The true running costs of an S3

[comdw]

I'm been considering whether to keep my S3 of late and being the geek that I am, I thought I'd work out what its cost me to own so far. This is relatively easy for me as all my spending goes into my MS Money file.

I thought others may be interested in this, but obviously the figures will vary wildly depending on when you bought your car, how long you've had it, where you get it serviced and how many miles per year that you do.

I bought my year 2000 S3 on 13th August 2003 for the staggering sum of £15,500 with 53k miles on the clock. Today it has 87k miles on it and I figure it to be worth around £7,500.

That makes depreciation £8,000 or £145.45 per month or 24p per mile. Average yearly depreciation is therefore 14.6%

I've added up all my maintenance, parts, tax and insurance costs since I've owned the car giving to a total of £6,002. Note I don't get my car serviced at Audi and not that much has gone wrong with the car since I had it (air-con last year being the one exception - £600!).

So running costs I make as £109.13 per month or 18p per mile.

Finally, petrol costs. I've spent £5,266 on petrol for this car.

Fuel costs - £95.75 per month or 15p per mile.

So in total: £19,268 over 55 months. £350.33 per month or 57p per mile!

Quite depressing. I can only hope I might lower this further by keeping the car a couple more years (the depreciation should slow down), though I know I have tyres and some major servicing items coming up later this year - eek!

Still, guess I wouldn't have bought an S3 in the first place if I wanted something cheap to run.

Hopefully the costs are worth it for the quality and performance of the S3. What do you think?

 

[DaveMK^]

I think you have too much time on your hands to be working stuff like that out!

 

[S3 Rav]

took the words right out of my mouth!!

 

[S3 Rav]

interesting though!

 

[comdw]

Yeh i guessed most people would think that, but it really doesn't take more than about 20 minutes if you already have all the figures to hand.

 

[Jacko4130]

I was shocked after owning mine for a few weeks on how much fuel it eats when you have a heavy right foot, but on the other hand its a nice motor and if i was that bothered about fuel costs i would buy a oil burner!!

 

[comdw]

I was shocked after owning mine for a few weeks on how much fuel it eats when you have a heavy right foot, but on the other hand its a nice motor and if i was that bothered about fuel costs i would buy a oil burner!!

And yet as you can see the fuel costs are the smaller part of the overall. If I did more miles the depreciation and running costs per mile would decrease, and fuel costs would be more significant.

 

[[Dave B]]

Think yourself lucky its not a 2003 car, otherwise there'd be an extra butt raping from the tax man!!

 

[Nilz]

Wow thats clever!!! (That wasnt sarcasm by the way)

But on a serious note, at the end of the day, everyone knows that buying a high performance car is going to cost you, whichever way you look at it, its just like in the old days people used to say if you buying a porsche/ferrari etc, you aint worried about fuel/insurance running costs etc....

 

[mattm]

Your fuel costs are quite low. Do you not do many miles?

 

[comdw]

Your fuel costs are quite low. Do you not do many miles?

Not a huge amount (you can work it out from the details - average 7,500 per year). Another reason not to buy this type of car maybe...

The following info from the AA puts it into perspective a bit

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/index.html

At 7,500 miles a year you're looking at least 36p a mile for the cheapest car (assuming bought new or nearly new).

 

[golf]

If I bothered to calculate how much I spent on running my R32, I would top myself.

 

[doug mk2]

I think you have too much time on your hands to be working stuff like that out!

******* LOL - I was going to post the exact same reply as you!!

 

[Bong Water]

My 180BHP A4 costs around £100 in fuel and my commute is only 14 mile round trip, hmmmm

 

[god_thats_quick]

I'm scared to play this game... in the last 4 and a bit years 90,000 miles @ 26mpg, £14,000 on the car, £7,000 on a new engine, I think that would be pretty scary on it's own and that's without any normal maintanance which I reckon is over £2,000 a year and then there's tax and insurance as well which is probably over £4,000 for the last 4 years.

