It appears our 9 year old Fiat Punto is on its way out – after buying it a new battery (£40) and putting it in, we checked it worked. White smoke started coming out the exhaust. We then checked the oil dipstick and it looked like chocolate milk – a sign the head gasket has allowed anti-freeze to enter the engine. Research on the internet showed a new head gasket would cost between £300 and £450, but since anti-freeze has already entered the engine, it might need to be stripped down which would cost a lot more.
So, we decided to see if it was economical to replace it with another car (2nd hand or brand new) or whether to use hire cars/car clubs: we make around 14 trips a year (6 trips to Yorkshire @ 200miles each way, 6 trips to Leicester @ 100 miles each way, 4 trips to see friends @ 40miles each year = 3920 miles total: say 4,000miles for “spare”) and we live close to London so it might be worth it…. Here’s our figures:
| Yearly running costs for the car | |
|---|---|
| Road Tax | £130.00 |
| Insurance | £304.00 |
| M.O.T. | £50.00 |
| Breakdown cover | £30.00 |
| Total fixed yearly costs (exc Petrol and repairs) |
£414.00 |
| Petrol on 4,000 miles a year based on 5.7litres/100km at 116.8p/litre [4000 miles= 6437km/100= 64.37*5.7litres= 367 litres per year * 116.8] | £428.66 |
| Repair costs (guestimated average) | £250.00 |
| Total costs | £1,092.66 |
Ouch! But how much would it cost for a hire car for the same sort of period?
Well, the journeys to Yorkshire and Leicestershire are typically weekend ones, so we’ll need to hire a car on Saturday morning and returning it Monday morning (as car hire places usually close at 5pm on Sundays – if they are open at all – and that’ll be too early). Avis has cars at £75.47 per weekend. The friends trips are same day, during the week, and that’s £110.00 from Avis – although I found another local company offering car hire for a single day at £40.00 and Streetcar offers £49.50 – so we’ll say £50 for a day).
So that’s
| 6 * 2 (14) weekend trips @ £110 each | £1,540 |
| 4 one day trips @ £50 each | £200 |
| Total hire costs | £1,740 |
|---|---|
| Petrol on 4,000 miles a year based on 5.7litres/100km at 116.8p/litre [4000 miles= 6437km/100= 64.37*5.7litres= 367 litres per year * 116.8] | £428.66 |
| Total costs | £2168.66 |
Even without adding petrol on top (most hire car places want you to pay for the petrol as well) – it’s already more expensive then owning a car (even taking into account repair costs!).
If we were to buy a second hand car for £1,500 (we’re actually looking at a third of this) and taking into account this “capital expenditure” the prices per year would be:
| Running costs | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buying 2nd hand* | 2592 | 3685 | 4777 | 5870 | 6963 | 8028 | 9121 | 10214 | 11306 |
| Buying new car* | 8902 | 9685 | 10617 | 11600 | 12583 | 13565 | 14548 | 15531 | 16513 |
| Hiring a car | 2168 | 4337 | 6505 | 8674 | 10843 | 13011 | 15180 | 17349 | 19517 |
* = Second Hand card purchase price estimated at £1,500
* = New Cars do not need an MOT for the first 3 years of their lives. We’re looking at a Toyota Aygo which costs £8,220 “on the road” price, is taxed at “B” rate (which is £20), does not need any tax paying for the first year (this is included in the “on the road price”) and includes 1 year breakdown cover. Repair costs are estimated at £50 for the first year, £100 for the next year and then £250 for each consecutive year.
So as long as the car lasts us more than 1.5 years, it is more economical for us to have a car that sits idle for over 91% of its life than it is just to hire cars “as and when needed”. Even buying a new car is cheaper than hiring over 7 years.
Quite shocking and saddening really….