Cost of motoring moan - WARNING this topic has no point

[blackbird]

This is just a general moan and rant

but everthing is costing so much

Cars are getting expensive to run !

Yes I know you can shop around but

due to the cost of scrap I suspect , anthing decent with more than 1days MOT is now more like £800 not £400.

 

And bringing a cheap car back from the brink of scrap is expensive

"Oh just needs a few tyres and a battery and taxing "

 

huh , look out sounds simple /cheap . that alone will cost a packet

and it will need more , much more than this !!!!!

 

Loads of batteries are well over £100 now !!! and tyres are going up !(inflating ! )

 

And the MOT got harder this year , added some stuff about dust covers on suspention arms etc , that was only an advisory before

If you can't get the caps , the arms can be 60 quid a side depending on what car you have

 

Tax is going up as we speak . look ping another pound added , ping and another .......

 

Again you can shop round for MOTS but some places are charging 50-60 quid just for the test

 

It can cost you £700 quid to bring a £200 car back on the road !

That;s not before you spring a leak in the rad (you seen the price of these lately) or something like it from actually using the thing !

 

And petrol

Don't start me !

"Cheap " cars are normally BIG petol ones

 

 

Doomed , we're all doomed ....

 

 

Moan Moan Moan , grump , grump ........moan

 

[dollywobbler]

No point and no justification seeing as my last two cars have come with MOT and both cost £400 or less. One of them was a Bluebird! I've had to spend a bit of money on some engine oil (£15), a few filters (less than £20) and a thermostat (£10) and it does a reasonable 35mpg. Classic insurance too. The only ballache is the cost of taxing the thing. £220 really is a bit much for a year when most new cars are free or £35.

[sporty-shite]

anthing decent with more than 1days MOT is now more like £800 not £400.

 

 

Cough, cough, buy it!

 

[ruffgeezer]

I agree with wobbledoll up there, I have tried selling my xantia for around the £500 mark but have had no interest, that on a turbo diesel with fresh service, cambelt and radiator, 4 good tyres. I am honestly considering running the current mot out and scrapping it instead.

[ashmicro]

Scene tax - a friend of mine wants a BL Mini (gawd knows why). I went with her to look at a 1984 Mini 25 spesh. 50 foot paintjob, shite alloys, serious rot starting in the doors, boot floor and around the windscreen. 3 GRAND!

[Spiny Norman]

Loads of batteries are well over £100 now !!!

And loads of them are still £40.....

 

Tax is going up as we speak

No it's not. It went up in April, and will probably go up again next April, just like it does most years.

 

Again you can shop round for MOTS but some places are charging 50-60 quid just for the test

The maximum they're allowed to charge for a passenger car is £54.85, so if you find anyone asking £60 report them to VOSA. My local guy takes £35, which for 40-50 minutes of specialist service using tens of thousands of pounds worth of gear isn't excessive I don't think. The local Kosovo car wash takes a fiver for 5 minutes with some buckets of soapy water and a few sponges....

 

It can cost you £700 quid to bring a £200 car back on the road !

The mistake a lot of people these days seem to make is that they seem to think the cost of servicing and repairs should be in proportion to the value of the car, and that's never been the case. If you think of it in terms of that £700 bringing a car that originally cost £20k back on the road then it's a bargain, no?

 

No real passion, no eye-bulging/veins on neck standing out ranting, no swearing. A poor effort, I'd give this grump no more than 3/10, sorry.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

For less than a grand you can buy a machine capable of transporting you across Europe in comfort at 70mph! You know what a victorian would say about that? He'd say "HOLY FUCKING SHIT".

 

Choose your car wisely, and you can pay very little or no road tax. Our road tax is low compared to most of europe, and our fuel not much pricier (if at all). You know what someone from the Netherlands or Singapore would say about that!

 

With the internet you get a VAST amount of choice for parts. I wanted some 145/80 tyres - Mytyres lists fifty eight from £26 to £175! If I'd wanted 155s they had ninety three of them!

 

I see loads of places offering MOTs for around £30.

 

Also my radiator sprung a leak and a local firm repaired, tested and painted it for £25.

[brickwall]

I keep the Rover 25 for pootering about and it gives good mpg. I never expected the Range Rover to be cheap, but with internet parts and forums it hasn't cost a bomb. My friends pay more on having a single car, what with tax on company vehicles and contract hire BMW nonsense. I always used to take the cash alternative and get a dandy car and pocket the rest.

 

Learn to weld good was the advice my dad gave years ago and it stands true!

[vulgalour]

I don't think I've ever had to spend £250 a month on a car, even including insurance costs, but my housemate does every month on his new car, and it's not even that big or flash a thing. I reckon being able to maintain and run any car for less than finance payments on a new car is good money sense, particularly if said car was bought for a few hundred pounds in cash money. Sure, occasionally you'll have to tinker with it, but usually only because previous owners haven't, or parts are getting on for 20+ years old.

 

People complain too much about the cost of cars, it's really not *that* bad.

[AeroNautiCal]

[retrogeezer]

I said to my better half the other day (after our Mondeo went through the MOT for the 3rd year on the trot) that I don't think we will ever be this lucky with cars again.

