Running a car these days may feel like a ruinously expensive business, but do the benefits outweigh the financial penalties? And anyway with a bit of lateral thinking is it possible to slash those costs to manageable levels? We look at the reasons why running a car in the 21st century is a waste of money.

Drive out of the showroom and your car is suddenly worth 5p


And sometimes it can be even less than that. Depreciation is evil. It nicks money out of your wallet faster than we can pump in overtaxed fuel or come to terms with a main agent hourly labour rate, see below. Ideally then, don't buy new, buy very used. That way you won't have to pay all those upfront car levies from VAT to first registration duty. You also reduce the amount of depreciation to fairly marginal or even non-existent levels. Clever, brilliant and a superb way

Parking charges are extortionate[u]

Yes they are, £1 for 15 minutes in some cities, while pay and displays should be renamed 'pay and be dismayed' at the amount you are being overcharged. Meanwhile 'secure' parking with 'cars left at owner's risk' stickers everywhere are £25+ a day. And then there are residents' bays, which charge you for the privilege of parking near your house, you know the one you already pay council tax to live in. Oh yes, and Richmond Borough Council will charge you even more for owning a polluter, based on your vehicle's carbon emissions. There really is no way out of this one, you are effectively renting space.
We say get elected and change the law. The same applies to the London congestion charge and proposed national pay as you drive schemes.



Cars cost an absolute fortune to fix

But that's only if you go to the wrong garage, in the wrong location with the wrong car. Independent warranty provider Warranty Direct recently revealed that one BMW franchised dealer in central London has labour charges of £152.75 an hour. This compares with a combined franchised and independent garage average of £56.72 nationwide. The survey showed the Thames Valley belt of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire is the most expensive region in the UK with an average hourly charge of £68.61. Scotland is the cheapest - nearly 60% less, with an average of just £43.12. Not surprisingly, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Porsche and Audi dealers provided the five most expensive rates.


The answer would be to move to Scotland and drive a Mazda that recorded just £44 an hour on average. But mostly make sure that you can shop around for the best servicing rate and ask for quotes. Your local garage may be allowed to do official warranty work. There's absolutely no reason why you should pay for a dealer's potted plants and fancy tiles.

Insurance costs more than the car’s worth

At times paying the annual insurance renewal premium feels like being worked over by a thug demanding money with menaces. No wonder there are apparently two million car owners who have forgotten to pay for insurance. Even if they get caught the fine is a derisory £60 and a slap on the wrist. As tempting as it may be not to pay, the consequences for you, a member of your family or other passenger are incalculable. So don't be stupid, just do everything you can to reduce your annual bill. That means shopping around for the best quote, moving to a better class of postcode and maybe even changing your car for one with a lower insurance grouping.


Fuel is, mostly tax

That's true, 70% of the cost of a litre is tax. Not only that, motorists will pay £2 billion more next year after the chancellor announced the highest increase in fuel duty for eight years and raised road tax on the most polluting vehicles by a record 40%. The 2p-a-litre rise in fuel duty was deferred for six months. However, the deferral means that there will be two rises in six months, with the 2p rise we've already had on October 1 followed by a further 2p increase on April 1 next year.

Feel like an April fool now? Never mind, it is a well-established principle that you can run a diesel car on cooking oil. Modifications are needed, however. Effectively you need a secondary fuel system, so that the car starts on normal diesel and then switches to the oil when it has been pre-heated to the correct temperature. If you can guarantee a regular supply from your local chippy/Chinese takeaway then why not? Indeed making your own biofuel can cost as little as 10p a litre as the government has now agreed that you can make up 2,500 litres for your own use, duty free.


Why bother running a car when you can catch a bus

In principle it's a nice idea, especially if you live in an alternate universe where public transport is cheap, clean and always runs on time. At the very least you need to reside in a major city with excellent transport links so that you are never far from a bus route, tram or train line. However, if you live in a rural location you've had it, unless you want to embrace the hermit lifestyle a car is pretty much essential. In a lot of cities, public transport is not a 24-hour service so the light ticking sound of a taxi's meter is going to be more familiar.


