Cost of a second hand car and daily expenses?

[mumznet]

I'm over 30 can drive thinking to get my own transport. can someone tell me what cost am I looking at. this will be my first own car.
also what petrol costs are like and overall total cost to buy car insurance and mot etc.
thanks

How long is a piece of string?!

You can get a car for £200. You can also buy one for £2mil!

What's your budget? How many miles do you plan on doing? Do you want to buy or lease?

Insurance, road tax and petrol / diesel costs will depend on the car you choose. Insurance will also be dependent on your driving history and personal circumstances.

An annual MOT test is around £50 but unless you have a very new car, you will have maintenance costs on top of this.
No one can give you an estimate for this, but I'd advise setting aside £10 a week minimum, more if it's a more expensive model.

nothing too expensive but also don't want a too cheap car that needs loads of repairs done
i would say budget wise to buy the car maybe £2000

i want to buy

It's really impossible to say. Totally depends on what kind of driving you're going to do, if you have children or need lots of boot space.

Best thing you can do is look on auto trader / gumtree for a car that might suit you then look up how much it costs to tax / insure (the latter by running a "dummy" quote online). Divide the annual amounts by 52 then add on £10 for maintenance. That's your weekly cost, before petrol, because obviously that depends how much you're going to use the car.

What size car do you want? I have a small nissan micra. My insurance is £98 per annum fully comprehensive. I spend around £40 per week on fuel which gives me a full tank of petrol lasting around 380 miles. My MOT is £36 per year and the cost of bulbs, oil and general maintenance is around £300. Road tax is £125 per annum.

DH has a huge 2.5ltr sports car. It costs £780 per annum for fully comprehensive insurance. A full tank of fuel is around £75 which lasts around 450 miles. Road tax is £250 per annum and running costs (bulbs etc) are around £500 per annum.

normal average car, 4 seats. not going to drive alot use it for part time work so might be driving only 3-4 days,

so add that all up and how much annually is the expense of a car?
thanks

It's already been explained....... you need to do a bit of research!

It really really is a 'how long is a piece of string question.

So - road tax - we have 2 cars - 1 costs £20 per year, the other £160 odd (the bigger engined car is the cheaper)

Insurance - a [poster has said she pays £98 per year.... I'm very jealous of wherever she lives - I had, until very recently over 25yrs no claims, I'm a good risk in all the things they look at in insurance, and mine was still just over £200. For a new driver, you can be looking at literally £3,000. It takes into account your postcode, your job, all sorts of risk factors.

MOT - the actual cost of the test can be as low as about £40, but my cars generally need bits and pieces replacing or fixing for MOTs - I'm generally happy if I get change from £300, but, in fairness, that tends to be all my expenditure on maintenance. The newer your car, the more likely you are to want to 'keep it in good condition' and get scratches, repaired, etc.

Every couple of years, you'll need to replace a couple of tyres - can be from £30 each up to about £140 each (see above about having fancy cars)

It doesn't necessarily equate that you spend more on an oder, or even on a cheaper car.

Then petrol / diesel - depends not only on how many miles you do a week / month / year, but what sort of driving - long journeys, or lots of short ones. Sitting in traffic. etc.

There are so many variables it really is impossible to say.

Just to tell you how long my piece of string is...

I drive a 4 year old peugeot 107 that cost me 3K when I bought it a year ago.

It is a tiny car with a small engine but there is only ever me in it driving 11 miles to work and back through the town centre 5 days a week.

Tax is zero, last MOT (its first) cost me £50 quid plus the price of a couple of new tyres. Petrol costs me about £40 a month. Insurance is about £250 a year but I am nearly 50 and have been driving for 30 years with no claims in the last 10 years.

If I was driving an Audi TT for the same journeys and i was 24 and had just passed my test, I'm sure the costs would be a hell of a lot more so as others have said, it really is difficult to tell you how much your costs are found to be!

*going, not found!

I am 29, a brand new driver and have a 2007 peugeot 107. It costs me:

£94 per month insurance with a telematics box (admiral little box)
£1.75 per month tax (£20 per year bracket but I do monthly dd so I can never forget to renew)
£6.25 pm breakdown cover (greenflag)
£35-40 to fill tank depending on fuel prices. This lasts me ages as I don't do many miles.

So very approximately around £200 pcm including mot costs/repairs however this could be more if something goes wrong obviously.

