How much per mile does yours cost ?

[macabethiel]

I have for many years kept XL type spreadsheets to record my vehicle running cost. (Yes I'm a Sado)

I include depreciation each year, all maintenance, VEL & Insurance plus of course fuel used.

One interesting thing I have noticed is that as my mileage comes down this leads to an increase in overall cost per mile as the "fixed costs" remain the same.

For our WJ Jeep the cost per mile over 4 years has averaged 51 pence per mile. This includes items such as Crash Cams etc.

[Jay666d]

I used to do this for my works van. A big merc Sprinter.

Kept track of everything from the initial cost of the van to the tyres, services, fuel... Anything spent on the van like interior shelving.

The only thing I didn't take into account was depreciation.

Over its life, I pegged it at 28p per mile.

[terranosaurusdoug]

Mine probably costs me more in my labour than anything else

[elty001]

Just thinking about working this out is giving me a headache
Smiles per gallon

[macabethiel]

Our Mini between Jan 2006- Dec 2012 averaged 61 pence per mile.

The reason for that is it only did an average of about 5k miles a year as against the Jeeps 10k plus.

[macabethiel]

From 2008 to 2013 our Terrano averaged 62.3 pence per mile covering an average of 6,500 miles per year.

[solarman216]

I am not going to even think about such stuff, 21 to the Gallon is what I get and that is the extent of my calculations, Rick

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by solarman216

I am not going to even think about such stuff, 21 to the Gallon is what I get and that is the extent of my calculations, Rick

Hi Rick, I have always kept an Excel Spreadsheet for each year on all our vehicles to track what I spend on each vehicle - this has become useful data now that I am retired to enable me to budget. When I was a Panda driver we had to do monthly fuel logs on Panda cars on the last Sunday of the month - copy submitted to Police Divisional Headquarters - I picked up this habit in 1971! I used to have a small hardback book in each vehicle - moving to computer records sometime around 1998.

Likewise I keep an annual spreadsheet on my fuel use. By incorporating a simple formula at the top of each annual fuel sheet this has enabled me to track my actual running cost. By taking into account the purchase cost, estimating depreciation I track when I will need to spend some savings for another vehicle. Once set up its pretty easy to update the data.

As a particular vehicle gets older my maintenance costs tend to increase until I reach a crossover point as we all do when things get beyond economic repair so it's time to get rid.

Many years ago we had a really nice Mercedes W124 260E Auto Saloon that the wife ran. We bought it with pretty high mileage on the clock -110k and ran it until it had 184k on the clock - then the power steering box failed. We loved the car so much we put a new steering box in her - the car was worth about £500 and the steering box was around £1200 fitted! To get some value out of the vehicle we were forced to run her for another two years.

When the WK failed to start a couple of weeks ago - it not only dented my confidence in it's reliability but also Wendy's. Quiet understandably she used our WK until it was sorted. I wrongly as it turned out got it into my head that the WJ was about to become a money pit. Now that I do almost none of my own repairs our vehicle running costs have naturally increased.

The MoT is due in January, the tyres are due for replacement ideally before the winter - I am reluctant to put new boots on if the MoT becomes an issue on something unknown like emissions!

In reality I think we all know without any spreadsheets when we need to part with a motor. Our problem is we tend to get attached to our 4x4's so a spreadsheet is just an inanimate tool to argue with.lol

[Wallace]

I did a quick calculation on the smoking mess of my Jensen Interceptor after it blew a core plug out, cooked the oil and needed smothering to stop it due to pre ignition; £50 a mile.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Wallace

I did a quick calculation on the smoking mess of my Jensen Interceptor after it blew a core plug out, cooked the oil and needed smothering to stop it due to pre ignition; £50 a mile.

Our Petrol Santa Fe was 73 pence per mile - it was thirsty and needed a lot of things fixing. It was a blessing in disguise when it was written off.

[Banshee]

Originally Posted by solarman216

I am not going to even think about such stuff, 21 to the Gallon is what I get and that is the extent of my calculations, Rick

Yeah it's really not worth the effort!!!

Like Elty said, smiles per miles!!!! It's not always about the cash

[Barrbeast]

Meh I didn't buy a modified 4.2l diesel auto with economy in mind

[Jay666d]

We're just here to warm the planet up a bit!

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Barrbeast

Meh I didn't buy a modified 4.2l diesel auto with economy in mind

Absolutely I feel the same about our Jeep WK 3.0 litre CRD I did not buy it with economy in mind. Don't get me wrong I would not want single figure mpg!

Depending how cheap you buy the biggest cost is always depreciation & servicing. Unless you are doing huge mileage the fuel comes second then fixed costs like VED, Insurance & MoT.

I find that as I buy at the cheaper end of the market (by modern standards) that when depreciation no longer exists as with our Jeep WJ the maintenance costs tend to make up for the lack of loss of value.

[Wallace]

My 2.4 Terrano costs about a gallon a day for work, about 22mpg. Worst I ever had hooning my Interceptor about was 4mpg. Clarkson was spot in about them turning fuel into mainly noise!