How much do you believe car travel costs you per mile?

[A380]

I actually make money by selling the pelts of all the woodland creatures I deliberately run over in my death machine to taxidermists.

 

[Silas Loom]

Only 2% BIK for leccy cars though. Of course being electric the range isn't as good as my non-company petrol car which gets used for company business, at a 45pm per mile rebate...

Alas, the whelk stall is often forced to make that difficult choice as well. Such a shame.

 

[lazythursday]

I have never driven, but 45p per miles sounds cheaper than the train.

Well depends on the journey, but my 40 odd mile journey to work and back comes to about 30p per mile.

And would be a lot cheaper off peak.

 

[teuchter]

I am fully aware, of course, that cost is not the only factor in people's decisions, especially for journeys which for whatever reason, they consider more convenient or faster by car.

Over Christmas I was in a discussion with someone who was quoting the cost of driving (by himself) from the north of Scotland to Cambridge and back. He said it had cost him £140 in petrol. I had mentioned the cost of my return train ticket which was about £200 for a similar journey (London instead of Cambridge). That was less than he'd expected but he was saying it was still more expensive than the car. Then someone else (not me, believe it or not) questioned that, saying that to understand the real cost he should use a figure of about 50p per mile. For the 1000 mile round trip, that would make the real car cost about £500. It then looks a lot more than alternatives (which include flying as well as the train). And even if there were two people travelling together the car doesn't look to be the cheap option.

He was very resistant to the idea that he should be thinking about anything other than petrol costs though. Like his brain could not compute. £140 was what it had cost him and that was that.

 

[Spymaster]

I am fully aware, of course, that cost is not the only factor in people's decisions, especially for journeys which for whatever reason, they consider more convenient or faster by car.

Over Christmas I was in a discussion with someone who was quoting the cost of driving (by himself) from the north of Scotland to Cambridge and back. He said it had cost him £140 in petrol. I had mentioned the cost of my return train ticket which was about £200 for a similar journey (London instead of Cambridge). That was less than he'd expected but he was saying it was still more expensive than the car. Then someone else (not me, believe it or not) questioned that, saying that to understand the real cost he should use a figure of about 50p per mile. For the 1000 mile round trip, that would make the real car cost about £500. It then looks a lot more than alternatives (which include flying as well as the train). And even if there were two people travelling together the car doesn't look to be the cheap option.

He was very resistant to the idea that he should be thinking about anything other than petrol costs though. Like his brain could not compute. £140 was what it had cost him and that was that.

That would be the case if he only used the car for the Scotland/Cambridge trip, but the reality is that he has the car anyway, so he'll be paying all the other car costs regardless of whether he took the train or drove. So he's right. In actual terms the cost to him is the petrol and wear and tear on the car, versus the train fare.

 

[teuchter]

That would be the case if he only used the car for the Scotland/Cambridge trip, but the reality is that he has the car anyway, so he'll be paying all the other car costs regardless of whether he took the train or drove. So he's right. In actual terms the cost to him is the petrol and wear and tear on the car, versus the train fare.

Nope, this is the whole point of the question in this thread - the 50p figure (which you might dispute) represents the marginal cost only. So it's the cost of petrol & wear and tear. It doesn't include all the other car costs that he'd already paid before setting off.

 

[Elpenor]

If you don’t own the car then you go by train and while the journey costs you more than the petrol you pay plus wear and tear; there also isn’t a notional per diem (obviously you pay these costs monthly or annual or on an ad hoc basis, but let’s assume £5 / day) you’re paying regardless of whether the car is used

Presumably why once you own the car you feel obliged to use it as often as possible to sweat the asset

 

[kebabking]

Nah, i understand what he means.

The £150 was the discretionary spend - if he made the journey it cost him £150, and if he didn't he didn't spend £150.

There's a background spend - the costs of owning a car whether you use it or not, and the depreciation/replacement cost - tyre wear, depreciation through mileage - but they sit in different boxes, and it's not much in any case (800 mile round trip as a percentage of 20,000 mile tyre life, at £400 etc..)

 

[rubbershoes]

The fuel type and size of the engine has an effect. The latest figures I have ( in a book, not online) say that for 3+ litre petrol cars, running cost per mile is 32.7p allowing fuel at £1.40 a litre

If you're driving a 3 litre petrol car, you probably don't care about the fuel costs

 

[Leafster]

I am fully aware, of course, that cost is not the only factor in people's decisions, especially for journeys which for whatever reason, they consider more convenient or faster by car.

