To wonder how the hell people are paying for this?!

[Ifrreoo]

I have an average car and cost to service it is 525. My home insurance has gone up to 450 and my car insurance is 540 (yes I’ve called round endlessly). I have 18 years no claims.

I am a higher earner. I am going to massively struggle to pay for this. I don’t understand how someone on the average income could afford this? Am I going wrong somewhere? Why am i struggling to make ends meet? How do others do it?

I have a service plan for my car that costs about £24 per month.
My car insurance is about £150 and home insurance £140. I pay both monthly out of my pension.

I use money supermarket and for both contents and structural insurance I pay just £11.74 pcm. £300 excess.

That is including a 3k piano.

I think you are getting ripped off.

No car myself but ds pays c £500 a year as he has only driven for 2 years.

Well, we recently took a loan to.pay for car's repairs. Just a glimpse on how we cope.
We're definitely using credit to navigate life right now . We're trying to keep everything under control but it wouldn't take much to tip us over the edge...

I have a 26 year old mazda mx5 - I've had it for 12 years and never had it serviced. It always passes it's MOT. I had to have a new battery a couple of years ago but otherwise it runs fine - fully comp annual insurance this year, £96 😂

I think a lot of people are being caught out be bills, that used to be manageable. The cost of food shopping as well. Forget about holidays, gigs, eating out. We’re still earning the same, but were better off pre-COVID,

You've never changed the oil?

How often do you use it though? I know a few people who have cars like that and they're very much 'second fun car' that's only used a few times over the summer for leisure travel (so not needed to get them to work every day) and only travel a few hundred miles a year.

Sounds like a main dealer service! I paid £160 for a full service with an independent.

12 year old engine oil though?!

Anyone suggesting foregoing servicing, please don’t! You are setting yourself up for a world of expensive repairs!! My 2002 car has been serviced religiously ever year (twice a year at the mo due to the mileage I do) and has just ticked over 260,000 miles. If you’re not getting it serviced the oil and filters will get clogged which will decrease fuel efficiency and eventually knacker your engine and your timing belt won’t get changed which will knacker you engine!! Your brakes won’t get checked, the bodywork won’t get checked! The list goes on and before you know it you’re driving a death trap that then won’t pass it’s mot and you’ll be stuck with a massive bill to put it all right at once!!

Please don’t forego the brake fluid change! It’ll get to the point where your brakes won’t work 😱

God can you imagine! It’d be like tar 😱 DH has a fun car and still gets it serviced ever year. Servicing schedules are so many thousand miles or so many months. Mine is 10,000 miles or every 12 months whichever is sooner.

When is your insurance due? The best time to get quotes is three weeks before renewal. Have you added your driving license number, another named driver, maybe look at changing your excess cost, does your job push the price up?

There are all sorts of tweaks you can try, that might bring the cost down.

When we were searching for our DS, he’d been on one price comparison site and quotes were ridiculously high. I searched on another site and found a really cheap quote. Have you used multiple sites?

Just to add, husband and I are named drivers on DS’s policy and adding all of our driving licence numbers brought the cost down.

My so called reliable car has always been serviced. It still manages to fail most MOT's. It's a money pit that I can't find a way to climb out of yet.

It’s because you are a higher earner OP. The insurers have access to all this information about you now so also know what you will stand to pay. I have a Tesla. No claims for 18 years like you. No points. Never made a claim in my house insurance etc. car kept on private gated driveway in nice area. My renewal was £1200.

My 17 year old Yaris was only £130 a year in its final year, my newer EV is now about £550. Think that is because it’s newer and EVs tend to be more expensive I believe. Also am on 10yr ncb

Another way @Ifrreoo is to learn to service your car yourself. Oil change, oil and air filter, most of those are things we can all do.
(Well nearly, some cars like my old one had such a crap design that changimg the air filter was a proper nightmare).

But yes, how easy a car is to service comes into consideration when buying a new car for us.

Your renewal is expensive because you have an expensive car with expensive parts - it's nothing to do with what you earn.

Of course I have but I don't need to book it into a garage for a service to do that

Well I don't use it every day because I'm semi retired and it's not practical if you've got loads of stuff as there's virtually no boot space
I do about 4000-5000 miles a year in it

So it actually has been serviced then 😂