How much do you put to one side for your Coop?

At the moment I need to put more to one side but I usually keep £200 per month going into a car account and spend £300 in fuel for my daily 82 mile round trip to work + weekend fun.

This money is just for maintenance not for modding!

Austin

I never really keep anything aside so to speak. Just have to have a few/lot less beers if something goes wrong (normal servicing etc excluded)


Like last year for example when the engine had to get replaced/car trailered to Motormech etc etc

Nothing specific, have a credit card (oh and no coupe)

I don't really put anything aside, but I spend about £250 a month on fuel, and if the car needs anything it gets it. It has worked out at an average of £200 a month since I have got the car. Hopefully that should drop as i get the niggles sorted. (Fingers crossed)

I don't set anything aside

I just hope for the best and cross any bridges when I come to them, although if things were unfixable and/or mega expensive, I may just find myself jumping off that bridge and making sure the Coupe came with me

I spend about £50 a month on fuel, I walk to work so only use the coupe at weekends.

Then there is about £400 a month on maintenance and mods, still loads more on the to do list, but I'm lucky that I can take the car off the road if needs be for as long as necessary. Not using it again until the 20th when it's off to motormech for a bunch of stuff!

i don't as such put money aside, i just have to find money when it needs it, i keep it serviced, but dont say its going to cost me x amount each month to keep it, having to plan to spend money on a car fixing it is a sure sign, well to me to get rid

Budget

You are joking right?

If it needs it I spend it

I would hate to do what Nigel did a few years back and sit down to work it all out.

I dont have a budget. I just hope nothing goes wrong touch wood.

get free fuel from my company....spent around a grand on my coop just in preventative maintentnace and, touch wood, nothing since..but im looking at a couple of new tyres, a strut brace and maybe a brake upgrade soon, so although i dont 'budget' for expenditure, im resigned to teh fact that if ya make a commitment to a car, ya gotta pay for its upkeep...

..like swapping wheels with me whilst both our cars are in there. Good man!

Like a few others I don't really have a budget as such. I use the Punto for work and shopping type runs, so my fuel bills for the Coupe are about £120 ish per month. If things go wrong (which generally they haven't.. well, except for it currently being in Motormech for a rebuild and stuff ) then I just raid my savings account, and the missus goes mad when she finds out the holiday money is gone

Tbh, in the last 6-9 months of ownership, i was spending around £300 a month minimum on the coupe.

On the sei im not budgeting anything.

Ross

is this all fixing problems then, or mods

because if its the first, i cant justify 300 quid a month maintance! some people pay less in child support!!!

Some months it was just repair others it was mods.

Ross

to be fair, you were running a VERY highly tuned coupe. I would expect an abnormal amount of were and tare on all the breaking, suspension and engine components on your car

Amazing amounts of money being talked about here!

Anyway In my ownership I have bought 1 set of michellin Pilot Exalto 2's which have so far lasted 40k and still have a good 4-4.5mm all round. Got a super deal at Costco at the time which meant they worked out at £65 per wheel balanced and new valve too...incl VAT!

Anyway Oil - Costco again I get the trade pack of Magnatec so 2x4.5ltrs for £19+VAT.
Filters usual annual spend is £40
Sparks £20 bi annual

Um oh and Ive had to change the pads all round once - which cost at a discounted price £60 Fronts & backs.

So in reality my coupe so far over 5 years and 60k barely £80 a year and £50 of that is Tyres....

How you lot are spending that much is beyond me... I do service it myself though so maybe saving a fair bit in labour

Oh Sorry I forgot had to fit a £25 new thermostat 3 years ago.

What I need to do now though is new discs all round which looking at A.A. is going to cost £10 each for the rears and £38 each for the fronts... so they will last a further 65k.

Apart from that maybe change the shocks as they are original and are 11-12years old.

so you have done 60k and 5 years and not changed the belts

40K on a set of tyres? On a turbo? How did you manage that? You must drive like Miss Daisy.

im going to real lucky if mine last 10k (tyres)

Mine are about a 3rd worn after 4,000 miles.