Over Christmas I was in a discussion with someone who was quoting the cost of driving (by himself) from the north of Scotland to Cambridge and back. He said it had cost him £140 in petrol. I had mentioned the cost of my return train ticket which was about £200 for a similar journey (London instead of Cambridge). That was less than he'd expected but he was saying it was still more expensive than the car. Then someone else (not me, believe it or not) questioned that, saying that to understand the real cost he should use a figure of about 50p per mile. For the 1000 mile round trip, that would make the real car cost about £500. It then looks a lot more than alternatives (which include flying as well as the train). And even if there were two people travelling together the car doesn't look to be the cheap option.

He was very resistant to the idea that he should be thinking about anything other than petrol costs though. Like his brain could not compute. £140 was what it had cost him and that was that.

I tend to visit my brother for Christmas. It's a round trip of about 240 miles so, on my 40p per mile estimate, that's £96. It's mostly motorway so it takes around 2 hours each way by car, door to door.

Looking up the closest railway stations, the train fare would be roughly £70 return. But, the travel time for the trains alone increase by at least an hour each way and in some cases it's nearly two hours extra each way. I can walk to the station this end reasonably easily even with luggage. At the other end, a bus journey would add another hour(ish) and add to the cost. I suppose I could get a taxi but that's pushing the cost up.

But, ultimately, I have to work Christmas Eve so usually drive down there early on Christmas Day and, trains (and most buses) do not run on Christmas Day in the UK.

Yes, the car is more expensive but it's so much quicker and I can travel on a day that's convenient to me.

Obviously, it's difficult to compare journeys between different locations as each end may or may not be close to a railway station. Also, having to catch connections along the journey can have a significant impact of travel time and hassle.

 

[moochedit]

No idea how much it costs me per mile. Never done the maths and I don't get paid expenses.

I tend to fill the tank up now when i get petrol and pay by card. My most recent were 12.40 on 2nd jan, 33.34 on 27th dec, 41.81 on 17th dec, 28.12 on 1st dec.

(Edit - of course petrol not only cost which makes it harder to work out. My tax is only about £30 a year as my 2009 car has low emisions or something like that)

My work is about 11 miles from home.

I know my last place of work i would have been an hour late to work going by public transport with at least one change of bus. I don't know about our new site (we moved recently).

 

[Looby]

I don’t think about the total cost. I’d weigh up the fuel, parking, any tolls, timings etc.

Me and my friends went to London recently. On paper it would seem easier and better to get the train and we’d have preferred that.
But both friends live miles away from the nearest station so we’d have had to pay to park there or get a cab (no convenient buses) there and back.

With fuel and congestion charge it was far cheaper and more convenient than 3 train fares plus all the other expenses. We didn’t pay for parking as friend has a blue badge.

For work I get 45p per mile for the first 10k and that’s the max you can claim. It hasn’t been increased for years and years.

My next car will be a lease. So the only thing I’ll pay outside of the monthly payment is electric. I pay nothing else.

Except as this is salary sacrifice I guess I could also consider the tax, NI, student loan and pension implications but it’s making my brain hurt so I’m not going to.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

What tooch needs to explain is why this fella was going to Cambridge in the first place. tbh the geeza sounds well dodge, if you ask me.

 

[kebabking]

There's also consequential costs.

Let's say I go up to Glasgow to see #1 at uni.

Normally, I'll book a hotel - she's got two other women living in her flat, and while I'm on the cooler, hipper end of 50yo blokes, I'm still a farting, snoring, 50yo bloke who takes a very liberal view of guest etiquette while couch surfing.

Now, if I drive up I can pick the cheapest, out-the-back-of-an-industrial-estate Travelodge/Premierinn in Govan, or Braehead, or East Kilbride or wherever - and it'll cost me £50 a night - but if I get the train up I'm either staying in city centre/west end hotels (£150+ a night) or spending a fortune on taxis over the weekend.

So yeah, sure, calculate the 'all in' cost of car travel - but let's not pretend that the 'all in' cost of train/bus is just the price of the ticket.

 

[kebabking]

What tooch needs to explain is why this fella was going to Cambridge in the first place. tbh the geeza sounds well dodge, if you ask me.

Spy. And not one of our brave fellows, risking life and limb to unmask the evil machinations of the dreadful Frog/Hun/Sov in the very belly of those foul beasts, but some dirty, underhand, sly ne'er-do-well selling his very soul to the Other Side.

Dreadful place, Cambridge.

 

[Saul Goodman]

The most important factor for me is that I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.
My mother lives ~30 miles away. If she were to fall or anything were to happen to her, I'm a phone call and half an hour away. There are no alternatives to a car in this situation, so apart from petrol, the cost per mile isn't a figure I'd even contemplate. It's just part of owning a car, and it's absolutely immaterial... to me. One trip would be worth all of the annual costs combined.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

And then with the train, a 6 hour journey needs a gram of gak to pass the time, plus a bottle of voddie to calm you down from the g, then some K to calm you down after the ching + vod, the costs of train travel just keeps spiraling.

