A Second Car. Is It Worth It?

[Scorpion]

Just thought I'd throw this into the melting pot for some disscussion, naturally people will disagree and my calculations are just a base line.

Some people are considering the option of buying a second, more economical, car rather than run the Surf full time. It may not work out much more cost effective.

Decent 2nd hand diesel = £700
Tax of said vehicle = £205 per annum
Insurance = £220 (as an average)
Cost of fuel per year = £1040 (at £20 a week, again on average, it's only 4 gallon!)
MOT (pass) = £45

Total for first year = £2210

Total for second year (less the initial purchase price of £700) = £1510 (not including any tax hike or repairs).

So for two years the total comes to £3,720 on top of what it takes to keep the Surf.

If you run the Surf on a Costco veggie and diesel mix at 50/50 that works out at approx £1.08 a litre, assuming veggie at 86p and diesel at £1.30 a litre.

Divide £3,720 by £1.08 and that works out at 3444.4 litres of fuel over 2 years!

Please remember these are just my rough assumptions, not taking into account a lot of other factors such as fuel price increases etc over the two years.

Feel free to blow my theory to bits (it's what I'd expect you to do)!

[That Ruddy Squirrel]

Just thought I'd throw this into the melting pot for some disscussion, naturally people will disagree and my calculations are just a base line.

Some people are considering the option of buying a second, more economical, car rather than run the Surf full time. It may not work out much more cost effective.

Decent 2nd hand diesel = £700
Tax of said vehicle = £205 per annum
Insurance = £220 (as an average)
Cost of fuel per year = £1040 (at £20 a week, again on average, it's only 4 gallon!)
MOT (pass) = £45

Total for first year = £2210

Total for second year (less the initial purchase price of £700) = £1510 (not including any tax hike or repairs).

So for two years the total comes to £3,720 on top of what it takes to keep the Surf.

If you run the Surf on a Costco veggie and diesel mix at 50/50 that works out at approx £1.08 a litre, assuming veggie at 86p and diesel at £1.30 a litre.

Divide £3,720 by £1.08 and that works out at 3444.4 litres of fuel over 2 years!

Please remember these are just my rough assumptions, not taking into account a lot of other factors such as fuel price increases etc over the two years.

Feel free to blow my theory to bits (it's what I'd expect you to do)!

Arguement #1, as fuel prices rise the savings will increase
Arguement #2, insurnace may be cheaper with a multicar policy



Trev

[Scorpion]

Thank you Trev, at least the first reply was civil.

Just waiting for Kerrsurf, Yoshie, Albannach, Apache and Mattf to come along now!

[Maverick]

I have a spreadsheet running to work out how much it's costing to run the ebay special (Escort 1.8 Petrol, not quite what I was aiming at but what I got cheap).
So far every fill up I have saved £30 (this is in relation to running the surf for the same mileage on diesel, and with the price of diesel at the time of filling the Escort).
At this rate it will take about 15 refills to break even, which works out at 41 weeks.
But I intend to put the Surf on a low mileage policy, which should be cheaper. Plus as the Surf is doing less mileage she will need less servicing.

This is from a petrol returning 34mpg, and when you put your foot down you can do something I haven't been able to do for five years, overtake!!!

[That Ruddy Squirrel]

when you look past the urine extraction on the Panda remember I pay about £35 for 350-400 miles of motoring, it's giving over 50 to the gallon

there's another option for you !!

[Tallyman]

We bought a Corsa 1.7D to replace my wife's old 1.3L Polo a year or so back. It now gets used by both of us for most long and short journeys and returns about 44mpg in normal driving and nearer 60mpg on motorway journeys. The Surf spends most of it's time sitting looking at my garage door and only gets a run out when I'm going shooting or if taking the caravan away. So picking the right second car could help save money.

[mckirdy-services]

I am considering getting a 5 year old Toyota Yaris to do my day to day driving in and therefore keep the Surf for high days and holidays

I will be doing a full break down on costs and will post on here when its done.


But I want to know is what will happen when fuel gets more expensive and its costing £80 to fill a fiat panda!

Because fuel certainly is not going to go down in price and its showing no sign of stopping rising!

[That Ruddy Squirrel]

But I want to know is what will happen when fuel gets more expensive and its costing £80 to fill a fiat panda!

I'll sleep in the office, hope the others don't snore !!!!

[bu5hwack3r]

I recently carried out the EGR mod, so let the truck get low on fuel, then filled up with diesel only, to see if I could fairly accurately gauge the mpg.

I put 50 litres of diesel in at a cost of £1.31 per litre.
Total cost £65.50 (ouch!)

I reset the odometer in the garage, and assuming its accurate I have now covered 499 km, and the gauge is back where she started. On this basis, 50 litres is 11 gallons (4.5 litres to a gallon)

499 Km is 310 miles (1km = .62 miles) gives an mpg of 28.

Therefore its costing me £5.89 to do 28 miles in the Surf. Bargain

[gwh200]

i got a little red corsa (997 cc) i put £33 in and it lasted a week.the surf was taking £60 every two days and using approx £150 a week,and up to £200 if more miles were involved.im doing the same sort of miles (eastbourne to hastings to folkestone,possibly north kent and home)
on one tank of fuel,and saving at least £120 a week,more when the high mileage days creep in,so i wont be getting rid of my surf,till i get another as at the moment,compared with the last year,taking into account purchase price,tax (£100 odd quid a year) insurance (£67) and a new air freshener (£1.99 from halfords) im saving money !!

[MattF]

Just waiting for Kerrsurf, Yoshie, Albannach, Apache and Mattf to come along now!

One wouldn't wish to disappoint.








I've bugger all to say, but just didn't want to disappoint.

[PDR]

At the moment I’m only using my thirsty petrol V6 Surf at weekends for shopping, socialising and as a shooting truck.....
During the week I’ve been using this: http://www.dahon.com/intl/musl.htm along with the train (service is quite good normally). Train fare is £4.60 as opposed to £14 if I use the Surf. Granted the bike wasn’t cheep (RRP £800), but it is super light and quick, costs virtually nothing to run and has improved my fitness levels no end and will pay for it’s self by the end of the year.......
Oh and I can tell those 4x4 hating environmental do gooders that I’m doing my bit to reduce my CO2 footprint

[Scorpion]

Just bought a new mountain bike today, (as some of you may remember I was sick at being outbid in the last few seconds on Ebay).

So hopefully I will -

A) Save money on fuel.
B) Become a lot fitter.

The thing is I will be using the Surf to get me and the bike to some of the great cycling tracks around here so it may be false economy!

Didn't want to pay silly money so bought a bike that was highly reccomended for beginners, a GT Avalanche 1.0, 2008 model with hydraulic brakes.

[hiroler]

So how much did you pay for the bike if you dont mind me asking! and do you have any pics? i`m after a decent bike but have no idea of what is good and a decent ammount to pay!! some go for thousands!!

[mckirdy-services]

So how much did you pay for the bike if you dont mind me asking! and do you have any pics? i`m after a decent bike but have no idea of what is good and a decent ammount to pay!! some go for thousands!!

Thousands!! on a bike, A PUSH BIKE, blimy! What does it do?, does it pedal for you?