How expensive is having a car where you live?

[Sharky]

Well, I was watching Top Gear the other day and I realized that if I lived in the UK I could never afford to have a car....not just for the cost of the car itself but for the price of gasoline, insurance, etc.

So, how much does it cost to have a car where you live? So, state what car do U have, how much do you spend on gasoline, insurance, taxes, oil changes, etc.

Peugeot 205 GRi
-Gasoline (or petrol for you brits ): About U$20 a month (i do about 1000+km's a month)
-Oil change: U$20 every 6 months (air filter not included.....it costs about U$6)
-Insurance: U$320 once a year.
-Taxes: U$150 once a year again
-Parking at the university: U$30 a month
-Tyres: U$35 each (I've only had to change them once)
-Car wash: U$3 each time (which should be once a week).
-General maintenance:No more than U$200 a year.

[Bluebottle]

'Rip-Off-Britain' continues...

petrol is around 79p per litre
road tax (Exise Duty) is £160 per year or £110 for a car of less than 1500cc. New cars have several tax bands based on manufacturers data for emmissions.
Insurance isn't too bad for us- we're over 30, live in a nice place and my wife is a very safe accountant- plus we both have full 'No Claims' bonus.

[Carrie]

Too expensive, far too expensive, Sharky.
Petrol here is currently a fair bit cheaper than in Bluebottle's neck of the woods - it's 72.3pence per litre. I can get 42mpg from my car and do 250 miles each week commuting for work and then you can usually add on the same sort of mileage each weekend heading to and from racetracks.
Road tax for me with a 1.4 Astra is £110 (my car was registered just a few days before the new tax bands came in based on vehicle emissions).
Insurance - now that's really depressing. I'm 27 and with a full no claims bonus, but the insurance companies deem that I live in a high car crime area and also I'm a high mileage driver, so I'm looking at nearly £600 for insurance.
I think a full service is about £100 - I've never actually bothered with one before, but as this car is fairly new then I guess I'll have to just to make sure I keep the manufacturer's warranty. Oil change, think it's £25 if you have it done at the main dealers.
No car parking fees for me, one of the advantages of working out in the country and having a rather big work's car park

[rick vaux]

With a car and a van to run, my pockets are empty.
2x insurance. £700.
2x road tax . £320.
2x servicing . £500
2x petrol/desiel . £120 a week.
Plus tires etc etc.
It breaks my heart when i fill up the car £50.....
Tires are due too soon, god help us.

[Sharky]

Damn!! That's some expensive fuel. We have 3 cars in this house and if we filled them up from empty tanks (2 use premium and one regular) the bill wouldn't exceed U$60 (that's about 40 british pounds) for all 3.

And people over here complain about how expensive fuel is nowadays......guess they should pay a visit to a british pump!

[hoonboyz]

petrol +$65 a tank (80 c / lt)
tyres (shudder) on thursday it cost me $540 for 4 tyres (and that was after shopping around for 3 days and that was the cheapest i could find)
rego $650 a yr
insurance $700 a yr
service (every 10,000) oil filters etc $120

[Don K]

Here in the Netherlands, it should be possible to drive a 4 year old car for EUR 350 (buy a 3-year old car, and sell it after 2-3 years when you buy your next car).

Current petrol prices:
Regular (95): EUR 1.119 per liter
... (98): Eur 1.173 per liter
Diesel oil: Eur 0.767 per liter
Liquid Petrol Gas: Eur 0.394 per liter
(Most of the price is some sort of tax (excise???))

I guess I'm using something between 6 and 6.3 l Diesel per 100 km, so if I had to pay for my fuel, it would cost me EUR 4.60-4.80 per 100 km (EUR 7.40-7.80 per 100 mile).

[Shinners]

Same over here folkes. Petrol is 90 cent a litre, My 1 litre Clio costs 110 euro to Tax and my insurance a whopping 1,210 Euro (cos I crashed into another car 2 yrs ago -when my brand new Clio was 6 weeks old and I lost my no claims bonus).

Its not too bad for me as I live just beside where I work so Ive only clocked up 15,000 miles on my two year old car.
I had a 10,000 mile service and this cost me 72 Euro.

[kmchow]

Could Canada's total auto ownership costs be the highest? My '89 Volvo 740 wagon is costing me:

0.52US dollars/litre=@$2US/gallon
$800/yr insurance which includes car, collision and 3rd party liability up to $1.5M US dollars.
$23 an oil change at dealer

[Sharky]

Originally posted by kmchow
Could Canada's total auto ownership costs be the highest? My '89 Volvo 740 wagon is costing me:

0.52US dollars/litre=@$2US/gallon
$800/yr insurance which includes car, collision and 3rd party liability up to $1.5M US dollars.
$23 an oil change at dealer

Actually I think that's pretty cheap. U$2 per galon of fuel isn't that bad.

[fast95pony]

Originally posted by kmchow
Could Canada's total auto ownership costs be the highest? My '89 Volvo 740 wagon is costing me:

0.52US dollars/litre=@$2US/gallon
$800/yr insurance which includes car, collision and 3rd party liability up to $1.5M US dollars.
$23 an oil change at dealer

Perhaps you should say British Columbia , not Canada .

Albera gas prices , insurance is pretty good .

I have 2 cars : 2001 Focus SE daily driver,leased for $330/month for 3 years , insurance $1000/year. gas costs me about $30/month.

