how much does buying/running a car cost?

[iskra]

Obviously I realise this is a bit of a piece of string question... but would love some pointers. Neither DP or myself has ever owned a car nor driven regularly (although we have both had licenses for around 10 years), but we are going to have to buy a car in August for his commute. We have no idea what we should be budgeting, both for the initial purchase and for the monthly/yearly running costs. We envisage having a small reliable second hand kind of car - his commute will be about 40 miles round trip so not too mammoth... I'd be grateful for any advice!

Have a look at cars you like first, speak to the showrooms and also your bank to get loan quotes (but bear in mind they work on different systems so ignore the interest rates and look at the total £'s repaid over term of finance - banks work on APR, car finance co's work on flat rate which looks a lot lower!) then go home and price up insurance before you make a commitment! the better mpg the car does the cheaper it'll be for fuel, diesel always looks better but is more expensive to fill up. older cars will potentially need more upkeep costs, but this varies from car to car and costs vary between manufacturers so can't really estimate these! Also worth looking at new cars, as finance deals are usually better and cars will come with guarantees so no worrying about unexpected repair costs, although these can lose value fairly rapidly. Hope this helps! xxx

I usually work on £100/running costs (insurance, servicing, tyres, tax - not including fuel) for a moderate size hatchback - Golf type of thing.

My mum has a diesel Ford Fusion which is in the £35/year tax bracket, which is a good saving on her previous petrol version of same car (tax was about £150).

If neither of you have every owner a car, insurance might be a shock to start with, well worth shopping around. If either of you or your immediate families have every had a job remotely connected with the civil service/public sector, then look into joining the Civil Service Motoring Association, who do soem very competitive insurance through LV - mine halved from £600 to £300 when I joined them.

Piece of string is right :) If you were to buy a 3 year-old 1.6 Focus, for example, that would be £4500-5000 for one in reasonable nick. A smaller/older car might be cheaper. Other costs change depending on what car you start with. Staying with a Focus as 'average' a tank of fuel might be £70 and, at 40 miles a day, you'll get through a tank about every 2 weeks. Road Tax is about £180/year I think. Insurance will be quite high to start with if you haven't owned a car before... depends on make/model, your age, location, job and how many miles you plan to drive each year. Try a few comparison sites for 'what ifs'. Budget for an annual service, annual MOT if it's over 3 years old and there are always extra odds and sods like repairs, new tyres. HTH

Petrol prices are through the roof at the moment so you say 40 miles round trip - is that every day? every week?

What you spend on petrol will depend on the type of journey too - is it city traffic or motorway? Is he likly to gt dtuck in jams?

what sort of budget have you got & how any seats do you need?

The very low emissions/low mpg cars you can get now are very very cheap to run (but maybe not so cheap to buy)

\link{http://www.nextgreencar.com/search/all-vehicle-classes/Petrol/mpg/\nextgreencar.com} ranks the most fuel-efficient/low road tax cars - good place to start, though it's based on newish cars so it does depend on how much you can spend

My husband is very keen on buying a Range Rover Sport, but I am worried about the running costs, parts etc.

Does anyone have one and can advise? Thank you!

Don't have a Range Rover Sport but do have a Freelander and it now cost £80 to fill it up, £210 for road tax, £500ish a year for service & MOT. Tyres are £200 each and then what ever his insurance will be.

We had a freelander too & was v ££££ to run. I have a yaris & my car allowance from work covers most of costs incl petrol. at £85 a month

On the other side of the coin, I have a 4 day old Skoda Fabia Estate which is doing about 58 mpg in mixed road conditions (rural/town/motorway). DH's Octavia Estate slightly less mpg, but still 50s.

DH has a Kia cee'd diesel (1.6) & he's getting close to 60mpg.

It has one of those displays that shows (roughly) what mpg you're getting all the time - doesn't half encourage you to go easy on the throttle!

That's what my Fabia has too Ponders.

We run 2 cars and allocate £300 a month to cover insurance, tax, tyres, MOTs and servicing. This ensures that we always have enough to cover any sudden expenses.

Getting the running costs low is the key. ie. you need to get a high MPG (miles per gallon) or low CO2 car. This will mean that your petrol costs are low (and also good for the environment!).

Usually diesels are a better bet for this. Its amazing the difference in running costs on two similar cars.

I have used nextgreencar.com like Ponders - it lets you search for cars by CO2, road tax band etc. It does have used cars as well as new cars in it so worth a look.

Hope this helps!

Thank you all for the advice.

Will certainly look at the website re the nextgreencar.com and pass on the info to my husband.