My personal cost of ownership of E320CDI

[Wilsonuk]

Hello all,

I bought an 05 plate E320cdi with 68k miles on it in November 2008 for £13k. I have since covered a further 79k (comfortable!) miles in it.

Just doing some filing and, through general curiosity, totted up my total cost of servicing the car at main Merc dealer so far to be £5,654.44.

I reckon I've probably lost £8k in depreciation - I believe someone would still probably pay £5k for it as it is in immaculate condition.

This includes MOT tests but obviously excludes tyres and fuel. Is it just me, or is that very, very economical motoring!? :bannana:

Andy

 

[NOMONEYBUTAMERC]

Its just you . Equates to about £87 a week plus fuel.

 

[Wilsonuk]

Its just you . Equates to about £87 a week plus fuel.

Or 17p per mile plus fuel, which I think is brilliant value!?

 

[NOMONEYBUTAMERC]

Lets say someone pays you £5k , for a well maintained , very tidy car.
Puts 60k miles on it over 3 years , maintains it by doing their own servicing , then sells it for £1500. THATS very very economical.

 

[Wilsonuk]

Lets say someone pays you £5k , for a well maintained , very tidy car.
Puts 60k miles on it over 3 years , maintains it by doing their own servicing , then sells it for £1500. THATS very very economical.

OK, well, yes that would also be a cheap way of doing a lot of miles. Well done if that was you.

 

[PXW]

Lets say someone pays you £5k , for a well maintained , very tidy car.
Puts 60k miles on it over 3 years , maintains it by doing their own servicing , then sells it for £1500. THATS very very economical.

Not everyone is up to/wants to do own servicing. But you do raise a valid point - the OP's already very good outcome is likely to continue to improve as the rate of depreciation falls. If he does another 60k in his own car, even assuming servicing costs run at a similar rate and it drops in value to your proposed £1500, he will be looking at nearer 16ppm plus fuel. He could probably halve the servicing costs by using an indy, which would help further.

For the style, comfort and performance he is enjoying, without even getting his hands greasy, I'd agree that this is very economical motoring.

However...it could also be that as the car heads up over 200k that something much more major than ordinary servicing needs to be done, in which case the ppm will start to rise again.

So...where does this get us? Is the life-of-ownership pence per mile number a good indicator of when to change a car?

 

[trapperjohn]

May I suggest Olly looks after your servicing hence forth.

As with any "Indie" He will be cheaper than the main dealer and will let you know if you could be heading for a big bill. Parts can "let go" at any time but the important thing Olly can give you is time and experience and conversation. 'Tis a very short distance from his brain to his spanner whereas at the dealer you have several layers of disruption before you get to the "spanner man" Chances are at the dealer you will only ever see the service reception person. To the spanner man at the MD - your car is just a time slot to be filled. Perhaps that is a little brutal on the MD's crew but I'm sure it about right.

 

[MicB]

It is economical motoring......helped enormously because you started with a used car with someone else having taken the ''hit'' on the early depreciation and because you have been doing a relatively high mileage which dilutes the fixed costs per mile.
I do very exacting annual costings including adjustment for inflation......to date my SL has been costing about £1.40/mile (purchased new and averaging about 8.5k miles/year).
On the other hand my late 735 purchased when 3yrs. old cost £0.68/mile over 217k miles at an average of 11k miles/year.
All costings include ALL COSTS including repair, maintenance, servicing, depreciation, tax, insurance and fuel corrected to current day costs.

Mic

 

[Kingy68]

Just doing some filing and, through general curiosity, totted up my total cost of servicing the car at main Merc dealer so far to be £5,654.44.

Wow! Thats a huge amount.

 

[renault12ts]

Hello all,

I bought an 05 plate E320cdi with 68k miles on it in November 2008 for £13k. I have since covered a further 79k (comfortable!) miles in it.

Just doing some filing and, through general curiosity, totted up my total cost of servicing the car at main Merc dealer so far to be £5,654.44.

I reckon I've probably lost £8k in depreciation - I believe someone would still probably pay £5k for it as it is in immaculate condition.

This includes MOT tests but obviously excludes tyres and fuel. Is it just me, or is that very, very economical motoring!? :bannana:

Andy

My three years (almost) of ownership has cost me £2210 in parts and servicing...that's not too bad.

 

[corned]

'Tis a very short distance from Olly's brain to his spanner

That has been said before...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

May I suggest Olly looks after your servicing hence forth.

But some people want the full Mercedes experience, servicing at the main dealers included. So when they do go to an independent, they expect the same treatment.

I remember someone on this forum, can't remember who, that took their car to Olly for the first time to be serviced and complained that the car didn't get valeted!

 

[DITTRICH]

That has been said before...

Thinks "picture of man with spanner stuck in his ear"

 

[renault12ts]

...just don't ring him when he's using a blow torch.

 

[corned]

That's not really the spanner I was referring to...

 

[biturbo]

my w210 e300 dt was something like 6 years motoring 4k depreciation and 2k in repairs.
so about 1k a year, and it did about 130k miles in that time. 4p a mile,the s600 i dont want to do the maths.

 

[Wilsonuk]

For the style, comfort and performance he is enjoying, without even getting his hands greasy, I'd agree that this is very economical motoring.

However...it could also be that as the car heads up over 200k that something much more major than ordinary servicing needs to be done, in which case the ppm will start to rise again.

Yeah, that's the thing I was getting at I suppose - the fact that it's a high level of style comfort and performance for the .17p per mile - you made the point better than I!

And my next worry, which I think will remain an unknown, and that is when will the bills start to outweigh the sunk cost of the capital outlay on the car!

 

[Dieselman]

my w210 e300 dt was something like 6 years motoring 4k depreciation and 2k in repairs.
so about 1k a year, and it did about 130k miles in that time. 4p a mile,

You must have bought that late in it's life. My costs are 41p per mile all in with the car devalued to zero.

Depn, 17.4p
Fuel 12.4p
Service and repairs 6.1p
Insurance 3.1p
Misc 1.8p

I'm amazed you can get that lot down to 4p per mile.

 

[Wilsonuk]

You must have bought that late in it's life. My costs are 41p per mile all in with the car devalued to zero.

Depn, 17.4p
Fuel 12.4p
Service and repairs 6.1p
Insurance 3.1p
Misc 1.8p

I'm amazed you can get that lot down to 4p per mile.

Damn it! I forgot to include the sodding insurance in my per mile calculation! Back to the drawing board! Unfortunately, it's a big factor these days as well...

 

[DITTRICH]

Insurance and VED are fixed costs and including them in the figures depends on how many miles you do. Better to show ppm for variable costs + fixed cost £££