Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi!


We?re thinking of buying a car as I?ll be attending university next year (quite far from here) and I thought it would be easier and cheaper to drive there. But I have no idea how much a car can cost (monthly)... Could anyone give me a rough idea? How much do you think I would spend per month in car insurances or other similar costs? I?ve tried to check car insurance costs online but they ask me all sorts of details (even the car details, which I don?t have yet!), so I?d rather not give them any information... Could anyone help me?


Thanks!

Insurance depends on how big your car engine is, how old you are and how many years' no claims bonus you have, so it's a little hard to say what you should pay without further details.


You need to factor in Road Tax, MOT, Breakdown Service, petrol, oil, annual service plus possibly a six month oil change depending on age of car, and an emergency fund to replace parts (eg, I've just had to replace my exhaust). Also if you will be driving in central London, there's the dreaded Congestion Charge.


Don't buy a car approaching 80,000 miles, that's when everything starts to go. Either buy well before or well after when major things would already have been replaced.

My brother gave me his old car for free. its a 1996 renault clio.

I pay ?400 insurance p/a i have never had my own insurance before, it was reduced by adding another driver and fully comp was cheaper than 3rd party for a crap old car. I am with elephant.

?9 for AA a month

?120 tax i think pa

?10 a month petrol, but i dont go far.

?50 MOT? i think

?200 repairs following MOT, for worn brakepads etc.

Hope this helps!

Sazzle's summary sounds good, my car is almost as ancient, and insurance/tax/mot/servicing works out at around ?1000 a year. Depreciation obviously not a concern for me. If you're going to be doing significant mileage, petrol will be your largest expense (~15p a mile?)
Having a car will be easier but a lot depends on how often you come home. If you stick to just going up there begining of term and coming back end of term then it would not be worth it. If you did have a car you would use it more than that though-it might be a good way of making friends- or being taken advantage of! I would have thought you would be in a minority having a car, and if you plan your journeys home by train in advance it is quite cheap - or going Natioanl Express Coach is even cheaper.

Great point. When I was commuting to Leicester for my MA I would buy coach tickets in advance and they were mighty cheap. MegaBus has great offers, too. But that was before MegasBus started.

And cars over a certain age don't require road tax I think. Mine you then they're more expensive to fix?

Hybrids mean you don't have to pay congestion charge (which is absolutely ridiculous of course!)

lorenika Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi!

I?ve tried to check car insurance costs online but

> they ask me all sorts of details (even the car

> details, which I don?t have yet!), so I?d rather

> not give them any information... Could anyone help

> me?

>

> Thanks!


Use these sites to get an idea of how much insurance will be for different cars, make the car up. You'll see a big difference in insurance costs and, as I'm guessing you're looking at cheapish cars, this could be a significant part of the overall spend. Better to know what you can afford to insure before you start actually looking at cars.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Why is the name a big of a red flag? Blighty is a common name for the UK whatever people might think.
    • The only election which counts is the General Election.  There is still strong resentment for fourteen year's of Conservative rule. They squeezed the working class's way to hard, then they squeezed the middle class, but somehow the upper class never got touched, funny that.   There is also new resentment for Labour because of the utter balls up they've made of things since coming to power nine months ago. The majority of the population (or at least those with an ounce of common sense) want these clowns out of office ASAP because they see the damage they are doing to UK plc. They squeezed the pensioners, then the farmers and then business. They made and broke promise after promise, or just didn't tell the truth or say what they where going to do, otherwise known as merely lying to get elected. Inflation may be falling but the cost of things in the shops and utility bills keep on rising, the direct opposite of what they promised. They will never be trusted once they are ousted from power in about four and a half years time.   Everything they do and touch causes further harm, led by three stooges, Rayner, Reeves and balls'less Starmer, who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. He still thinks he's a solicitor at the DPP. Rather than spending week upon week getting involved in international politics he needs to be sorting out the UK's issues, sadly he's not up to the job and nor are his Cabinet.  Society needs a mix of people with different skills to prosper, not more and more graduates who can't get jobs in what they studied in.   Reform is the current anti establishment party, which will hopefully wither away back to where it came from.  The Liberals and Greens, well what can you say apart from using them as another alternative vote of dissatisfaction, but neither will come to power.  The country seriously needs stability and a Government that stands up for and represents it's people, not what MP's want but what the constituencies want and need.  Government needs to become far more open and transparent, it needs to be seen to be doing its job, doing what MP's are elected to do,  working for the people in the constituencies, getting back to basic principles and rebuilding the trust which has been lost by successive party's immaterial of them being, red, blue, light blue, yellow, green or some other colour.     
    • That’s very insulting! You are basically calling 17 million people that voted to leave the EU ‘thick’.        Brexit happened Sue.  Boring graphs!  Calling Nigel Farage a plastic patriot is also very insulting seeing as he and the Reform Party have had a landslide victory all over England.
    • These charity collectors are often classed as chuggers.  It can be scandalous that the charity/admin may keep a huge percentage of your donations and a tiny percentage is  actually given to the charity.   I can not speak for individual collectors - but it common practice.  
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...