What does it cost to run a car?

[NickyEds]

Neither me nor my OH have ever driven or run a car. We've always lived in places with great public transport and have been fine with it. DS is 20 weeks old and apparently it's absolutely shocking to people that we have a baby but don't have a car!! I can see how it would be useful, particularly to visit OH family who live a 1.5 hour train ride away but we don't even know what it costs to fill a car up!
As we've never done it, what do you reckon motoring costs? Ball park, to learn,get license, cheap second hand car and run it per year??
Another thing we're considering is me learning to drive then renting a car for weekend away etc and managing without the rest of the time???

I learnt too long ago to be of use with costs for that . However to run our small car 1.2 engine costs:-
Tax £145
Insurance £280
Roadside assistance £45
Tank of fuel about £55 (spend £20-25 pw for local driving)
MOT/Service £300
Maybe you could join one of these car clubs where you get sue of a vehicle as and when you book it.

Very ball park £2000-£3000
Insurance is the killer if you've never had a car and mine behaves like a football mad little boy.

It perpetually needs new, very expensive boots tyres

I am learning at the moment the lessons are around £20 per hour most instructors like you to book 2 hr slots so at Least £40 per week. I have 2 x2hrs at the mo

I'm on about £1200 a year for a 2 litre hatchback - but I only drive about 8000 miles a year and have 9 years NCB. Reckon on about 12p a mile for fuel although you can do better.

that excludes the purchase cost which was £1300.

if you don't need one, don't buy one! It isn't compulsory with a child.

Wow! Now I remember why we've never bothered!!

I reckon my 2l diesel costs on average just under 13p a mile in fuel. It does anything from 42-60 MPG, because it's a heavy estate it's urban, stop start fuel consumption isn't very good.

I agree that insurance is the killer. My H and I pay 50 or thereabouts each to insure 2 cars - so 100 a month.

On top of that, we put 150 per month into an account for maintenance (MOT) / road tax / breakdown recovery. That just about covers 2 cars over the year. We are just about in credit!

Then there is the fuel - H probably spends about 25 a week - so 100 over the month. He has a 20 mile round trip per day. Then thats the car we use at weekends etc.

I do a 120 mile round trip 4 days per week. I use over 60 a week, so maybe 250 a month.

Then there is the loan that we have to pay for the cars. 200 a month. One is a 2007 car, one is a 2010 car, so neither particularly new. I think they were 8,500 or thereabouts for both (bought at different times).

So whats that - 800 a month. Obviously a large chunk of that is the cost of the cars and my commuting costs, but even without that, its expensive.

If we could do without cars, even just survive on 1 car, it would be miles better.

Seriously, tell everyone who thinks you're mad that you're not. You absolutely don't need a car simply because you have a baby now.

I would pass test then hire car as and when need arose...

I worked it out recently - about £2k a year. That's insurance, tax, repairs, service, MOT, fuel - on an oldish but not ancient family sized car. In comparison, a yearly bus pass near me is just over £500. Guess what we've decided to do when OH's car dies?!!

I could get cabs for less! Where OH works it would make no sense for him to drive so it would be just for me to run around in and weekend trips. Hiring is the way to go I think. Thanks

Hmm well it took me 3 goes to pass! And an intensive course after 50 hours of lessons. So fuck knows how much that cost me. Oops. I was 32 when I passed. Lessons were £20 an hour and intensive course was about £900. I was a very nervous learner. Most people do it in far less.

My current car cost £900 second hand. It had 70k miles on the clock and touch wood no problems in the 3 years we've had it (previous car was little Fiat seicento we brought for £500 - loved it and we drove it into the ground! ) current car is Renault megane.

Costs £180 a year tax.
£39 a month comp insurance (this includes breakdown cover with return to home address)
Mot is about £60 now isn't it once a year.

And then we hope and pray it gets through the mot without costing us anything significant! Really we should save something towards this.. oh well.

We don't spend much in petrol. Our car is 1.4 engine and seems to use less petrol than our old 1 litre one! I probably spend about £10 a week in petrol. We only use it for days out. I walk to the shops and do an online food shop.

Hello, we have a 'car account' which we pay into monthly to cover all our car costs:

Ins tax repairs etc £100
Depreciation £50
Petrol £125 (we do around 10,000 miles pa)

All in then £275pm

I passed a few weeks ago at 29 years old and six months pregnant! I had 60 hours of lessons (and very little practice outside lessons). The total cost including driving test was about £1,200. Theory test was £40ish and I passed before learning to start using a free app to revise.