 

[8ball]

Nope, this is the whole point of the question in this thread - the 50p figure (which you might dispute) represents the marginal cost only. So it's the cost of petrol & wear and tear. It doesn't include all the other car costs that he'd already paid before setting off.

About 20p a mile.

Assuming I’m not paying the driver, obv.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The most important factor for me is that I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.
My mother lives ~30 miles away. If she were to fall or anything were to happen to her, I'm a phone call and half an hour away. There are no alternatives to a car in this situation, so apart from petrol, the cost per mile isn't a figure I'd even contemplate. It's just part of owning a car, and it's absolutely immaterial... to me. One trip would be worth all of the annual costs combined.

30 miles / 1/2 an hour? Always had you down as a Mr Wolf type, 'Mum lives half an hour away, I'll be there in 10 mins...'

 

[moochedit]

The most important factor for me is that I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.

That's the main reason for me as well.

In many parts of the country not owning a car limits your job options (catch22 situtation as you need a job to afford a car).

 

[Saul Goodman]

And then with the train, a 6 hour journey needs a gram of gak to pass the time, plus a bottle of voddie to calm you down from the g, then some K to calm you down after the ching + vod, the costs of train travel just keep spiraling.

And you'd likely be subjected to hours of Radio 4 from leaky headphones.

30 miles / 1/2 an hour? Always had you down as a Mr Wolf type, 'Mum lives half an hour away, I'll be there in 10 mins...'

That's sitting at 2mph over the speed limit.
I don't drive like a nutter... these days.

 

[Dystopiary]

Public transport needs to be a lot more affordable and accessible, who knew? How observant, teuchter.

 

[moochedit]

I probably wouldn't own a car if i lived in london.

 

[Sasaferrato]

24p/mile for bikes is ridiculous. Bikes are far more expensive to run than that. A set of tyres lasts about 1000 miles on mine, at 300 quid a set, and I'm lucky if I get half the MPG I get in the car.
Those figures are obviously calculated by a moron.

SLOW DOWN!

 

[Looby]

My bus journey to one workplace would be 45 mins absolute minimum with one change. It’s 4 miles and at the moment the roadworks are so terrible I think it would be an hour.

The other is also one change and 1h15 minimum for 16 miles. Then when I get there I often have to do community appointments.

I’m never going to be doing my job on public transport.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Circa £600.00 pa for insurance and servicing, a tank of petrol about every month.

 

[weltweit]

It is most often just me in the car.

But if I am driving with a passenger, or two or even three others - then a car journey suddenly is converted into a very economical thing.

Try taking three others on a train journey and see the costs mount up!

 

[MickiQ]

Over the past 13 months that I have owned my current Lexus

Insurance 7p per mile

Servicing & MOT 5p per mile

Fuel 12-13p per mile

so 24-25p per mile but bear in mind that insurance and to some extent Servicing & MOT will work out cheaper per mile if I had done more than the approx 9K I did.

Your disregarding of depreciation on the capital cost of owning a car seems odd to say the least, the Audi which I replaced with this car cost me £16.5K to buy and I got £5K trading it in again the Lexus so I lost £11.5K over 7 years so about
£1500 per year or maybe 19p per mile which is more than what I spent on insurance and maintenance in those 7 years.
There's also parking a cost which I wouldn't pay if I used public transport, I have no idea how much I spent on routine parking (not a lot I suspect) but the car spent a week in long stay parking at Southampton docks which cost me £159 and three weeks in Long Stay 5 at Birmingham Airport which cost me £162 even though not a single mile was covered by the car in that time. (It's keys covered about 15000 though in the bottom of my carry on) If we had gone there on public transport we wouldn't have had to pay that but going on public transport is out of question when there's two of you lugging 2 large and 2 small suitcases with you. Especially Southampton where I imagine we would have had to change trains in London.

In answer to your question does the cost of motoring vs the cost of public transport ever fact into my decision of which one to use the answer is no not ever. To me public transport is not an alternative to owning a car but a supplement to it.
I use public tranport when it is the best choice, trains into London or Birmingham, trams into Nottingham or Sheffield and even then part of the journey is done by car. For most journeys the car is the best and often the only choice.

 

[A380]

Spy. And not one of our brave fellows, risking life and limb to unmask the evil machinations of the dreadful Frog/Hun/Sov in the very belly of those foul beasts, but some dirty, underhand, sly ne'er-do-well selling his very soul to the Other Side.

Dreadful place, Cambridge.

6 still not offered you a retirement gig then?

 

[Sasaferrato]

And you'd likely be subjected to hours of Radio 4 from leaky headphones.


That's sitting at 2mph over the speed limit.
I don't drive like a nutter... these days.

Ummmmm... your MC tyre wear suggests otherwise.