Having 2 daily drives - is keeping the costs down possible!?

[Theog]

Afternoon all,

Safe to say the Zed is safely parked at present with all the snow. Quite a crazy drive down here in kent at the moment. I had 10" snow yesterday. I had my car parked outside and it looked almost invisible. Nice shape though!

This is quite a broad question, but I'm thinking of buying an e92 touring for practicality and keeping the Zed for general leasure drives + trips to europe etc.

At the moment I use my Zed as my daily drive, but would like to have two cars ideally (extra space, trips to ikea etc). This obviously means double the tax, mot and service. I have been using my wife's car for ikea trips, but now it's getting a little limiting due to her working hours.

I've never insured 2 cars under my name alone, so unsure of what is ahead. Are there any tricks for insurance and the likes of?

Some may say about putting the zed on blocks during the winter, but I'm not 100% sure how good that will be for the car's longevity / issues with parts. Thoughts welcome though as I do have a spare garage space and ideally want to keep the costs down. I also have a drive to give it a good wheeling around.

I have roughly 9k miles set on insurance for the zed, but this will go down if I get another car e.g. 5k miles on e92 and say 4k on the Zed.

At the moment my costs for the Zed look roughly as follows:
- Insurance (~9k miles) is £400 a year
- tax £290 ish
- mot + service and parts ~£400 (as you know this greatly varies, but I normally put aside £1k just in case for budgets sake).

Total ~£1090. The car isn't really depreciating that much, so that's a plus for sure.

I'm guessing if I get another car you can pretty much double what is above, plus add another £300 for insurance (as I will be starting with 0 no claims for the new car). This will bring total expenditure of roughly £2480 per year.

Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks,

Theo

 

[GBZ4]

I’ve got both a E89 and a 440i M Sport but as they are both under 3 years old I don’t have to worry about the MOT or other breakdowns, for now. The insurance for both on a multi car policy with LV stands at approx £600. Each get around 5000 miles per year.

As for running costs, using one and not the other becomes the same as only having one. Yes, double you tax bill and as you can see the insurance isn’t prohibitive. 2 MOT’s is always a risk and so are repair bills but major issues on both at the same time would really be unlucky. General wear and tear can be evenly distributed between the 2 rather than placing the burden on only 1.

Go on, get another, you know you want to really :wink:

 

[jasonofbillinge]

I had 9 years no claims bonus on second car but lapsed it for 2 years and they would not re0enstate it.

My Nissan pathfinder is £400 a year to insure and I went for a 2 car policy and insurance went up to £680 I put my wife on as named driver and it came down to £600

So essentially £200 for a 2016 £20,000.00 vehicle.

Not bad value I reckon

Edit - I am LV just as GBZ4 above has posted

 

[brillomaster]

i have a z4 and a 330d. both taxed and insured, both MOT'd. Z4 gets used once a month for trackdays.

not really a lot to it in my opinion - try and go for a multicar policy with the same insurer, make sure the mileages on each are realistic, that they're social use only if applicable, and get an insurer that can mirror NCD on both cars. obviously phone around/comparethemeerkat etc.

tax - theres not a lot you can do - perhaps SORN the Zed when not being used (if there is any time when it isn't)
MOT and servicing - theres not a lot you can do - cars need MOTs every year regardless of mileages. Though one upside is tyres and brakes will last twice as long when spread across two cars, so actually you wont be spending any more here.

 

[Theog]

Ok this is starting to sound quite interesting, especially the multi-car discount for mirror NCD. I have always considered it as starting afresh, so this could be a big improvement, as it's painful to think of so much money going to insurance. If insurance stays roughly the same, give or take, then this somewhat makes it a no brainer.

Also the concept of equal distribution of wear and tear sounds quite appealing. Both car's won't be that high in value either, so depreciation is only going to be a smallish factor. It will also spread depreciation over two cars due to the smaller mileage factor.

Please keep your opinions coming as this is getting rather feasible!

 

[Paulr]

If you got a car that did 60mpg and cost about £30 a year tax, it would probably work out about the same as using the Zed that does 30mpg all the time. Insurance companies like two car policies - after all you can only drive one of them at any time.

 

[Theog]

If you got a car that did 60mpg and cost about £30 a year tax, it would probably work out about the same as using the Zed that does 30mpg all the time. Insurance companies like two car policies - after all you can only drive one of them at any time.

Nice thinking, but I'm looking to get two cars with the same type of engine, so looking at around 30mpg for both Maybe I should just commute via bicycle. Infact forget that idea, terrible concept haha.

On a side note, I have just had a quote from my current insurer, and its around the £400 mark. So that's roughly £800 for the two cars. Not great, but not too bad at the same time. So I'm still looking at around £1000 per year for the pleasure of having two cars (excluding depreciation and any major repairs).

How does that sound to most people?

 

[jasonofbillinge]

How does that sound to most people?

Given that I have to pay £500 a year road tax for the pathfinder which I only need at Easter and august to tow our caravan I may use this concept to go for 3 cars Z4 for playing out in - Pathfinder for Easter and august and SORN rest of year and 4 door family commuter for when my wife is using her car (she wont drive the pathfinder, too big, wont drive the Z4, bonnet too long )

 

[Theog]

How does that sound to most people?