 

Mondeo has been owned for 5 years and has probably cost about £800 (inc purchase price)

 

Bluebird was bought for £400 3 years ago and has cost virtually nothing other than oil/plugs/leads/dizzy cap and rotor arm. I've just put a £15 used tyre on it so maybe £500 in the 3 years.

 

I will have had the Escort for 4 years in January, bought for £650, £80 on an exhaust, £15 water pump and £5 on 2 front hoses in that time.

 

I'd get at least my money back on the Escort and probably not far off on the other 2 either.....other than £650 a year on car tax I'm a happy bunny!

[garethj]

I'm about to have an expensive few weeks on the Peugeot 205, it needs an MoT, 2 new tyres, tax and insurance. By far the biggest of these bills is the insurance, but as said it's still pretty cheap considering I do 400 miles a week, leave home whatever time I want, can play Radio 4 and all the other advantages.

 

Try commuting by train for a few years, then see what a bargain cars are

[Cavcraft]

[brickwall]

I'm about to have an expensive few weeks on the Peugeot 205, it needs an MoT, 2 new tyres, tax and insurance. By far the biggest of these bills is the insurance, but as said it's still pretty cheap considering I do 400 miles a week, leave home whatever time I want, can play Radio 4 and all the other advantages.

 

Try commuting by train for a few years, then see what a bargain cars are

 

 

I also have a radio cassette player!

[Bren]

I think this rant does have a point - it really does depend on your circumstances.

 

There are cheap cars out there, unfortunately the majority of them are shite (which is why they are for sale), well past their sell by date, usually run of the mill diesels (why would somebody be selling a car that does 50MPG in today's climate? You need to ask yourself this), however there is plenty of unfashionable chod knocking about that only the likes of us truly appreciate.

 

Regarding the earlier post about the xantia, I had an estate with the XUD engine - quite simply the best car I have owned. However, joe public avoids these like the plague because they are french, he would sooner spend his £600 on an utterly shagged mondeo / vectra / avensis that you can be sure will be fragged after the MOT has ran out.

 

I do think the cost of parts has gone through the roof - I was quoted £28 for a dizzy cap for my V8 SD1 from a local factor. I paid £22 for 5L of 20w/50 - shocking.

 

I do think that tyres are good value compared to other stuff - twenty years ago I was paying £60 a corner for mid range 195/60 14's for a cav SRi - I can get 215 / 17's for my vectra for less than that now.

 

If you shop around, are not averse to getting your hands dirty, and don't care about what you are seen to be driving, you can do it cheaper. But you can't do it for nothing.

[dollywobbler]

If you shop around, are not averse to getting your hands dirty, and don't care about what you are seen to be driving, you can do it cheaper. But you can't do it for nothing.

 

I don't think anyone has claimed you can motor for nothing. Even if you walk everywhere, shoes wear out and need replacing. What people are disputing is that motoring is OMG CASH KAOS. It just isn't. There are loads of good cars out there for comfortably less than a grand because only a small minority of people recognise the winning ways of autoshite. Everyone else wants to impress their friends and so will keep shelling out on a new motor because they don't want something 'old.' Or they get seduced and sell their 50mpg car because the new one will definitely do 70mpg (even though it invariably won't). It's just an excuse to get something new.

 

£28 for an SD1 dizzy cap? Well shop elsewhere then. I rarely (if ever) find my local motor factor good on price. That's if they can get the bits at all. Anything that isn't mainstream and less than 20 years old utterly baffles them. If you paid £22 for 5 litres of 20w50 oil then you were ripped off. Don't buy it if it's too expensive!

[willswitchengage]

Both Ruffgeezer and Negative Creep have been trying to flog perfectly serviceable cars for yonks now at the £400 mark... If the Justy blew up tomorrow I'd take the latter's Bluebird

[Mr_Bo11ox]

^^^^ agree, stop grumbling

[Spiny Norman]

I was quoted £28 for a dizzy cap for my V8 SD1 from a local factor.

 

No-one's saying that there aren't some sheisters who'll try it on, they exist in every walk of life, but 30 seconds Googling found your dizzy cap for £12 for the genuine article or £6 for a copy at Rimmers. Frankly if you can't afford a dizzy cap for a car that does 18mpg you should probably be looking elsewhere for a transport solution.

 

If I threw my Saab away tomorrow, the whole exercise would have cost me less than £100 a month including everything but petrol. I've never had cheaper motoring.

[beko1987]

My ZX has put me £68 in profit over buying the car and what I sold my Puma for (in bits)

 

Taking into account the service bits I've bought for it, and other general tools which I don't really count as tools are for keeping, it owes me £20. Tax is less than the Puma, and it's better on fuel so I'm winning every month!

 

Just put 4 new tyres on the Meriva at £188 fitted, and it needs a new exhaust, which will cost £70 on ebay. Bits which should last another fair few years yet. The car was a bit pricy at £2k, but apart from an oil change and the above items hasn't cost a bean apart from tax or rent. If you get lucky with your sheds, you can get free motoring out of it.

