Average annual running cost for 20 year old 'weekend car'?

Average annual running cost for 20 year old 'weekend car'?

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Discussion

Byker28i

49,373 posts

204 months

Wednesday
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NS66 said:
I put £130 a month into a seperate account incase at some point I need to call on it but nothing serious as yet touch wood.
When I bought the TVR is was suggested as an average £3k a year to run, so I put £250 a month away... soon adds up wink allowing a decent war chest for anything

parabolica

6,389 posts

171 months

Wednesday
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My Z4 turns 20 this year; it's currently SORN as I'm working overseas but I was using it alongside my V60 as a daily driver for the last few years, and was pretty minimal on costs aside from a dead battery leaving me at the side of the road. Estimate I spent maybe £500 over the course of the year to do routine servicing and fixing/titivation of things that had worn out. They are pretty easy to work on if you have a half-decent workshop.

GreatGranny

8,748 posts

213 months

Wednesday
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1998 E36 328i Touring

£130 a year insurance (I'm an old git)
£265 (I think) tax
Service it myself approx £80
Maintenance approx. £150-£200
Get it machine polished/ceramic coated every year £200
Last MOT just needed new bulb which I missed doh!
This year will need rear tyres and some rust repair/paint so I'll budget maybe £500 for that.

It does about 5k miles a year.

plenty

4,491 posts

173 months

Wednesday
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911Spanker said:
Surely there's no real answer to the question? We all have different cars, maintain them in different ways, use them differently and have different standards of what "level" we want our cars?
Yep. For example I almost always do a full suspension/bush refresh on every new acquisition right away.

Jakg

3,246 posts

155 months

Wednesday
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NS66 said:
I have a 2004 Z4 for the summer but sorn it over the winter and a 33 year old Land Rover 90 that I use year round but 1000 miles if that. Insurance is very low on both and cost minimal to look after really - I put £130 a month into a seperate account incase at some point I need to call on it but nothing serious as yet touch wood.

I would suggest just do it while you can before its only electric!!!
parabolica said:
My Z4 turns 20 this year; it's currently SORN as I'm working overseas but I was using it alongside my V60 as a daily driver for the last few years, and was pretty minimal on costs aside from a dead battery leaving me at the side of the road. Estimate I spent maybe £500 over the course of the year to do routine servicing and fixing/titivation of things that had worn out. They are pretty easy to work on if you have a half-decent workshop.
I did 11k miles in my Z4 over 4 years.

Including:
Tyres
MOT
Depreciation (well minor appreciation)

Excluding:
Insurance
Tax
Mods

Over maintaining and almost all DIY:

£2,600 total
£0.22 per mile
£52.56 a month

Even with tax/insurance, it's not a lot and there's a lot of utility in having a "spare" car, especially if you DIY.
Unfortunately sold to free up capital.

Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 22 March 11:27


Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 22 March 11:28

CursedS54

69 posts

52 months

Wednesday
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Daily a e46 m3 which I’ve owned for 5 years. Did the maths the other day and I’ve spent around £8000 on maintenance in that period. So far this year I’ve spent £1600 on a inspection 2 service and brakes

Edited by CursedS54 on Wednesday 22 March 10:25

Gad-Westy

13,265 posts

200 months

Wednesday
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I have a 15 year old Lotus Exige. Rather embarrassingly, despite best intentions it averages only 1k miles per year at present. Nothing has really ever broken on it that I can think of though I have spent plenty on it doing little upgrades or just replacing things that aren't quite perfect but really if the car was in more frequent use much of that stuff would not have been addressed but I like tinkering on it. One problem I have every single year pre-MOT is that the washer fluid hose from rear to front gets block with crap simply because it never gets used. Every winter, I have to blast it with compressed air and run cleaning fluid through it to kill bacteria.

I'm happy to do all work myself but the car came to me with an extraordinary service record and even though I'd rather never sell this car, I have kept that up. Apart from anything else, I think it's good to have another pair of eyes on the car once a year. Funnily enough, today it is at a local specialist for annual oil change and MOT.

Looking about over 3.5 years of ownership the average annual costs work out approx:

VED (6months) £180
Insurance £300
Servicing and MOT £250
Upgrades and other repairs £1150 (most of that was a suspension and brake refresh and upgrade to Ohlins split over 3.5 years)
Fuel £300
Breakdown Cover £50
Depreciation (£0) Arguably it's made money but since it's not going anywhere, I'll leave that out.

