Reduce your motoring expenses in 5 simple steps
With spiralling fuel and parking costs and tax hikes on less eco-friendly vehicles, owning and running a car has never been a more costly business. Get the lowdown on how to trim the fat from your monthly motoring outlay with our 5 handy hints.
1. A full tank that won’t break the bank
Now that petrol and diesel prices have reached a new high, it really pays to be picky about where you refuel. Obviously it doesn’t make sense to go miles out of your way to save a penny on a litre of petrol, but thanks to a slew of price comparison websites, you can easily identify the cheapest fuel available within just a short drive of your house.
Try www.petrolprices.com which allows you to compare fuel costs within a two, five or 10 mile radius of your postcode.
2. Plan your parking
The cost of parking in our cities has soared by around 40% since 2000 according to a recent survey by Direct Line insurance. One way to get good value for money is to do a little research before you travel, using your local council’s website to identify the location and rates of local authority car parks. You can then compare this information with private operators like www.ncp.co.uk and make an informed decision.
If you decide to use airport parking for either business or leisure travel, there are also lots of websites out there which allow you to compare the costs of different operators and locations. Try www.airport-parking-shop.co.uk to compare the prices on hundreds of different car parks, or consider using a local meet and greet parking service with whom you may be able to negotiate a special rate.
3. Who says tax doesn’t have to be taxing?
Pressure on the UK government to clean up their act with regards to the environment has resulted in higher road taxes for cars with greater CO2 emissions. Since May 2009, rates of annual car tax have been divided into 13 bands on a sliding scale from A (free) to M (£405 a year). This may change in April 2010 under proposals made by Gordon Brown in the last budget to significantly increase charges for cars with emissions of 225g/km or above.
The golden rule if you want to save money on your car tax is to choose a make and model with low emissions -particularly if you travel in and around London where there are plans to tie congestion charges to emissions in the future. The website www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk can give you information on the tax band of all new cars - handy if you’re considering purchasing a car in the near future.
If you’re looking at buying a second hand car, it’s worth bearing in mind that diesel models often offer lower CO2 emissions than their petrol counterparts. When you couple this with their greater fuel efficiency, shelling out a little more on a diesel model can soon seem worthwhile.
4. Cut the price of your cover
With the wealth of car insurance price comparison websites out there, it’s now easier than ever to shop around for a good car insurance quote. Many sites like www.moneysupermarket.com and www.uswitch.com are fast and simple to use too which is good news for motorists.
One straightforward way to cut the price you pay for your policy is to opt for a larger excess or to go for third-party, fire and theft cover rather than a fully comprehensive. You’ll need to weigh up the benefits of doing this carefully though as you may find yourself with a large bill to pay should something happen to your car or should you yourself cause an accident.
New drivers may be able to save money on their policy with insurers like Churchill, Direct Line and The RAC by taking the add-on driving test module the Pass Plus. Savings can often be as much as 35% although the amount will significantly reduce as the time since you took your test increases.
Maintenance
Properly maintained vehicles offer greater fuel efficiency and will ultimately last you longer, but having your car repaired, serviced and MoT’d can be a costly business.
If your car is under warranty from a dealership you may assume that you’re tied into having services and routine maintenance performed by the garage where you bought your car. This isn’t necessarily true however, as since 2003 it has been possible to go to cheaper independent garages for services and maintenance without jeopardising your warranty.
To ensure that you’re not going to run into problems, it’s always best to get your dealer to supply you with a list of approved independent garages before you go ahead and have any work done elsewhere. You’ll also need to ensure that you keep all paperwork relating to the service and maintenance history of your car for when it comes to selling on the vehicle.
With the dreaded MoT, you could try selecting a garage which offers MoTs only, and not repairs. This way you can be certain that the mechanics will offer an unbiased opinion as to the health of your vehicle, having no material incentive to discover problems which you will then have to pay them to fix.
Your local council may also run an MoT-only centre which they use for their own vehicles. As these centres don’t offer repairs you will be guaranteed an objective assessment of your car. For a list of government-run test centres in your area, please see tinyurl.com/34gr54.