[Justin Case]

And there I was thinking that this is a Golden Age of cheap cars with all the bargains being offered by shiters at ridiculously low prices, often only because their owners found them as depressing to drive now as they were when new even though they had proved reliable

 

But look at the alternatives. Last year Mrs A's Almera cost a grand total of £47 per month to keep on the road as against the £48 per month that a local bus travelcard would cost. Add on the cost of one for me and that would be the equivalent of about 4,000 miles per year worth of petrol. Day out in London? £55 for two by rail (cheap offer), £30 by car, that should mount up to cover a good chunk of the depreciation and odd replacements.

 

But here's the killer. On Saturday we went from Tenbury to near Hereford and back. Good job we had the car with us. The alternative:

 

http://www.worcestershirebus.info/timet ... 9-2005.pdf

 

[brickwall]

Bus here is eight quid to the shops n back. The wee Rover will scoot down the short way and back on a few thimble fulls of juice.

[Bren]

No-one's saying that there aren't some sheisters who'll try it on, they exist in every walk of life, but 30 seconds Googling found your dizzy cap for £12 for the genuine article or £6 for a copy at Rimmers. Frankly if you can't afford a dizzy cap for a car that does 18mpg you should probably be looking elsewhere for a transport solution.

 

Who said I could'nt afford a dizzy cap? I did get one from rimmers £23 delivered, oe spec. Normally I am supportive of my local factor, my rationale being that if he does'nt get business he will go under, however on this occasion £28 was too much.

 

My SD1 is a project, and will never be a viable source of everyday transport.

[DodgyBastard]

My Polo saloon cost me £230 with 1 months mot and tax, so far I've replaced the exhaust middle and back box £80, some light mot work at £160, tax £77, plugs £10, track rod £10. I've done 15000 miles since April and have spent very little compared to people I know with newer cars on finance.

Tyres cost me £7 each from my local scrapyard and my local garage fits them for a fiver. When MOT time comes I usually go to the cheapest place then get it repaired by my local garage or by myself depending on how much skill is involved and take it back for a retest.

[Negative Creep]

ON the flip side, I had a perfectly decent very cheap car that took 2 months to shift

[Morgan84]

Be carefull of cheap MOT's. Do you want a proper test done,or just a pass certificate ? Also,do you want a fair test done where you get advisarys rather than a ' fail the sod and nail him for everything we can throw at it '

[michael1703]

Its needs to be clarified as to what "road tax" is for

 

Originally the road fund licence was to pay for the upkeep of roads, then it was changed to a pollution tax and now they give it away for nowt or for a lesser rate to people with new cars, so penalising the majority of people on the road who own cars of 3 years of age and older (until of course pre dec 72)

 

There are more modern cars exempt from tax because of their blue motion technology etc, but they still wear out the road and they still cause congestion and get enough of them and they make the same pollution. But if you want to go down the 'environmental impact' route, they do a lot more damage to the environment in their manufacture than any pre 90's car has managed in their lifetime.

 

So essentially were told to buy new to get free road tax, this money goes to a foreign company in the end as there are no british car makers, there are foreign car makers that have british plants and therefore paying british workers but a smallish percentage in real terms

 

There are 33million vehicles registered with doovla at present, there arent millions sitting about unused so there are some big numbers of vehicles trundling about

 

How do you work out the shortfall of more vehicles and less revenue? they charge 4x4's more but they are a small percentage in reality

 

Is the ever increasing fuel cost making up the shortfall?

 

will roadtax be done away with all together and we will just be taxed on fuel? could be why doovla are shutting up office?

 

[Largactil]

I think my main gripe these days, with regard to the cost of motoring, is the price of fuel.

 

I ran a 3.0 V6 Avantime back in 2004, scraping low to mid 20's to the gallon.

 

Petrol was 75p a litre back then, and £3.40 a gallon - Taking 8 years of inflation into account, that's £4.22 in today's money.

 

It's now around £6.60 a gallon, and around a third more expensive in real terms.

 

In 2004, the Avantime racked up 10,000 miles, at an average of 23mpg - ~£1500 in fuel. To do the same distance now would cost ~£2900...

 

(For reference, I'm just back from a roadtrip holiday in the states, where I covered 1300 miles in a 3.7 V6 / 305bhp Mustang - Total fuel cost? £130...)

 

I am stating the obvious, but whereas before I'd run a large petrol V6 / V8 as a daily, I just wouldn't contemplate doing it now.

[Bobthebeard]

'Tis only a matter of time before the buggers in suits change their minds, but so far LPG is still at pre OMG prices.... 69.9 pee per litre locally.

Had Mrs Bobs old Honda converted to LPG recently as she gets fuel expenses at petrol rates for work journeys so conversion working for its living so to speak.

Smug feeling each time I fill up for £35 instead of £70

Only a matter of time tho...... Will probably live to regret it! I usually do with most of my " Man maths" motoring decisions!

[brickwall]

The LPG price makes my Range Rover a pleasure and not a burden. If it start rising to much higher levels the Rangie will end up as someone's bobtail off-roader or something.