My 1995 Mustang GT is paid for , insurance is $1365 a year.
Weekend driver , pig on gas (supercharged 5.0 ,drag raced , autocrossed,few trips to the Rockies.. ) cost about $50-200 a month in gas,and is taken off the road every winter (with a insurance refund.)
The Mustang also has frequent oil changes with Mobil One at about $70 every 4000 kms .

Both cars have full coverage insurance..
Road tax for both cars is $60/year .

I'm single, 40 years old.


2 CDN dollars = one Pound .

Alan

[DAVID PATERSON]

I live in Queensland Australia and have a 4.0 litre Ford Falcon. Registration is 600AUD p.a. (325USD or 215GBP). Fuel is 80 c/litre (2USD/gallon or 28p per litre). Dealer service costs about 300AUD every 6 months (160USD or 105GBP).

[Airhead]

I'm married and couldn't give a shyte what the car costs to run. Put it under wifely expenditure.

Now the bike, is approximately $2,000 Oz Paso's a year.

Soon to increase to $3,000 when we go Eyetalian at the end of July. Don't ya love Ducatis'.

[Crash Test]

I thought Moff was going to say he has a stolen car, and drives off from the petrol station without paying

Why's the new bike a $1K more expensive? Is it simply the fact that it's new, or is it racier?

[StuiE]

79p per litre!

[Airhead]

Crash, easy to answer.

The extra grand is in the running in costs, the four valve heads Ducati style and the increased tyre usage. Plus the more expensive extracuriccular women.

Baby!

[PJS]

I live in portugal, the most western part of Europe...
How much does having a car costs?
~1 st: the car itself... the retail price of any car above 600 cc includes about 60% of the base price in taxes... that means that more than half of what your paying are taxes alone (our vat- 19%, is calculated over a special car tax...) This special car tax is calculated over the car engine diplacement (at about 10 dollars per cubic inch). over this, you pay 19% VAT.
2 nd- Insurance is mandatory here in Portugal... cheapest and mos basic insurance costs abou 250 bucks.
3 rd- Gas price.... ahhhh... where do i start... the govermment gets more money per liter of gas than the fuel companies themself... again, prohibitive taxes (about 200 % over the base price of gas)1 liter of petrol costs abou 94 euro cents. (all of this adds up to a inneficient public transportatio system. for instance, most busses are 25 years old)
Thats not very bad? Well, medium wages in portugal are about 500 dls per month... just do your math...
4 th- We have the worst roads in the European union... not only they look like some road thats been literally bombarded but they are poorly planned from the start. secundary roads are suicidal. two way one lane roads are the norm. Lots of trucks also.
City roads are death traps, at least for your car... manholes without cover, ditches that someone opened but didnt properly close, you name it!!! THERE AINT A SINGLE ROAD WITHOUT HOLES IN IT!!!!

[kmchow]

So how is the car insurance run? Is it gov't run or private? Has your country,province, state,etc... ever switched from one method to the other? If so, what kind of price changes have you seen. The private insurers always say that insurance will be cheaper under a private system. However, at least for young male drivers, a gov't run system is cheaper.

[Airhead]

Originally posted by Crash Test
I thought Moff was going to say he has a stolen car, and drives off from the petrol station without paying

Sorry Crash I missed this bit the other night. Funnily enough I have done this by proxy. The forst time I was at home in the early morning waiting for my family to return from central Queensland - they were going to travel 1300 klms that day. I got a phone call from the Gold Coast police to ask if I owned a blue Ford, yes officer I do. Didi you fill it with petrol on the Gold Coast 20 minutes ago? No, I am in Coffs Harbour 500 klms away.

Turns out my son filled the tank and my wife bought the snack foods and drink. She didn't check the EFTPOS receipt for the amount and the service station attendant didn't link the car with my wife.

The next time was when I was on the Gold Coast with the car. Same car. And the police in some southern NSW town rang to ask where I was and what type of car did I have etc etc. This time I had changed the rego plates (got new ones) after one of the old ones was stolen from the front of the car in a shopping centre car park.

Next time it will be me in the car who does the runner.

[Sharky]

Originally posted by kmchow
So how is the car insurance run? Is it gov't run or private? Has your country,province, state,etc... ever switched from one method to the other? If so, what kind of price changes have you seen. The private insurers always say that insurance will be cheaper under a private system. However, at least for young male drivers, a gov't run system is cheaper.

Over here there are 2 types of insurance. One which is mandatory and covers injury or death expenses for you or a third person in case of an accident. It doesn't cover material damage or if the vehicle was stolen. Forthat you have to take an optional insurance.

Over here the cost of that insurance is based on the cost of the car and not on where you live or what you do.

[roscoe]

Been living in U.K. for 16 years, running four cars, I don't even count the cost... just pull my trousers down and bend over!

[PJS]

Originally posted by kmchow
So how is the car insurance run? Is it gov't run or private? Has your country,province, state,etc... ever switched from one method to the other? If so, what kind of price changes have you seen. The private insurers always say that insurance will be cheaper under a private system. However, at least for young male drivers, a gov't run system is cheaper.

Insurance is 100 % privately run. The prices i gave are for mandatory (covers damages to third parties up to a certain amount(( enough to pay for abou 4 Bentleys )
Crash, collision and theft etc, are extras.
Btw, car insurance here in Portugal is a very bad business indeed. latest figuers indicate that about 90% of car insurance premiums go to pay for damages and repairs caused by accidents...
As our country emerged from an authoritarian govermment in 1974 ( it was something like Franco in Spain), this sectors were privatized and opened to private emterprise... the rest is the market working... more competition, prices go down... but because were sucha a bad drivers and we ride on such a crappy cars, insurance is bound to rise again...