I have recently bought from a fleet a Audi A4 TDI Quattro Tpitronic.
Leafing through the paperwork I am able to tell exactly what work the car has had done to it over its lifetime (since 9/99, 130,000 miles) and how much it has cost.
Dealer Servicing and repairs have cost £5200.
Per mile this equates to 4p per mile.
Depreciation has been aproximately £17000
Per mile = 13p
Fuel economy circa 35mpg
per mile = 10p
Road tax at £165 per year
Per mile = 0.5p
So in total 27.5p per mile.(Didn'nt bother with insurance)
All very interesting I thought, I wonder how this compares to other backroomers cars / published data.
I had always thought that depreciation was the biggest cost of motoring but looking at the figures it is a reasonably close run thing with fuel.
If the fuel economy had been 25mpg it would have equalled depreciation costs. This for a car that has depreciated a lot.
Have I made a mistake or is fuel really the main cost in driving a car. Or is the fact the car has done high mileage in a short time having an unusual effect?
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I'm not questioning your figures, they are very interesting, but at that mileage/age I'd guess it's done mostly motorway driving so your 35mpg is probably a bit off over the mpg that car has probably actually returned.
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My Omega's running costs are 25.5ppm on the same basis. Outlined at:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=15063&...f
Ref "is fuel the main running cost?"
No, by your own figures, depreciation is. And for most new cars that holds true. If the mileage was smaller, depreciation would take an even bigger chunk.
It always surprises me that people will happily lose £5,000 on a car over 2 years (£50 a week) then worry about a 1 or 2 mpg difference between their shortlisted models. A relative of mine reckons that what hurts is paying for a tank of fuel too often, so he goes for expensive cars with better mpg. I reckon it's the total cost of ownership that matters, so I go for cheaper cars with bigger engines. Different opinions, different costs of motoring.
V
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I keep a rough running tally of the cost of running my cars. My 95 Xantia is costing about 17.5p/mile all in over the last 17 months / 28,000 miles. Which makes a total cost of about £4900 - of which I reckon about £2400 (48%) is fuel. Gulp. Cos it's old and was cheap, depreciation is only about £750, so for me fuel is the main cost - reminds me why I buy old cars and not new ones! If I was running a Xantia Activa (which I would like to) rather than the TD, the fuel cost would have been of the order of £3500 - an extra 6.4p/mile, or 36% higher running costs - Fuel consumption makes a big difference to me!
Too early to tell the running costs of the ZX as I we've only had it a month - but it started at only £450, so that's depreciation out of the window! Again, Mr Brown is going to make his presence felt at the pumps no doubt!
--
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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As Vin says, the main lesson from these figures is that if you do a lot of miles, the running cost of almost any car will not look bad unless it is a real gas-guzzler. To ordinary mortals like me, £17K depreciation is horrendous (I would buy 2 cars with that, and others might buy 10) - but I only do about 9K a year.
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I keep detailed costs for all of my cars and work out the cost per mile. It compares quite well with the WhatCar figures.
Note that I have it serviced more often than the recommended intervals, and this will skew the figures slightly. The spare parts include everything, including replacement tyre, floor mats, and bulbs. The car is used mainly in the suburban traffic, very rarely on motorways.
Original cost at July 2001- £15631.00
Mileage - 30042 miles
Fuel used - 4523.04 litres
Cost of fuel - £5505.82
Cost of servicing plus spare parts - £1114.62
Cost of insurance - £1003.02
Estimated trade in value - £7000.00
Fuel consumption - 30.31 mpg
Fuel pence per mile - 18.33p
Cost per mile - 50.77p (less insurance)
Total cost per mile - 54.11p (including insurance)
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Hillman,
Are you sure your figures are correct? 4523.04 liters costing 5505.82 pounds?
C
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Back to the spreadsheet, hillman - at least one of your figures is inconsistent!
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Fuel consumption - 30.31 mpg
Fuel pence per mile - 18.33p
Blimey! we really paying £5.51 a gallon?
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I suspect that the petrol cost is a typo and shoud read 3505.82(2000 pounds less). That would make the average cost 77.5p a litre. That would make the fuel cost 11.7p per mile.
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Can't beat a scooter though. Over 20,000 miles, over serviced oil change every 1000 miles, service every 3500 miles (as oppose to 4000 miles). Over a two year period and even get a warranty has cost 16p per mile. If I can reach 40,000 miles, it will be driving for nothing almost.
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And out of that three and a half thousand quid for fuel, two and three quarter thousand is tax.
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