If you don't need to drive, I wouldn't bother, but if you think you will ever want to drive it might be worth passing now - driving lessons seem to go up in cost ALL THE TIME and they are always making the tests a little bit harder!

You could probably pass quicker and cheaper if you just got an automatic licence?

I think a lot of rental companies won't hire to you until you've held a licence for at least two years (and are over 25 in most cases).

People often forget all of the costs of a car - from buying it, to running it - to having enough cash to replace it.

I estimate it costs a total of 60p/mile to run my modest car. That includes the depreciation cost.

What LIZS said and then, in this last year:
£170 - handbrake cable fucked
£12 new headlamp
£?? - repairs to wheel that was causing tyre to go down
£300-ish to replace the bit that joins the catalytic converter to the exhaust - which means replaceing the CC. 50% was convered by warranty £300 ish was what i had to pay.
£?? something electrical

Whatever you think it will cost you to run a car: add another 50%.

always recommend learning to drive just incase at some point in the future you need to but go with renting a car for occasions if you don't plan on using it often, running costs usually better for a diesel than a petrol they drink fuel and CharmQuark £170 for a handbrake cable?? you were robbed!!

We have a 22 month old DD and no car.

I agree with everything above, but I would also add that we have found ourselves hiring cars (rather than getting the train) more and more. Getting all the stuff for a toddler on the train (including a group 1 car seat if you need to get in a car/taxi at the other end, and/or a travel cot) isn't easy.

Spindelina- it's mainly that sort of thing we're considering it for, visiting family and any overnight trips. It's so expensive to start from scratch. I think that people who have always had a car can't imagine managing without one so prioritise the expenditure but we've always used public transport so it seems outrageously expensive!!!!

If you don't need one for work then I would shell out to learn & then hire a car as & when you need one.
There is always the thought of if you do that, when will your new driving nerves actually calm down as pretty much everyone who passes their test goes & get's a car straight away & that is then when you really learn to drive.
If your only going to hire a car twice a year, i probably wouldn't even bother learning.
We pay a small fortune in cars, mine's £150 a month lease & my hubbys is £399 a month. £62 a month insurance for both of us, no tax or breakdown as it's included in the lease...also no m.o.t's as they're brand new cars. We are lucky that my husband is a high earner & I work part time, but it still makes my frugal brain shrivel up & want to cry when i think about it...so i try not to!!!

So you've got three options, right?

• stay as you are
• at least one of you learn to drive and use hire cars / car club
• learn to drive and buy a car

I think emma16 is spot on with her concern about what happens after you pass your test. My DH would describe himself as someone who can't drive, yet he has a licence - he just hasn't driven since his test.

Another thing to consider is that if you invest the money in only one of you learning to drive, that one is going to shoulder the responsibility for "transport" for ever not bitter honest.

In your shoes, I would stay as you are. If there's somewhere you go for regular overnights, spend the money on a travel cot and a car seat (if needed) to keep there.

I recently passed my test (I'm mid-thirties), and if I'd been insuring in my own name, it would have cost me £100/month at best for a low insurance group car. My husband is on max no claims, and I was able to be named on his insurance for £40 for the year, including protecting his no claims . It's about £350 per year for us both.

We don't drive loads, and our car is very efficient, so our fuel costs are pretty low, but we do save £100/month for repair and replacement, and my husband is pretty good on maintenance and basic repairs. I paid £18 per hour for driving lessons, and had 35 hours. Also cost of one theory test, and two practical tests (having failed the first one). Oh, and you'll need to buy your provisional license too.

We're going to stay as we are!! The over nights will be mainly at in-laws and BIL&SIL have a baby of similar age so have travel cot, steriliser etc. OH is going to get a big-ish pay rise this time next year so we're going to look at it again then. I don't really see any point in learning while we don't want to shell out for a car-if I got my license now I'd be really rusty by the time we got a car so it might be wasted! I can't see OH ever learning (it would be crazy for him to drive to work) so I bet I end up being a taxi service.
Thanks everyone- At least now I know how very,very expensive it is!!!!

We put aside £75 per month to cover running costs - insurance, tax, not, service, new tyres.

We spend £200 per month on petrol (live in countryside so have to drive everywhere)

Currently not covering depreciation though which we really ought to be looking at as it will need replacing in 3-4 years (bought new).