Given that I have to pay £500 a year road tax for the pathfinder which I only need at Easter and august to tow our caravan I may use this concept to go for 3 cars Z4 for playing out in - Pathfinder for Easter and august and SORN rest of year and 4 door family commuter for when my wife is using her car (she wont drive the pathfinder, too big, wont drive the Z4, bonnet too long )

I don't know how comfortable I would be putting my car in storage though (just for Nov to march). I would love to hear other peoples thoughts, but something tells me that the odd move around isn't enough to keep a car prime.

 

[mmm-five]

It’s have a shitbox 2003 Alfa 147 diesel as a daily driver, after putting about 150k miles on the Z4MC.

It was only meant as a stop-gap measure whilst my insurance repairs dragged on, but I got used to it, and the fact that I don’t care if it gets dinged, scratched, written off.

Z4MC alone was £800 a year insurance (25k/year, Liverpool postcode, European cover, business use, 1 x SP30).

Both cars with Admiral Multicar are about £1000, but I save £30 a week in fuel and only have 1 inspection a year instead of 2, tyres last for 3 years instead of 1, etc. So am saving about £2k a year by using a snotter as a daily - plus it’s unlikely to get stuck in the snow on the way home on Thursday.

 

[Theog]

So am saving about £2k a year by using a snotter as a daily

That is an interesting concept for sure just based on fuel consumption alone!

That being said, I will probably be transporting people with my e92 and will be doing a fair bit of leisure driving in it's own right, so ideally I want something worth it. Otherwise I would just use my wife's Mitsubishi Colt, Snotter edition.

 

[mmm-five]

I’ve used the Alfa for trackdays (Oulton, Cadwell and the Ring).

I’ve also used it for some Z4-Forum meets, and I didn’t have a problem keeping up with the slowcoaches in front - but that may be more down to my gung-ho attitude in a disposable snotter than the cars performance.

 

[Theog]

I’ve used the Alfa for trackdays (Oulton, Cadwell and the Ring).

I’ve also used it for some Z4-Forum meets, and I didn’t have a problem keeping up with the slowcoaches in front - but that may be more down to my gung-ho attitude in a disposable snotter than the cars performance.

As they say, the fastest cars are the hire ones haha

 

[mmm-five]

I guess the maths only work if the savings of the 2nd car outweigh costs of the 1st.

If you spend a lot on a lease\PCP then it defeats the aim of saving money, and if it’s too good, you’ll end up never using the Zed.

 

[Theog]

I guess the maths only work if the savings of the 2nd car outweigh costs of the 1st.

If you spend a lot on a lease\PCP then it defeats the aim of saving money, and if it’s too good, you’ll end up never using the Zed.

I meant when you hire a car, you somewhat 'use it's full potential' as it's not yours to worry about. I'm not interested in leasing/PCP at all.

I think there is a chance of savings if the other car does 50mpg. But at the mo, I don' think that's going to happen!

 

[un1eash]

Are you after an E92 Coupe or an E91 Tourer?

The problem I had with running 2 dailys especially when my son came along was finding time to use the "weekend" car, it got to the point I did 1200 miles in 2 years. With it needing a major service, tyres, brakes etc it was time to say goodbye and I put the money from both cars to get one all rounder.

 

[buzyg]

There are loads of cheap old reliable barges out there, if you take a look. Just don't get hooked up on a Badge. I have been running my daily shed on a shoestring, along side the daily/weekend toy for twenty years. Personalty I tend to buy Asian cars. As they are mostly bullet proof, compared to any thing you can pick up made in Europe for similar money. I'll buy one for under 1k run it for 18 months. Then take it down to the scrap yard and get £150 to put some fluids in the next one. If any think major does go wrong then. It would mean an early trip to the scrap yard. But thus far they have all done at least 18 months. Presently running a Mazda6 Sport, full leather all the toys you could think of back in 2003. Cost me £800. Almost time for that one to go though.

 

[VRSteve]

I have a Z4M and a 530d touring.

I'm insured with Chris Knott, both cars are on separate policies. The Z started with no NCB and has been earning its own over the last few years. CK gave me hefty discounts so its no difference in terms of costs to having a full NCB

Both cars are taxed all the time.
Both cars are insured all the time.

MOT is what it is!

 

[pvr]

Cars are my hobby so I just don't calculate the actual costs. When you mention IKEA, you really need a third car to deal with that one :lol:

I use a new daily, an X5 for when I know I can park it safe, a Golf for the convertible feeling (and now value increasing investment) and a 911 for the summer. My wife has her own car but shares the daily as well, and we use that for during the snow now as it is a Jeep.

 

[Havard]

Unless you are doing mega mileage I can't see it ever being cheaper having more vehicles. Insurance, MOT and tax alone on a second vehicle, put a serious dent in any savings that could be made. Maintenance costs too, can be time related and not just how much you use said second vehicle.

We have 5 vehicles at home and although one is on lease through work, lately all the costs have been eye watering when you add it all up.

I think if you are doing as an economical exercise it is impossible. If you want to have the luxury of the Zed for "best", then it is worth spending the extra money to protect it. Easy for me to say, I was meant to sell my car for "best" after getting the Cayman and ended up keeping both. Got to tax the Zed tomorrow.....£535..ouch.!!

If you do go with a second car, go with A-plan or Admiral on a multicar policy as they will mirror the no claims. I have now got 14 years on all three vehicles I have insured with them and only been with them 3 years.

H.