Costs
What a car really costs per month
7 min read
Most buyers budget for fuel and insurance and are then surprised by the workshop bill. This breakdown contains every item — and shows why depreciation dwarfs everything else on a young car.
The fixed side
These items arise even if the car never moves. They are why a second car that is rarely driven often costs more than expected.
- Depreciation: purchase price minus estimated resale price, divided by the months you keep it. On a three-year-old car the biggest drop has already happened — that is the strongest argument for buying used.
- Third-party and comprehensive insurance, spread over the month.
- Vehicle tax, likewise spread monthly.
- A fixed parking space or garage where one is needed.
The running side
These items depend on distance. If you know your annual mileage you can estimate them fairly precisely.
- Fuel or electricity: consumption per hundred kilometres times annual distance times price, divided by twelve.
- Servicing to the manufacturer's schedule. The interval is in the service book; the price can be asked in a workshop — before you buy.
- Tyres: a set lasts 30,000 to 50,000 kilometres depending on how you drive. Running summer and winter means two sets and somewhere to store them.
- Wear: brakes, battery, wipers, lights. As a reserve, an amount per kilometre driven works better than a flat monthly figure.
- Inspection and whatever it flags. On older cars this is the item with the widest spread.
The reserve nobody sets aside
On a car beyond eight years old, a four-figure repair arrives sooner or later: clutch, turbocharger, air-conditioning compressor, timing chain. It does not come every year, but it comes. Setting something aside monthly turns it into an appointment rather than a crisis.
How much depends on the car. A simply built car with no air suspension, no dual-clutch gearbox and no elaborate electronics needs a smaller reserve than a highly equipped executive car of the same age — and at purchase that is often a stronger argument than the price.
What changes the sum
Three decisions affect monthly cost more than the choice between two similar models: how old the car is when you buy, how highly equipped it is, and the wheel size. A car on seventeen-inch wheels rather than twenty is noticeably cheaper over five years — and rides better on poor roads.