cookstar

iTrader: (6)

With all the talk of the cost rising all the time, people moaning about petrol prices/insurance tax etc etc. Is this just the way it's always been. Prices go up people moan but pay it anyway.

Can you ever remember a time when you paid your tax,insurance and fuel and thought "that's actually quite good value for money"?

Dracoro

2006/7.

Thing is, as you get older, insurance gets cheaper.

Fuel and tax is getting more expensive but cars are a LOT cheaper to buy (2nd hand of course).

I won't bother quoting too many figures as you need to adjust for inflation. For example, in 1999 I bought a 1990 Golf GTi 16v for around £4k. How much is a 9 year old Golf GTi now? less probably AND I need to adjust for inflation, a £4k car in 1999 is probably a £5k car now adjusting for inflation

Running costs are rising now but total ownership cost is probably the lowest it's been for a while.

500

I sold a 1999 Golf GTI for £6300 last year

I'd say 1996/7 for me it cost me £3.50 to fill up and that lasted me about a week on my motorbike, tax was about £15 a year petrol was about 51.9 a litre

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I bought my first car age 16 for £85, when I turned 17 I took lessons which cost £5 a go (with an instructor), my car cost £134 to insure TPFT, I can't remember how much petrol was but I remember it was a struggle putting it in but a fiver would generally last a week

I was earning £32 a week at the time so no, it didn't seem cheap at all

PeteBrant

Its all relative - I don't remember it ever being "cheap"; My earnings have risen alongside everything else.

However, one thig is for sure, I would not like to be a young driver in todays climate with insurance costs etc.

PeteBrant

Blimey. How much is that in new money?

Nate

iTrader: (2)

I would say 96-98, I was running a 1993 Ford Orion 1.8 Diesel, cheap insurance, cheap on fuel (did 50-55 MPG), and the tax wasn't that bad.................. And I didn't have the overheads I have today, so possibly seemed better on the pocket because of that reason.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I'm not that old although I am old enough to have learnt old money at school

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

i remember when running my cavalier and running a 2 bedroomed bungalow was coming to less than 750 a month

WRX_Dazza

good post cookie,

i think its all relative.

insurance for example cost me 4 weeks wages in 1986 TPF&T, its "relatively" cheaper for me now.
there are just more things to spend money on now!!!

BOB.T

I got my first car about 12 years ago, it cost me 16 week's pay to insure it. My current car costs less than a week's wage to insure. Wierdly, both premiums cost £500

Paul3446

When I had my Suzuki ZR50S in 1986, I paid £10 a year for tax, about £50 for insurance, and £2 to fill up with 2 star petrol.

Oh and it did 100mpg.

So yes motoring then was pretty cheap.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

My insurance was £2100 TPFT when I was 17, (golf GTI convertible)

Shark Man

Whilst I would never say cheap; I would say justified.

50p a litre ten years ago I never considered as massively excessive. Just think, its well over twice that now; whats the rate of inflation? My salary certainly isn't twice as high. And thats before tax - which makes it even more dire.

However the cheaper fuel cost was counteracted by having a car that went wrong on a seemingly bi-monthly basis.

Insurance has finally become cheaper; My XR3 was quoted at between £1500 TPFT to "17 year old? ha ha sod off", now its about £500 fully comp for a mundane BMW, however I still pay £1600 as I have to insure several other cars as well (Jag is £150 though ).

lozgti

Sure I used to put 2* in a Talbot Samba I had about 20 years ago .

It doesn't really feel that expensive at the moment but it blooming well will next year when it costs more to pay the VED than it does to insure my flaming car

PeteBrant

Here you go...


Petrol Prices

The "petrol price constant" is the applicable one. It adjusts for inflation. So you can see in real terms, whether what we are paying per litre is more or less that any other given year.

Note that these are averages, and obviously 2008 is "ongoing".

But we already paying the highest effective price since '83 (and I suspect for some time before that) and that is assuming an average prive of 103.9.....

XRS

I was reminiscing only yesterday about the cost of petrol in the old days. I was recalling when I needed 5 star for my Lotus Europa, and you could buy 3 gallons for £1. I used to fill up my A-H Sprite for less than £2 .

By the end of 1975 I had bought myself a Mk 1 RS 2000 and was insuring it fully comp for £56. Mind you, gross pay was less than £2,000 a year

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

Well I remember sticking a tenner in my 1st car (1994) and it would actually get me some miles! Petrol was 48p a litre, so that would explain it.

David Lock

Well I started driving way before that charts starts

Petrol was 5/-9d per gallon. That was probably a greater proportion of income and cars weren't as efficient of course.

But insurance didn't seem to put such a premium on young drivers and many kids were just added to family policies for not much extra in premiums.

I did rather well 'cos I lived at home and went to college and the LEA paid my travel expenses. I drove but they wouldn't pay a mileage allowance and paid the amount it would have cost to go by public transport. This was great because it would have been about a 2 hour expensive trip with lots of changes; much more than real mileage costs. So I drove a 1963 MGB, much to the annoyance of my fellow students (and no national limits then)

Maz

iTrader: (34)

It can be cheap Cookie. Right here goes, one Perodua Nippa bought for a few hundred. Tax £110, insurance £200, service (an oil change) free. £10 petrol gets about a hundred miles. Fun to drive, cost over the year minimal.

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

1987. At 20 I paid £330 fully comp insurance on a new XR3i. I remember petrol hitting £1 a gallon in 1976. The current issue is the constant and rapid rise and the government sticking its head in the sand as it has no idea how to explain to the nation the mess its in financially.

r32

I remember my old man getting five gallons for a pound .........

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

When i started driving in 86 fuel was £1.70 a gallon IIRC...And a £5'r got you a nights entertainment.
After a short time in a 1.3 Mk2 Escort,i then bought a Mk1 with a 2.1 pinto and twin 40's..Even then fuel never seemed a problem,although £700 insurance was.,paid £900 for the car!!.

I remember fuel being under 50p a gallon when my old man had his V4 corsair..

Fuel prices are ridiculous at the moment,with no signs of getting better...I guess if we wasnt taxed heavily in every other thing we do,petrol prices wouldnt be much of an issue..


Oh....lager was 79p a pint as well !!

Paul3446

Quote:
"that is assuming an average prive of 103.9....."

95RON unleaded is already 114.9 at Tesco!

lozgti

Preferred it priced in gallons.

Sorry,off topic

r32

Me too ...........

Leslie

When Esso Golden was 25p a gallon, road fund tax was £12.50 and it was used to maintain the roads too, insurance was about £30 for comprehensive and you did not have to pay for crossing bridges except for some elderly toll bridges which cost twopence, it was a lot cheaper relatively speaking. No speedcams, only traffic cops who were often quite friendly as long as you were not a smartarse, very little traffic except sometimes on the roads to the coast at holiday time. Motoring was actually enjoyable then!

Les

ScoobyWon't

1996 was an expensive year - driving lessons, petrol, tax and the fully comp insurance a new driver pays on an XR2 made it a bit expensive....

1999 - 2003. Petrol was dirt cheap in Tenerife Oh and I didn't have to pay to fix any of the hire cars that I killed.

Sonic'

And today I have just put my Scoob back on the road after 18 months of hibernation

Maz

iTrader: (34)

Well done that man!