At some point it'll need new tyres and there are a couple of paintwork things I'd like to address too. There are also a load of common issues on these that require the front clam off so at some point I might plan in some preventative maintenance on that but again not essential, depends how anal you are about these things.

C5_Steve

193 posts

90 months

Wednesday
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I run a 1999 Corvette as my daily however I only use it to pop to the gym during the week and then at weekends so technically a weekend car (annual mileage is around 3k a year).

Fully comp insurance (garaged, all modifications declared) - £460
Tax - £295
Fuel (dash tells me I get around 16mpg as all shortish journeys) - £60 every 3-4 weeks so say £1000pa
Servicing - Oil and filter every year, £150-£200ish

In my ownership (6 years) I've done all the biggest jobs possible which should be one-offs (clutch, balancer) as well as discs and pads and a couple of small repairs (expansion tank or example). That comes to about £2500 being generous, so another £500 a year to be super generous.

Total = £1555 per year in my ownership.

jeremyh1

1,149 posts

114 months

Wednesday
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I do about 3000 miles a year in my 1996 Saab 900

I spend very little probably around £300 a year at the most on parts not much more most of the work I do is on the rear bake / handbrake pads and rear box They dont like being parked up even in the garage

Adrian Flux insurance is £140 a year
and tax is around £260

-Pete-

Original Poster:

2,849 posts

163 months

Yesterday (22:04)
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As I was only asking for the cost of servicing + essential maintenance, this is what I think people wrote so far:

PH-er Car Year Miles/year Annual cost Notes
Justin85 996 C4S 2002 4000 2800
Byker28i Cerbera 2000 ? ? 1875 Resto/DIY
CursedS54 E46 M3 2003? 1600 1600
c5_Steve Corvette 1995 3000 650
Gad-Westy Lotus Exige 2007 1000 580
Great Granny E36 328i 1996 5000 500 DIY
parabolica Z4 2003 6000 500 DIY
LHRFlightman S2000 2004 ? 2500 ? 500
Second Best Impreza WRX 2001 ? 500
brillomaster Boxster S 2000 ? 450
DaveH23 MK I Mazda 3 MPS 2007 1000 ? 450
Jakg Z4 2005 ? 2750 400 DIY
V88Dicky Monaro CV8 2004 2750 400 DIY ?
Puddenchucker 350Z 2004 2750 400 DIY ?
jeremyh1 Saab 900  1996 3000 300 DIY
shirt Toyota elise 2006 ? 300 DIY
Justin85 205 Gti 1992 2000 220 DIY
Justin85 Citroen Dyane 1971 4000 195 DIY
Jaguar Steve XJ8 2001 3500 75 DIY
Fady MR2 2004 ? 0 DIY


So if you can DIY most jobs, you can run a 20 year old weekend performance car for £400-£600/year plus tax, insurance, fuel, tyres etc. Doesn't sound so bad... and I'd guess two or three times that, if you're paying for labour?

Edited by -Pete- on Thursday 23 March 22:17

parabolica

6,389 posts

171 months

Yesterday (22:17)
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I was doing around 6k a year. Totally doable on those figures if you buy smart, do your research first and find a reliable car. By contrast, a friend of my ex-neighbour bought himself a similar z4 to mine last year and he’s had to pile thousands into it to fix various mechanical issues caused by neglect by previous owners, to the point he hates the car now.

Edited by parabolica on Friday 24th March 07:27

pthelazyjourno

1,844 posts

156 months

Yesterday (22:23)
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shirt said:
2006 toyota elise

i don't think i've ever had a 'big' bill on this car. even the complete suspension refresh can be done sub 1k
Bilstein dampers alone are around a grand or more these days if you stick with OEM. £500 for all the other bits? Pay somebody to change all the balljoints, bearings, bushes, toe links, alignment and you can easily have a £2.5k bill. That said I always loved the Elise for that - there's nothing on it apart from the chassis that's worth a huge amount of money, have probably spent as much on maintenance on my Smart Roadster as I did in a decade of running an Elise.

For what it's worth in response to original question (although not typical 'weekend car'), I'm probably spending £700 a year average on maintenance on a Smart Roadster, although that's doing pretty hefty mileage and at over 140k miles. It would probably be about £1100 a year if I was paying for a garage each time, so makes zero financial sense, considering the car is worth about a quarter of what I've spent running it (although doesn't depreciate, costs pennies to tax, insure and fuel, and isn't £25k sat on the driveway not being used for 6 days a week).

