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 car service plan with a main dealer and think it's quite good value. It's really helpful not to have a sudden bill (except repairs of course ). I pay £37 per month, covering 2 services a year and the MOT. My annual mileage is double the recommended service interval of 12,000 - hence having to service twice a year! If I was on average mileage, I'd pay less of course.

The plan was set up 5 years ago when I bought the car as a 3 year old. At the time it was a 25% discount on their normal servicing cost. And the real bonus was it was fixed at that price, so not rising with inflation. Very grateful for that now.

Not Skoda, but might be worth checking if they do anything similar? If not, could you do a monthly savings pot - effectively your own service plan ?

I'm surprised how many people don't get their cars serviced. Do you plan never to sell because no one would touch an unserviced car.

OP, the costs you've quoted seem high. I drive a 9 year old Honda Civic, maximum no claims, insurance was £180 p.a. . Live in a 4 bed detached and contents & buildings insurance was £200. Both insurances done a couple of months ago.
Car servicing is 250-300 and I have it done once a year.
As a higher earner you shouldn't be finding those costs difficult.

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one that doesn’t bother servicing the car, it’s 15 years old and has passed every MOT so I’ll just keep it going for now. Car insurance is about £150 a year and home insurance is about the same.

Mine only had 50,000 on it when the wet belt snapped. It’s really hard to watch your resell value just vanish in an instant.

Well I am not a high earner and I’m currently on my third year of driving lessons at £100 a week (2hrs pw in the south east) so all count yourselves lucky because insurance and servicing sounds like a dream compared to this 😂 (if I ever pass my test 😅)

I service my car every other year. I don’t do loads of miles so it’s always been ok. Your car insurance sounds high, keep shopping around.

I’ve a 2016 Seat MII. Just had it serviced and MOTd and it cost me £250. Insurance, £200 a year.

You are being completely ripped off with that servicing, take it to a local, trusted independent garage and see what they say. To prolong the life of your car you MUST get it serviced every year! Usual things that are done at a service are: oil, air, pollen and fuel filters and an oil change. Spark plugs as well if it needs them.

This is from someone who works in a garage as an admin

If it helps I dont have a car as live in a city, and have no home insurance.

I just took my car in for a free recall service. They found a problem with the brakes. £630 of unexpected bills. That any ‘luxuries’ written off for this month

Did you go to a main dealer OP?

Did you also know you can shop around for your car insurance provider and not just stick with the same one?

You're getting ripped off by the garage, that's an insane price for a service. Is it a main dealer? Phone round for quotes.
Can you increase your your excess to get cheaper insurance? Pay monthly? Put on a zero interest credit card?
Paying all at once for all that would be a struggle for most people.

Agree with this entirely.

A good local reputable garage won’t
( hopefully ) rip you off!

Halfords usually do a Black Friday sale on service for £150, which includes an oil change.

I just... don't 🤷 it gets what it needs to pass an MOT and other than that unless something falls off it gets nothing but fuel and oil top ups

I do buy older cars though, and keep them until they die, they've all been scrapped due to old age and starting to cost more to maintain, not because they broke down or seized up and 2 of them I had 4+ years and didn't change the oil on either of them 😅

No idea if I've just got lucky but to me servicing is just a waste of money unless it's a fairly new (sub 10 years maybe?) car.

I have always had a very small car and a small house. So insurance, repairs and heating are all a lot cheaper. I preferred to live somewhere tiny (aka snug) but affordable - but I had a particularly low income so didn't really have a choice.

Car insurance could be high because of your postcode, my quote for this year for a fiesta was £220, I don't bother shopping round and just renew each year if it's reasonable, I have a Ford essential service for older cars which is usually about £200 or so. House and contents insurance is about £400

i’m on 36k and could pay all of those bills…if you’re a high earner and struggling to make ends meet, clearly your other out goings are high also.

I budget £150 per month into a pot for my car. This covers tax, insurance, service once a year (oil and filter change, spark plugs etc), a battery every 2-5 yrs depending, new wipers, tyres each year and emergency repairs. My car is an ‘09 Hyundai now with 123000 miles on the clock and still reliable.
it was hard to start the car £pot but after scrabbling around to find money for insurance one year i started a new system and it’s great knowing I have the money there in advance

Cannot believe these prices! I also have a Skoda and the insurance was £250, it went up to £600 when I added my teenage son to the policy (provisional license). I’m finding this thread quite interesting, the disparity between costs is so great.

We save all year for these thing. my cars 16 years old now so we don’t get it serviced. The fully comp insurance plus breakdown cover combined is £280 a year and my road tax is £30 a year. We go without a lot of things to cover this, lots of other people I know go without a car or learning to drive. You have to go without something to afford the things you do need, that’s how life works.

You can potentially cut back on servicing depending on what kind of mileage you do and how good you are at taking care of the car yourself

DH hardly uses his car so it needs very minimal servicing- he checks the fluid levels himself and just gets work done as and when required.

I use mine far more so I do get it serviced every year but I tend to do an interim service for 1 or 2 years and then a full service. I keep an eye on all the levels etc and get it looked at if anything feels off.

The coop practically halved my car insurance and green flag reduced my recovery costs by 60% definitely shop around. I was definitely being taken for a mug.

If you have a new(ish) car if you don't get it serviced you can void the warrenty

We have had it far too good for far too long. It is now our turn to feel the pinch. In fact, according to my Polish friend (born in 1972), we don't know real hardship. She opened my eyes to so many things, such as 'who said that everybody deserves to live in their own accommodation when they turn 18', 'who said people are ENTITLED to holidays abroad', 'who said people are entitled to more than one pair of footwear per season', and 'who said that bread and jam is not a meal'. Same goes for 2 cars per family, raspberries in winter and avocadoes in Europe. If our Polish friends can do it, so can we, I suppose. And after all, this, too, will pass.