I quick post to say I've had my first couple of weeks of modest motoring.
I don't think it's just me who feels as if being able to hop in the car and drive down to B&Q or pick up the dog from the vet's is a reasonable aspiration. But at what cost?
I remember my A level economics teachers saying one day "I've been working it out and there's no way I can afford to run my car...but I
have to." And he did.
Well, I just updated the costs on the table (see the link on the right) and it's not quite what I expected.
It works out that I've done around 382 miles on a tank of petrol. That sounds OK. A tank is around 10 gallons so it's about 38 mpg! Actually it's nearer to 9.46 gallons so that's 40.3mpg. Waaaayyyyyy!
Then comes the bad news.
When you add all the fixed costs of motoring for the year (including purchase price) the costs begin to be a bit more realistic. Incidentally, you can do your own calculations by following the useful links on the right.
Petrol prices are, of course, extortionate - half of the cost is tax (but then, why not?) - so the cost per mile is actually high.
You also have to add in the cost of the car. In this case, I reckon on it depreciating completely over two years so my annual cost included half of the purchase price plus all the annual costs like insurance.
Anyway, as I conclude, the car is costing about £40 a week or £2080 a year. Which, if you only pay standard rate tax means you have to earn £2600 to pay for it. If you're paying tax at 40% that's more like £3466 per annum.
For the sake of balance I should look at the alternatives such as rail and bus travel. And, in the future, I'm planning to look at the environmental impact.
For the time being....it's a heck of a lot of money...