All sorts of random st to go wrong on older cars. Had a head gasket. Lots of suspension components to replace. A turbo. Timing chain. Radiator. Brakes. Electrical issues. Some of which will affect any car, others obviously model or mileage specific. Amuses me more than most modern or considerably better cars, however.



Edited by pthelazyjourno on Thursday 23 March 22:42

-Pete-

Original Poster:

2,849 posts

163 months

Yesterday (22:42)
quotequote all
parabolica said:
I was doing around 6k a year. Totally doable on those figures if you buy smart, do your research first and find a reliable car. By contract, a friend of my ex-neighbour bought himself a similar z4 to mine last year and he’s had to pile thousands into it to fix various mechanical issues caused by neglect by previous owners, to the point he hates the car now.
I agree, whatever I buy I'll be checking the service history and trying to work out what's going to need doing next. I'm ok at DIY but out of practice, and don't have a lot of free time or space in the garage.

I used to have an Alfa 156 2.5 V6 company car and loved the sound of that Busso engine, so I've been looking at various four seater Alfa V6's and was shocked that the cambelt is a £1K job every 4-5 years. It doesn't look that easy to DIY. They also have very 'consumable' suspension parts, so it doesn't seem like it'd be a cheap car to run. Perhaps a V8 Monaro is the answer, XK would be ok if it was available as a manual.

On the other hand, my last company car was a 530d and that was great in an 'efficient' way, without much character. I can pick up a 328i for the same price as a V6 Alfa but I hear horror stories* about running older BMW's... plastic bits going brittle, built in obsolescence, difficult to DIY. So even though it'd be 5 years younger, I don't know if it'd cost more to run. And they don't sound great.

  • *Not all stories are true, that's why I'm asking about other people's experiences.

Mouse Rat

1,576 posts

79 months

Yesterday (22:42)
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TVR tuscan. Less than 500miles a year. Ave £1k annually. Inc serving, preventative and reactive maintenance, insurance, tax etc.

BertBert

17,697 posts

198 months

Yesterday (23:17)
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Had 160k mile 997 GT3. Seemed to manage to generate a £1500 bill every year over and above £800 a year for servicing.

That's not including tyres, fuel.


Hoofy

74,459 posts

269 months

Yesterday (23:30)
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911 (996) Turbo is costing me about £1.5k a year plus standard stuff (petrol, tyres, insurance, servicing etc) for about 4k miles a year.

ninepoint2

3,025 posts

147 months

Yesterday (23:35)
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I know you only wanted to know cost, however the biggest problem I find with my 2002 S8 is parts availability for cars of this age.

Jakg

3,246 posts

155 months

Yesterday (23:45)
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ninepoint2 said:
I know you only wanted to know cost, however the biggest problem I find with my 2002 S8 is parts availability for cars of this age.
That's going to be down to car choice though, rather than just age.

One of the reasons I got a Z4 was that underneath it's an E46 3-series - parts are absolutely everywhere, and cheap.

grudas

1,224 posts

155 months

-Pete- said:
o you spend £20/year on unexpected maintenance, but what about expected maintenance? £500/year? £750? I quite like the idea of an S2000, just trying to get a feel for how much I should expect to keep it in reasonable condition.
~£400ish a year. Servicing and that is about it. Depends on service, use etc. last year for e.g. I had way more oil changes due to track days etc. It’s been a very easy car to keep up with. Mine was quite expensive when I bought it so it hasn’t had issues with rust etc.

Jaguar steve

9,088 posts

197 months

-Pete- said:
So if you can DIY most jobs, you can run a 20 year old weekend performance car for £400-£600/year plus tax, insurance, fuel, tyres etc. Doesn't sound so bad... and I'd guess two or three times that, if you're paying for labour?
I think it's doable for or even under those numbers, but you need to buy a good example of whatever it is in the first place and be absolutely sure any parts you'll potentially need are readily available from both OEM and aftermarket suppliers and be able to DIY most if not all your servicing and repairs.

Whatever that unicorn car may be might not actually be any example you can either find to buy or even want as your first choice, and if the ideal one can't be found or is a pain in the rectal area to store or own then you might reasonably ask yourself whats the point?