My biggest expense if fuel, its getting beyond a joke, even though I can approach 30mpg on most trips if I am careful with the right foot.

My front tyres have only lost 1mm of tread in the last 4000 miles, and that's with plenty of enthusiastic driving...

Welshbeef - your experience is one that we should refer to when people ask if Coupes are costly or unreliable. We always get to hear of big bills, but rarely get to hear of zero problems.

I still keep my spreadsheet up to date - it incudes all expenditure on tuning, servicing, repairs, but excludes fuel, insurance, tyres and general consumables (wipers, oil, screenwash, cleaning stuff etc)

I've now had the car since September 2003, so coming up for five years, in which time it has cost roughly the following:

Insurance - £3,000
Fuel (gulp!!) - £20,000
Tyres - £3,500 (approx 12 pairs)
Servicing - £2,500
Repairs (ie failed items) - £2,000
Tuning / modding - £15,000

So - total cost = approximately £46,000 to run (and seriously tune) the Coupe over the last 57 months - average cost = £807 per month

I think it depends on the make of tyres, my proxes seem to be lasting ages

Nigel - considering how far you've modded your car, £2k in failed items/repairs in 5 years is bloody good imo. If you think about it, on any car (modded or otherwise) it would only take one snapped belt or something similar to rack up a sizeable bill.

Given the performance of the Coupe I don't think it's really a monster when it comes to running costs, and generally speaking most repairs and servicing costs are reasonable if you take it to one of our trusted specialists. Even the fuel economy isn't too bad really on a standard Coupe, when you compare it with other cars of similar performance; it's just the price of the fuel itself which pushes up the cost of running it, but then again that's true of all cars.

All in I've not spent too much, I do the work myself and the parts are cheap from AA and even sometimes from Fiat!

Since November 2007 I've spent about £400 on it including wishbones, oil, thermostat and two rear T1-R's (and a few other bits).

The wichbones etc I did to straighten the steering wheel + the boots had split. Things left are respray the bonnet and front bumper, overhaul front brakes discs pads etc, and clutch as a matter of course.

IMO it doesn't cost the earth to maintain a standard Coupe, although had i paid someone for fitting the amount spent may have doubled.

I think your records are a bit flawed Nigel!

One of your rods bent, to me that is a failure! Yes you upgraded to forged rods so can understand why you have put it under tuning (I'm assuming you have??), but I think you should have a seperate section for tuning items bought because of failures!

lol - Well I have NEVER lost traction from a standing start, I see no point in racing away from the lights I use magic 3rd gear for the fun times.

I do around 15k a year a lot of which is M way hence very little wear.

Michellin Exalto 2's are exceptionally hard wearing tyres - I always buy michellin little more to buy but they really last the miles.

At the end of the day this is the best car I have ever owned really cracking car and only the Thermostat has needing replacing. The alloys all are unmarked and originals.

Annoying things have started to happen recently those being bulbs... first one indicator then the other side then the side lights then the main beam then the brake lights .... I guess its age 11-12 years.

10k!!!
Thats excessive - Either you are driving very hard/loss of traction out of junctions or you have a tracking issue, Im guessing its the former lol.

Nigel - what sort of power are you running? Mine is totally std and as much as I'd love to up the power Id prefer to keep it std less strain on parts so it should last a lot longer than highly modified examples.

With your costs excl fuel & ins thats £24k or £421pcm.

I'd estimate that over the 5 years of my ownership I have in total spent on parts/consumables less than £700.

Costs I have to face soon are new discs all round, new drivers seat, new sun visors, new screen wash bottle & pump (recently split so deosnt allow full fills), and the cambelt, new expansion tank cap & new undertray clips & bolts.
So all of the above Im guessing will be best part of £600 which will then cover 5 further years of ownership.

The resale value of the car seems very low and frankly there is nothing on the market which I would justify buying which could replace it. Boot is very adequate, std stereo very good, speed acceleration very good, MPG well I get on the commute 400miles to the tank and a best ever of 530miles... worst ever 280miles.

Lets hope your wife doesn't see this Nigel.