Car Running Costs

How to keep the cost of motoring down

Along with safety and reliability, the cost of running a car is one of the top considerations for most of us when choosing a car.

There are two types of cost you need to take account of. Firstly, what you pay to keep a car on the road (standing charges) and secondly, day–to–day expenses (running costs) such as fuel, servicing and tyres.

Standing Charges

Depreciation All cars lose value over the years and this is the biggest single factor to consider.

Read more about depreciation

Insurance To get the car on the road, you'll need to get it insured. Choosing a car in a lower Insurance Group should mean lower premiums. If you're keen to cut costs, you could opt for third–party cover instead of fully comprehensive, but you may have to pay for loss or damage to the car if anything happens.

Road tax is based on the amount of CO2 your car emits. Diesel cars produce less CO2 as they're more efficient than petrol ones.

Loan interest You also need to take into account interest you're paying on a loan, or the loss of interest on savings you've used to buy the car (cost of capital).

Running Costs

The biggest running cost is fuel, but you'll also have to budget for tyres, servicing, repairs, parking and tolls.

Before you buy, take a look at our motoring cost tables. They're published every year and give a guide to standing charges, day–to–day expenses and the overall pence per mile for different types of car.

Fuel

There are four factors that affect how much you'll spend on fuel: the fuel price, type of fuel, the car's fuel consumption and the way you drive.

DieselUntil quite recently diesel's been consistently more expensive than petrol, but you do get more miles per gallon.

Liquid Petroleum Gas Cars that run on LPG are more expensive to buy than petrol or diesel cars, but the gas itself is around half the price. Fuel consumption will be higher though but you can still expect a saving of around a third on your fuel bill. Do your sums carefully though as your annual mileage may not be high enough to get a return on the initial higher outlay.

Fuel prices Pump prices vary a lot around the country and between sites in the same town. If you clock up a lot of miles, it's worth keeping an eye on prices with our fuel price reports.

Think Small, Drive Smart


Small cars
To make your fuel/money go further, buy the smallest car that meets your needs.

Go green
Opt for a fuel–efficient or alternative fuel car and you'll pay lower road tax and company car tax.

Drive smart
Once you've bought your car, there's a lot you can do to keep fuel bills down:

  • Service your car regularly to maintain engine efficiency and cut fuel consumption.
  • Drive smoothly and change gear as soon as possible without labouring the engine – typically between 2000 and 2500 RPM.
  • Pack your roof rack carefully and remove a roof box when you don't need it.
  • If you've got air–con try to avoid using it all the time.
  • Check tyre pressures regularly and adjust them to suit the load as advised in the handbook.
  • Stick to 70mph on the motorway. By travelling at 80–85mph, fuel costs can increase by 25% or more.
  • Fill up before getting on the motorway to avoid higher pump prices.
 

14 May 2010