AIBU in thinking that owning a car is very expensive?

[Plmoknijb123]

I’m not from the UK and am shocked at the cost of buying and owning a car here! AIBU in thinking car ownership in the UK is very expensive? Or am I missing something? And by expensive I mean it will cut into a family budget considerably.

Of course I know everything is relative, but I’m in London and from what I’ve researched it seems car ownership is very much a luxury.

In London a car may be a luxury. Many of us are in parts of the country where the lack of public transport makes a car essential.

I doubt it costs more than elsewhere in Europe.
Second hand car costs around £2000, lasts 10 years so £200 per year
Tax could be zero
Insurance about £600
Service, mot, typical maintenance for 10 year old car say £500
Others bits and pieces such as breakdown cover, parking could be another £100 per year say.
So the whole lot could be not much over £1500 per year. Plus fuel of course - for me that is about £800 per year.
In London you might pay a lot more for parking and congestion charges. But then in London you have much better and cheaper public transport than elsewhere so don't need a car as much.

It's cheap compared to rent at £8000 per year, nursery at £6000 per year.

Where are you thinking of that is cheaper?

It depends on what you mean by expensive. Cars vary in price considerably so it depends on what cars you are looking at. What country are you from where cars are so cheap?

I'd definately say owning a car in London is a luxury, but ownership of a car most places is expensive when you add in tax/insurance/fuel/maintainance etc.

That reminds me, I need to book a service.

It's not cheap, but it's a fuck of a lot cheaper than public transport, especially if you're carting kids around. (Kids' fares outside of London aren't free.)

A lot of the basics are expensive in the UK though - housing, transport, utilities are all costly for eg.

It’s an essential for us in London.

We own our car outright (not new - it’s 13 years old but in good condition).

We put £190 into the car account each month. That. Covers servicing, MOT, tax, insurance and fuel. It’s about the same as a season ticket for Zone 1-4.

Second hand car costs around £2000, lasts 10 years so £200 per year
Rather odd comment to make. Second hand car doesn't mean old banger. It depends on what car, mileage on it, the age if it, condition.

It is undoubtedly a very significant cost to most family budgets, but I wasn't aware it was a lot higher than elsewhere.

It depends on the car I guess. Mine is 12 years old, 2 previous owners. Insurance less than £300 a year, think road tax is about £150, I only put about £30 petrol in a month because I hate driving so when not in lockdown only drive the short distance to and from work however my MOT bill last year came to £700 The public transport where I live is shocking too so for me it's not a luxury.

I don’t really know anyone who owns a car in London. It is generally a luxury here.

Yeah you're never rich with a car. £240 to get it through MOT this month. Failed on tyres of all things. Its really the maintenance that gets you and mines pretty reliable tbh. I still need to get it serviced. Fml.

Yanbu, I do think it is expensive. I worked out that it would be cheaper for me to take a taxi anywhere that I couldn’t get public transport to (I live in a large town) than to run a car.

@PattyPan

Yanbu, I do think it is expensive. I worked out that it would be cheaper for me to take a taxi anywhere that I couldn’t get public transport to (I live in a large town) than to run a car.

I think the same and hiring a car every now and then as needed, but were paying for the convenience I guess.

I took DS2 down to Devon on the train for a week's holiday once. Really cheap train tickets and the journey down was a dream, compared to driving. Once there, it was perfectly possible to do everything by bus, but OMG, the time we spent waiting at bus stops.

Depends.

I bought my car for £800 4 years ago, has had very little needing done, repairs and MOT have cost me £300 a year or so.
Insurance costs me £100 a year. Tax is cheap , I only drive 6000 a year, so not much on petrol either.
Running a car costs me around £120 a month- for everything, including fuel.

It is but I couldn't cope on public transport, car finance etc is there for people who cannot afford the cars outright, there is also a lot of basic cars for sale on autotrader that are used. You can get a decent 5 year old car for about 10k. I have a range rover and honestly the biggest expense is the fuel! However you could get a Tesla etc which is cheaper as it uses electricity to power it's battery, rather than a 5.0 litre engine like mine...

Price of a car isn't different to the rest of the Europe afaik, but insurance. Insurance is a different matter! My new driver brother between 25-30 age paid 300 a year on his😂 Was horrified to hear of prices in here.

I bought myself a new Ford Fiesta when I lived in London, it cost me approx £300 a month for repayments and to run. Public transport would have cost more.

Public transport isn't always an option.

Absolutely.
Cost of the car/annual depreciation
Repairs
Mot
Service
Tax
Insurance
Petrol
Parking

It soon adds up to at least a couple of grand a year. We only have one car for that reason. We opted to live closer to the city, bike in and have one cheapish family car. This enables us to get a better house and put themoney towards the mortgage instead.

Depends on your view of expensive? I don’t think we spend that much and we have two. Definitely not our most expensive bill.

Depends on the car, mine is 8 years old low Mileage 2 previous owners worth maybe 2k £20 tax and £200 yearly insurance

I'd also like to know where you're coming from? I've certainly noticed US friends are a bit shocked about all the red tape around cars in this country, as in some states (most states?) you don't have to prove your car is safe or pay to have it inspected regularly.

OTOH, I think some of the red tape saves money in the long run. Sure, I pay for an MOT every year but my car (a boring reliable runaround) generally comes through fine with one or two things that need to be done, like tyres. And then we do them, and we avoid a bigger bill later on from an accident or something like the cam belt going and damaging the whole engine.

I also think that UK roads are probably harder on cars than roads in some countries, so again, it's more important that a car is in good nick. A friend of mine from California was absolutely shocked at UK roads - she thought the potholes were like off-roading and couldn't believe they'd be routine, and the first time she met another car coming the other way down a single-track road she was a horrified as she'd assumed they were one-way streets. All of that navigating potholes or getting off onto a soft verge takes a toll on your car and so, again, makes it more important the car meets some basic safety standards.

It is expensive - lived in London for 15 years abs we didn’t have one because we didn’t need it. Public transport and walking to get around in the city, hire a car for trips further afield.

We moved to a smaller city and we have a car now because our living costs are lower and there are more places to go by car, but our other living costs are much much lower - so it’s a choice we made.

I have never found it too expensive per year, maybe around £70 a month to cover insurance/petrol.

£30 a year payment for tax, and service & mot around £200 a year.

However i would never want to be without my car, so costs are worth it to me

We live between zone 1-2 and have a car. The congestion zone starts at the end of the street, so luckily we are just outside it. We mainly use it to get out of london to visit in-laws. Its also handy for stocking up at Billingsgate and Smithfields for meat/fish, but otherwise, I rarely drive within london itself. Its an old banger, and far from a luxury! We only have street parking and its been dinged so many times and had the revision mirrors snapped off- despite being folded in. Unless I had a garage, I'd never have buy a 'luxury' car there.

Getting comprehensive insurance will usually give you a cheaper rate than just getting fire/theft.