Worried that your little runaround will break the bank? Here are 10 ways to reduce the cost of motoring:
1 Shop around before you buy a new car. Thanks to the rise of car supermarkets and inter net sites, there are wide variations in the cost of new cars. If you know the model you are interested in, you can compare prices online at www.autoebid.com. For example, you could save £2,200 off the £24,800 list price of a Subaru Impreza, a discount of nine per cent.
Car supermarkets often offer extremely competitive deals if you are prepared to be flexible about the colour of your chosen vehicle. You can inquire in advance whether models are in stock by using their websites. Try Motorpoint's website at www.motorpoint.co.uk or www.virgincars.com
2 Choose a petrol station with the cheapest fuel prices. The AA has a useful database of garages with cheap fuel, which is regularly updated. To use www.aapetrolbusters.com you need to register and log in and you will then be able to search for the most competitively priced petrol and diesel within your postcode area. You could save £5 a week if you fill up a 60-litre tank, making an average saving of £130 over six months or £260 a year.
3 Sort out your budget and car finance in advance. It's easy to get carried away when you are at a showroom and either spend more than you planned, or take up the loan terms without paying too much attention to the small-print. In fact, you can usually get a much better deal if you arrange a loan yourself. The best personal loan is currently 5.9 per cent from Liverpool Victoria, which would cost you £151 a month to repay £5,000 over three years. Doing it this way will save you the £150 arrangement fee that a showroom might normally charge you for setting up the loan. More information on personal loans from Moneyfacts (www.moneyfacts.co.uk).
4 Pay your parking fines promptly. A £30 ticket becomes £45 if you don't respond within a month and what's more you'll end up with a county court judgement against your name, which could affect your credit rating.
5 Limit the number of drivers on your insurance policy. Young adults or inexperienced drivers will push up your premium costs, so it is worth having as few named drivers as possible on your policy. If you can keep your car off the road, on a driveway or in a garage, that will significantly reduce the costs as well. Or you could brush up on your driving skills by taking a course in advanced motoring. 'We give a 30 per cent discount to drivers with the Pass Plus qualification,' says Emma Holyer of Direct Line. That's £120 off the average premium of £400 for a 35-year-old man.
6 Take care when you buy second-hand. Whether you are browsing at a garage or buying privately, there are ways of ensuring that you don't end up with a lemon. The RAC offers an inspection service at registered dealers: www.rac.co.uk/carbuying/rac_inspected_dealers/
7 Think about how much driving you are likely to do in Europe when you are shopping around for you new motor insurance policy. Many cut-price insurance policies add £25 or more for a fortnight's trip across the Channel. You may find a slightly more expensive policy will include continental insurance and will work out cheaper in the long run if you take several holidays a year.
8 Consider depreciation when you are thinking about the make and model of a new car. Depreciation in the value of the car and the cost of fuel can account for 60 per cent of overall of motoring costs. 'A BMW 7 series is the most expensive car to run at £322 a week; a Toyota Yaris is the cheapest at £63,' says RAC Financial Services managing director Jason Richards. Over a year, that's a difference of more than £12,000.
9 Shop around for breakdown cover. For example, the AA will knock £25 off its £243 comprehensive family policy if you pay by direct debit at www.theaa.com.
10 Don't forget to maintain your vehicle properly. Regular servicing, and checking oil and water levels are simple measures you can take to prevent major problems developing. Run your air conditioning system occasionally over the winter: leaving it to seize up could land you with a £2,000 bill in the spring.
'Running a car costs the same as in 1979'
Motorists may be feeling sore at the rising cost of petrol but most will be unaware that the bill for running a car has changed little in 25 years, relative to income.
According to the Automobile Association, running a new £10,000 car for 10,000 miles a year will cost the consumer 33p a mile, or about £1,900. The RAC Foundation says, however, that lower-income households spend nearly a quarter of their money on running a car.
The Department for Transport says the cost of motoring is set to fall by 20 per cent in real terms over the next 10 years, due to better fuel efficiency and competition in the new car market.
The cost of fuel, maintenance, insurance and road tax are, of course, only part of the story. Professor David Begg, who chairs the Commission for Integrated Transport, says: 'The question is far more fundamental than the cost of motoring - it's really what sort of society do we want. The lower the cost of motoring relative to our income, the greater the impact on community life.'
Cheaper motoring results in more cars. Two million new ones are now being registered each year and, even if they are more fuel efficient, it still means more pollution. Chief medical officer Liam Donaldson points out the link between our car-dependent, sedentary lifestyles and obesity. In spite of considerable investment, since 1997 the cost of bus travel has risen by 8 per cent and rail travel by 3 per cent.
So what to do? Steve Hounsham from the pressure group Transport 2000 says we must make choices starker: 'We need to make the cost of motoring more expensive relative to public transport.'
Clubbing could be fashionable pursuit for British motorist
The British have a blind spot when it comes to motoring - and it's got nothing to do with the rear-view mirror.
Ask a driver the true cost of running their car - after tax, insurance, MOT and depreciation are accounted for - and it's likely that they won't have a clue.
And ask them to give up their motor and join a car pool, and you'd be in for a lecture on the necessity of individual car ownership... even though the average person spends just an hour a day travelling by car.
So it's no surprise that car club schemes, popular elsewhere in Europe (notably in Switzerland and Germany) have been slow to take off in Britain - despite the cost benefits and associated advantages to the environ ment and local community. The idea is simple: members book a car over the phone or internet, walk to a parking bay, and pick it up using a hi-tech smart-card. They pay only for the time and distance travelled, with all the fixed costs - including insurance, tax and maintenance - met by the operator of the pool. Some London schemes allow users to share congestion charges.
According to Carplus, a British charity set up to promote and support car clubs, there are now 25 car clubs in the country (there were only five in 1999), about half of them run by not-for-profit community organisations, and the rest by commercial operators. With a total of 100 cars shared by 1,165 members, the clubs typically charge a one-off joining fee of £25 plus a membership fee of £10 a month, and then £2-3 per hour booked and 15-20p per mile travelled.
Established car clubs elsewhere in Europe are testament to the environmental benefits. In Switzerland - which has 50,000 car club members, more than any other country - government statistics show that members who had given up their cars reduced their miles driven by 72 per cent. On average (including those who didn't formerly own a car), members drove 55 per cent less. Other studies have shown that one shared car replaces six privately owned cars.
Car clubs can help reduce people's dependence on cars, says Tony Bosworth, transport campaigner at Friends of the Earth: 'If you don't have a car outside your house all the time, then you will think more about using public transport, cycling or walking. But you can still have access to a car if you really need one.'
Streetcar, a new commercial car club based in south London, estimates it will save 800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in its first year of operation. Launched last month, it has eight VW Golfs in four locations shared by 60 members.
'We aim to provide a car in all of the circumstances that people might use one normally. It's car ownership in bite-sized pieces,' says Andrew Valentine, co-founder of Streetcar. 'We're aiming to have our service rolled out across London in the next two years, and we're also looking at other cities and suburbs, and at franchising out the scheme.'
The needs of car club users vary, and are by their nature tailored to the local community. They are found in urban and rural areas; some are run by employers or based at trendy housing developments. They are aimed at people who'd like a car for cheap occasional use, or at two-car families looking to get rid of one of their motors.
Oh, and car clubs allow people to get their fix of Scandinavian style: 'I happen to know that there are three of our cars in the Ikea car-park right now,' says Valentine. 'I've commiserated with them...'
