Should I buy a car???

[chilimartini]

I spend £30 on my commute to work over 4 days. If I visit family or friends I end up spending about £20 on train fare once a month. So that's about £140 a month.

I have never had a car but I can drive...would I be better off with a car?? I know the costs can add up...does anyone know how much I would be paying per month approximately for a car? I would be driving about 16 miles a day Monday- Friday.

I also spend a lot of time commuting and driving would save me a lot of time.

Please advise! x

Depends on the car, your age and where you live for insurance and also how lucky you are regarding repairs etc. Also the tax band. Whether you need to borrow money or have savings. Etc etc. But it's not just the cost, if you're going to save a lot of time, that's also well worth it.

You could buy a cheap car for a few hundred pounds and it last a while without needing repairs, or it could need hundreds spending on it next week/repeatedly. You could pay several thousand pounds for a car that's a few years old and it still needs costly repairs so it's a bit of a lottery.

If you can manage with a very small car you could run a car quite cheaply. I had a brand new Skoda citigo on PCP for £130 pm and that included breakdown cover and servicing and there were no MOT or repair bills as under 3 years old. Tax was £30 pa and and insurance was £250. Petrol cost about 10-12 per mile so it probably cost about £250 pm all in for about 8000 miles pa.

But that was a brand new car, so you could do it for a lot less with an older car as long as you get one that's cheap on tax, insurance and fuel and doesn't need expensive repairs.

Or you could buy a car like this that's a few years old for £2-4k and run it for years at minimal cost. Newer cars cost £140 pa on tax but before April 2017 I think, it was between £0 and £30 pa.

I currently have a company car, but if I decide not to have one, I'll probably get a small old car similar to the Citigo for about £1k or less and aim to keep it a good few years.

As tax and insurance varies, look for one in a low insurance group and with the low tax band. This is also likely to mean good fuel efficiency.

Having only recently got a car myself I'd say go for it - it's changed my life in terms of how much easier I find things (popping to the shops last minute, not being at the whims of public transport, being able to get to friends/family quickly in times of need, my own space in the morning to ease into the day etc etc etc).

But - if it's to save money, I think you'd be surprised how much a car can cost.

For example: my car is £100 a month (a small car, hire purchase), then my insurance is £80 (newish driver and expensive insurance area, so yours would probably be cheaper!), then for the amount of distance you're covering you could probably get away with 1 or 1.5 tanks of petrol a month, which in my car as an example would be £40-60. Then there's tax (£30 a year on my car), MOT (£35 was my last one, but if anything needs doing that will add up). If you're planning to keep it in good nick, it'll need servicing maybe once a year (or two years, with the distance you'll be doing), which can range but more than £100 a time. This year my car has needed 4 new tyres (£200), and new brake pads and discs (another £200).

These are all standard costs - my car hasn't had any major issues as it's only 4 years old.

There's also the issue that once you HAVE a car, you'll likely drive more than you expect - suddenly there's day trips because it's easier and you can, or you'll find yourself driving places you would have walked or got the bus before etc etc. So you add more in petrol (and miles, so the need for new tyres, servicing etc) becomes more often.
Then I spend £4-5 every 6 weeks or so getting it washed (obviously I could do this myself, but in winter I don't want to spend time outside my house in the cold sloshing water everywhere, and it gets covered in shite from salt on the roads etc).

Then there's parking - can you park at work for free?

I love my car, I genuinely say it's the best thing I ever bought, and I don't regret a single penny spent on it - having my own car has in a roundabout way changed my life (was able to move to new city but keep job), but it certainly isn't cheaper than public transport.

Sure but get an electric one

Electric cars are still relatively expensive to buy (although not to run) and if you buy one you need to check the range will suit your use pattern.

Another thing that comes up a lot on here is whether to buy outright, lease, PCP or other finance.

Would you have anywhere to keep a car? Can you park on your drive, your road or nearby? If it's resident's parking permit how much is a permit.
There are a bazillion variables which means there's no right or wrong answer.