Oh yes, and have you ever tried getting a week's shopping onto a bus? If time is money to you then however much a car costs to own and run has to be worth it in terms of convenience and practicality.


So are cars really a waste of money?
Running a car in 2007 is ruinously expensive and unpleasant, but it is possible to fight back and subvert the system sometimes and save a bit of money in the process. Yes, a car costs a fortune to run, money we would probably want to spend on a decent holiday, larger house, or new shoes for the kids. But there is no viable alternative. That's why we can be taxed, overcharged and bullied. That is also why a car is not a waste of money, it's a necessity.






Are cars Really a waste of money? Have your say...
pfft Yeah, We still but them tho

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I'll probably be flayed alive for saying this, but I think this article epitomises why Toyota is #1 car manufacturer in the world.

The majority of car buyers out there are clearly not car enthusiasts per se; which is not to say that many of them don't enjoy driving - certainly some of my friends who don't fall into the 'enthusiast' camp drive otherwise quite mundane vehicles, but thoroughly enjoy driving nonetheless.

However, in the balance between being able to afford to run a car and gain the practical and convenience/lifestyle advantages, and yet to have disposable income left to spend on consumer items that many would see as being far more lifestyle rewarding than a mechanical device to get you from A to B, many will willingly trade off notions of prestige or driving passion/involvement for something that will meet their needs perhaps more than their wants, and to do it with the least cost, but greatest quality and reliability.

For many for whom a car is a necessity, but have other lifestyle committments, the choice of a car will be a balance between needs/wants, and commensurate with their income and other outgoing lifestyle expenses, which again will fall into a balance of needs/wants.

The fact that more people choose to drive a Toyota than any other brand, is a testament to the hugely sucessful products that this manufacturer makes; at the end of the day they have made a better, that is to say cheaper and yet higher quality and more reliable mousetrap that more people want to buy more of the time, compared to other competing brands.

Now, from an enthusiast point of view, apart from some stunning past models such as the MR2, nothing that Toyota makes fills me with any real desire to own one. Well, maybe a Yaris as a funky town car perhaps - cute, versatile, very cheap to run and maintain, dead reliable with excellent resale value, and very well made.

But passion? Nope.

However, IMHO there is no engineering reason why the brands that we consider 'prestige' can be outperformed in the quality and reliablity stakes by something so pedestrian in aspiration terms as a mere 'Toyota', and yet of such high quality, durability and reliablity.

Fact is, that when it comes to quality and reliablity, which is what the majority of potential purchasers want in a car, most of the time, Toyota is #1.

It is odd that I have no passion for Toyota whatsoever, but would feel very 'safe' from an financial and reliability point of view in owning one, and can see the quality with my own eyes; whereas as a Mercedes fan, and avowed fan at that, the prospect of buying one fills me with trepidation at the quality/reliability/durability question, as does the ongoing servicing costs.

Both are mechanical devices to get you from A to B, and in the case of say an Toyota Auris v's an Mercedes A Class, or B Class, there is scant difference in terms of mechanical sophistication or technology; one then wonders why the huge disparity in running/maintenance costs between the two different, but otherwise competing brands at that level.

Excuse the rant; this is not a promo for Toyota, nor a damnation of Mercedes, just that thinking of buying a new car focusses the mind fairly quickly away from the dreaming/desire stage, to the 'what is this all going to cost' stage, (purchase price apart) fairly quickly!

A Good Article BTW, and thanks for posting.

Best Regards

John...

good point, but the article didn't mention if you can afford the cars and to run them and service them, the article is a bit biast because it done not go into hardly any depth about whats good about cars, and i am sure if you can afford a 40 grand merc i am sure you can afford to have them serviced.