Fuel Costs
July 10th, 2008There’s lots of bad news in the press at the moment about the continued fuel cost increase. Costs today (10/07/2008) are £1.38 per Litre for Diesel, and £1.26 per Litre for Unleaded Petrol – the last time I filled up the Freelander the cost was over £70, so I thought I’d investigate some alternatives.
I normally do about 19000 miles per year, of which approximately 8000 are trips to and from work, and dog walks. That’s 35 miles per work day. 24 miles are dog-free, and 11 with the dogs.
At the moment, that’s all Freelander miles, my long term Freelander average is 39 Miles/Gallon, or more usefully 11.657 litres / 100 miles. Every 100 miles costs £16.087.
For my 8000 “essential” miles, that’s £1287
Of the small car alternatives, the best choice currently seems to be the Toyota Aygo (1.0L Petrol). It’s got more seats than the Smart ForTwo, and does better economy too. The Aygo has a stated economy of 61 Miles/Gallon – 7.452 litres / 100 miles. Every 100 miles costs £9.39. That’s quite an improvement on the Freelander. However…
Of my 8000 essential miles, 2500 are with the dogs, so the Freelander would still be needed. So in an essential use only year at todays costs, I would spend:
Freelander: £402.17
Aygo: £516.45
Total: £918.62
If I were to puchase an Aygo, and use it for weekday travel at every opportunity when I possibly could, I’d save a grand total of £368.38 per year. I doubt I could insure, tax and service the Aygo for that!
Even if I add another 10000 non-essential miles, and do them all in the Aygo, the savings over that distance in the Freelander is only £669.70. That’s a best-case saving of just over £1000 at todays costs.
So – it seems it’s currently not financially viable to spend almost £6000 on a new eco/wallet friendly car!
Now, what if 2500 of those essential miles were in a 4 Litre V8 Mustang (15MPG)… £552 extra. That doesn’t seem too bad at all 