Ok, been thinking...

Insurance, road tax, fuel, maintenance, etc...

It's all getting ridiculously expensive. Fuel alone is costing me over £120 a month now and with the suspension going today I have a sneaking suspicion that it's gradually going to get more and more expensive as time goes by.

For not much money I can lease a smart fortwo. I've had one before and actually really liked it and now with micro hybrid drive they average something like 70+ mpg.

With leasing, maintenance and road tax is included too. Also insurance is a lot cheaper. I can also sell my car and the money would be quite useful.

Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) about leasing?

My brother in law leases cars all the time - he reckons it's very cost effective, and relatively hassle free.

Cost depends on the amount of mileage you're likely to rack up over a given period.

The costs quoted on the site were for 10,000miles a year which is already above my mileage.

Although you're paying constantly for the car it actually works out at slightly less (correcting for fuel and insurance) than my current car costs (especially this year with maintenance and stuff).

I should add that my brother in law is self employed, so he can claim back so much for fuel use/tax against his business.

I'm surprised at your fuel cost of £120 per month if you're doing less than 10k a year. Is your current car pretty thirsty?

A full tank (£57 ish) will take me about 330-340 miles.

My work is 12.5 miles away which works out at 125 miles a week commuting to and from work (on a cold engine) and then I use the car for everything else too.

It works out that I fill up about twice a month on average.

It's a toyota yaris t-sport 1.5l. It's not the most efficient/green either. The road tax this year was £166 for the year.

I worked that out - 32mpg! That's abysmal. I get better than that during my commute and it''s a similar distance. And I drive a 2.0 litre Golf GTI!

When did you last have it serviced?
Have you checked the tyres and pressures?
Might also be worth two full tanks of the good stuff (V-power) to help clear the engine out.
How heavy is your right foot?

You don't want to know my commuting mpg.

How does the lease cost compare for something like a VW Polo Bluemotion?

I only ask because of the cutesy-factor premium on Smarts.

it will be the same as my truck 5-8mpg

Thankfully more than that!

How much are you actually spending on maintenance per year?

You might have an expensive stint (I know I am with a major service coming up) but given that I paid £2500 for the car down from £3000 I gave myself £500 to play with in repairs getting it up to my standard of quality

So far I have had £150 fixing a fuel sensor and £200 fixing a blown coil pack

I know the service coming up isn't going to be cheap as it will require a new water pump among other things

Most other things (including a coil pack now I know all I need is a new spark plug and a ratchet set) are fairly minimal to fix, if not then with my £11 bluetooth OBD2 reader and Torque on my phone and google I can get most of the info I need on what needs to be fixed, unfortunately my preferred german specialist is 30 miles away but worth the trip for the quality of work and prices.

For me and the mileage I do before moving which was close to 400 miles per week it was still better for me to own my car and pay for the work needed

A 1.8T A4 with £200+ road tax is a fair bit thirstier too

I get 33mpg in my car when it's been serviced and maintained with town driving, I can't see 32mpg being right unless the yaris isnt very well maintained, regular maintenance always worked out cheaper for me than the 'don't worry about it then fix it when it's broke' system, catching a failure before other parts break is far more cost effective

Definitely worth checking tyre pressures as they do make a big difference to fuel economy, as well as handling and braking

I think the average mpg on the dial is showing about 37 or 38 at the moment. It's a 9 year old car so don't know if that would make any difference?

In terms of servicing and maintenance. It was serviced in January and I check the tyre pressures and oil level every few weeks. With the stuff that now needs fixing on it and adding that to the cost of the service/mot from January I'll have spent about £700 and that's as long as nothing else goes wrong.

If I add on insurance, fuel and road tax to that it works out that it will have cost me over £200 (close to £250) a month this year.

Looking at the site, the VW Polo is about £10-15 a month more than the Smart.

Remember that these figures are fantasy. It'll be better than your current car, but not by that much. I'd love you to prove me wrong though!

The general laws of economics always dictates that it's cheaper to own than rent. However, that's only true over a long-term average which a large company can afford to spread the odds over. For you personally, knowing there won't be any "nasty surprises" might be worth the premium you pay for letting someone else take the risk.

I hate owning cars. I choose not to if I can. Unfortunately the new tax on company cars means next year I'll be taxed more than I actually earn if I keep the damned thing - they now tax you on the value of a brand new top of the range car even if you drive a worthless wreck the stupid evil f*****¬!

Nor mine, though I suspect it's better than yours!

Mine is 11 years old There is a lot I can't do given VAGCOM with reading and clearing out codes, but even a basic OBD2 reader helps a lot in terms of identifying errors


given that those are both comparable to the leasing those wouldn't change that much, I'm at £120ish per month without the cost of service coming up, unless you are getting severely hammered on insurance something is very off in how much you are paying to get work done and the rate of it, especially for a japanese car. In the year I owned my 13 year old Accord and doing 16,000 miles roughly (considering it was essentially a rover 600 and was written off when someone went into the back of me) I spent about £400 on it, which included new handbrake + rear pads, service and a new radiator (handbrake and service done in a garage, the rest myself)

Have you looked at selling the Yaris and getting something that is cheaper to maintain like a fiesta, VAG Polo/equivalent or a civic? The civic would be more expensive to fix but if you don't get a sport/type r it's easy enough to fix yourself. VAG parts are fairly expensive but well maintained will last a long time and it's fairly easy to find a 3rd party specialist