Oh yes and I'm about to spend a load more on it. lol

 

[mattyboy199]

i dont think the S3 is cheap to run at all i recon that for just running (as in keeping on the road) tax, insurance, service, mot, wear & tear your looking at around £2000 a year thats without the cost of the car or fuel.

fuel by taking a guess £1500 per year

 

[EssVier]

I spend most of my money on cars, booze, women and waste the rest!

 

[S3Steve]

I spend most of my money on cars, booze, women and waste the rest!

:icon_thumright:

 

[Dave_Bayern]

I do things like that, work out the costings and keep an MS Money file

My A3 has cost me on average 70GBP a maintainance costs month last year, not including tax, insurance, fuel and depreciation.

Madness isnt it.

 

[Clach]

An excellent post, well done. But, the smile it puts on your face is priceless..lol

 

[TheSpaceCowboy]

I think the price of keeping any car nowadays is gonna be about the same, flooding of the car market in recent years has caused alot of depreciation but I think you'll find most cars are the same, my uncle bought a brand new Vauxhall Astra and lost about £4k on it already and he's only had it about 8 months or so.

 

[jojo]

The only thing I worry about my S3 with regards to running costs these days is mpg, I never thought about things like depreciation and servicing when I brought mine, as all I wanted was 200BHP+ at the time of purchasing, which was something like £21.5 IIRC
I mean whatever car you own - roadtax, insurance and servicing is a definite in terms of running a car, which I think the S3 is pretty reasonable in my opinion.

 

[mattosmond]

any car with the same performance is going to cost - and to think audis are reliable! imagine if you were runnig an impreza????

 

[Dave B]

Dont forget you will now be raped if you own a later S3 adding 200 to your tax costs:sign_unfair: it would be cheaper to take class A drugs soon than enjoy a car!

 

[james0808]

I spend most of my money on cars, booze, women and waste the rest!

Didnt George Best say that?

 

[S£]

My friend is currently selling his vectra 2.2 sri wants something a bit more fun to drive to work in ( 80 mile round trip 5 days a week! ) so what does he buy??..... a TDI and chip it....No a Galant VR4! hope he gets shares in Shell, 2.5 twin turbo... must be good for about 20 to the gallon! wonder what his running cost's will be?!!...

 

[S3-ROB]

When i had my S3 it cost me £1900 a year before i'd even done a mile.

£500 insurance, £200 road tax, loan at £103 a month so say £1200 a year, so £1900 before the car even moves, then approx £120 a month fuel, £300-400 maintenance, £500 depreciation.

Thats why the car is now sold

 

[steve1975l]

I would say more than £500/yr in depreciation.

 

[Sussex Lad]

I'm been considering whether to keep my S3 of late and being the geek that I am, I thought I'd work out what its cost me to own so far. This is relatively easy for me as all my spending goes into my MS Money file.

I thought others may be interested in this, but obviously the figures will vary wildly depending on when you bought your car, how long you've had it, where you get it serviced and how many miles per year that you do.

I bought my year 2000 S3 on 13th August 2003 for the staggering sum of £15,500 with 53k miles on the clock. Today it has 87k miles on it and I figure it to be worth around £7,500.

That makes depreciation £8,000 or £145.45 per month or 24p per mile. Average yearly depreciation is therefore 14.6%

I've added up all my maintenance, parts, tax and insurance costs since I've owned the car giving to a total of £6,002. Note I don't get my car serviced at Audi and not that much has gone wrong with the car since I had it (air-con last year being the one exception - £600!).

So running costs I make as £109.13 per month or 18p per mile.

Finally, petrol costs. I've spent £5,266 on petrol for this car.

Fuel costs - £95.75 per month or 15p per mile.

So in total: £19,268 over 55 months. £350.33 per month or 57p per mile!

Quite depressing. I can only hope I might lower this further by keeping the car a couple more years (the depreciation should slow down), though I know I have tyres and some major servicing items coming up later this year - eek!

Still, guess I wouldn't have bought an S3 in the first place if I wanted something cheap to run.

Hopefully the costs are worth it for the quality and performance of the S3. What do you think?

Life the Universe and everything the answer has to be 42!