Car cost me 2k.

Our car is 11 years old, so starting to cost us money. The last couple of years it's cost approx £250 to get it through the MOT, but this time it's cost us £370 and they've informed us we'll need new brakes pads and two tyres in the next few months. Our insurance is approx £250 pa but have been driving over 30 years and no claims. Annual service comes in over £200. We spend approx £80/85 on petrol a month to get DH to work (approx 6 miles e/w), at least one twenty mile journey a week and other running around and day trips.

Lottie4 an annual service is £200? Every year? That's ridiculous. Really. It should only need a major service every 3 years or so, esp as you're not doing a lot of miles.

The rest of the time a minor service should cost under £100 if you go to a local
But reputable garage.

Are you using a main dealer? (No point in this at all if you are)

Lottie4 sorry I mixed up your thread with the previous one that you had a small Peugeot...... if you have a larger more expensive model the price will go up for a service it you should still pay less for minor services

I never service my old bangers - they get frequently checked for oil, lights, tyres etc and things get fixed as they come up regarding funny noises or any strange behaviour. Comes to the same thing but cheaper.

My insurance is £250 fully comp for a two litre but I have loads of no claims and live in a quiet village. I don't drive every day but when I do it is with all the obvious stuff regarding fuel economy.

Those that drive like dicks use a lot more fuel and don't get there any quicker.

Costs involved in having a car are:
Cost of car
Car Tax
MOT
Insurance
Parking/permits
Petrol
Repairs/maintenance
Car wash/valet

Add all these up and divide by 12 to get your monthly cost then save this each month. IMHO better to pay less for the car and buy insurance/tax for the year up front then save each month for future costs.

Autotrader lets you search cars with low tax so you could get this down to less than £30 per year, there are plenty of cars within this tax range.

An honest mechanic will save you a lot of money so ask around- even if he's not the cheapest he won't be doing unnecessary work.

Use a comparison site for nsurance or quidco to get cashback you can get a quote before you buy a car.

Place marking. I'm having to learn how to drive and looking into the costs of running a car and it's really hard when you know sweet FA about it!

Insurance can vary by so much so you would be better off doing a few dummy quotes based on a car you think you would like to drive, fuel costs can vary too depending on how much you drive and the engine size of the car. I have a 1.8 people carrier and I put in roughly £30 a week in petrol. My insurance costs me £49 a month and the tax is £23 a month.

Sometimes things go wrong with cars, the last car I had I spent £140 getting one part fixed, sometimes bigger things car go wrong and cost a lot more.

My DF pays £250 (roughly) per year for his insurance, he fills the tank every week with diesel costing him about £40-£50. His tax I think is £160 a year. He drives a 1.7 diesel estate car.

So many different factors can make the costs vary!

There's no way of breaking down the costs for you as we don't know your circumstances, we can't guess your insurance price as we could be way out, same for fuel costs etc.

BackforGood I live out in the sticks in the middle of nowhere (Staffordshire moorlands). I'm also a sahm so this makes insurance a bit cheaper. Its an 18 year old micra and 25+ years no claims (not that its actually going to make any difference in real terms) so insurance is going to be very cheap. I have a cassette player in it, that's got to knock off a good few pounds on the insurance ?

My second car's insurance is over £1200 because I have two 18 year olds who both passed their test at 17 on it! Before then it was nearer £400 (2 drivers on it all over 25). MOT doesn't cost much and it the newest car I ever bought - about 12 months old when bought it a few years ago, cost £5k second hand (most I have ever spent on a car) , no repairs as yet. I have breakdown insurance with my bank account card. Petrol is very little as it is not driven long distances. I can't remember the car tax I'm afraid.
I support your buying it outright. Some of these leasing deals look tempting but they can cost a fortune.

Also depends where you live. When my daughter moved from here - outer London to her flat further into London her insurance went up as it was a riskier postcode apparently.

thank you guys!
it does seem to be alot by looking at the responses then again we have the lovely public transport! which is useful in various ways but nice to have your own car especially if you can drive.

19lottie82 thanks I will do my research and the online quote sounds like a good idea!

somehow I prefer to mix public transport and car but when I look at people who own a car they rarely use public transport or walk! well see I think I might call a few insurance and used car companies up!

Me too mumznet, I love walking and really don't mind the bus/ train but everyone I know with a car (and that's everyone I know!)does neither very much!