors such as where you live and the value of the car. It gets lots cheaper as you build up a no claims bonus. It’s usually very dear for the first year after you pass your test eg 800 pounds upwards for a car valued at 2k.

You can also make insurance cheaper by having a black box fitted in your car.

M0RVEN this may make me sound clueless (I suppose I am) but would that be £800 a month or year on insurance?

I have a Nissan note. It was brand new (leased) when I got it. I'm 39 and been driving for 2 years and my insurance is £250 ish a year. I don't drive long distances so it's not really a compatible but £20 of petrol gets me about 140 miles, but this is local journeys so not very efficient. The car itself is £120 a month and will never need an mot while I have it, a service was £40.

Hope this helps! If you can get a good deal leasing is great as you will have very little in terms of unexpected maintenance costs. My DH's car has some sort of catastrophic failure (rare) and needed a new engine but was still under warranty so it didn't cost us anything. I've had my car for two years and it's had one service.

Comparison, not compatible

I pay car tax approx £20 a month D.D

Car Insurance £15 a month, sometimes I pay annualy to save £15.

I get my car M.O.T'd by the council £45. They are not connected to any garage & I trust them.

I use a local garage for repairs that is also a scrap yard, so no huge fancy building to run, its kind of an old warehouse type lock up. They charge £35 an hour labour, run by husband & wife.

They service it annualy for £100.

I spend approx £40 a month on petrol, so I dont go far!

£40 a tyre, again from a local tyre centre that is not a huge chain.

Repaurs I tend to pay as I go, but really I should put £20 a month away for this

If i got a newer car I could save a bit on car tax.

Nobody can answer your question OP. It depends entirely on where you live, and what sort of car you are going to buy.

Your postcode and vehicle make/model dictates your insurance premuim.

Running costs depend on the make/model as well. A two litre turbo petrol will cost way more in fuel than a two litre turbo diesel. Run flat tyres cost four times the price of equivalent "normal" tyres. So a tyre for a new 1 Series BMW would be around £155, a tyre for a 2014 1 Series would be around £80. An oil change for a new vehicle, which is still under warranty, done at a dealership, might be £180, an oil change for the same vehicle at a back street garage would be about £60.

Also timing of insurance quote will affect the premium. Buy cover at last minute and your viewed by the algorithm as a high risk. Get a quote a few weeks in advance and the computer will calculate you as a more careful, considered driver and the premium may well be lower.

As others have said it depends but our older car is very cheap. We bought it outright in 2010 so no lease or loan repayments etc. Insurance is about £200 a year (fully comp but I guess we'd get 50p for it if it was a write-off), tax is £160ish (just paid tax on other car which was £160 but not sure if they are the same) and fill it up with petrol around once a month which is about £45. However, it can be expensive at service time/MOT as it is old so have to factor in around another £300-500 a year at least for things going wrong or needing new tyres etc.

The other car has cost us in tyres in the last 12 months - all 4 have been replaced. Insurance around £400. Petrol around the same, service/MOT costs about the same.

If we got rid of the older car and got a newish hybrid which I would like to do, tax would go down, insurance would go up. And ds is 17 in November, so insurance about to go through the roof.

Thanks everyone.
I realise there is no definitive answer as there are so many types of cars and journeys but this has given me a bit of an idea of numbers.
It isn't as expensive as I thought.

Have a look at electric cars. We switched to one recently, not in the UK but our insurance halved, our car tax is 10% of the previous amount we paid, and the running cost is less than €20 a month. Having previously spent €2-300 a month on petrol alone I can't believe how economical it is.

Another plus is that it's like an automatic to drive, no changing gears, clutch etc, so it would be very easy to learn in.

We have a Nissan Leaf and I couldn't recommend it more highly.

We put £90 a month away for a small car (honda jazz, I really recommend them) to cover insurance, MOT, maintenance and road tax. You would need more for insurance.

We've recently upgraded (in size, it's actually a crappier car) the car and now put £140 away to cover the additional costs.

In addition I spend around £60 a month on fuel, but that is obviously very individual.

Try comparison sites for a quote for the type of car you think you'll get (honda jazz, 2009 SE is a good one to try!) to get an idea of insurance, which will be your biggest expense.