Car in St. Andrews ... cost?

[Eenuus]

Hey,
I'm wanting to bring a car into St. Andrews next year for various reasons. I'm not based on the mainland (so potentially would purchase one here) and I was wondering how much on average it would cost (per year/month/week, any) with petrol/tax/MOT and how much insurance for a 24 year old would be? I'll be 25 in october, so if it's cheaper then I might wait ... but just judging how much now so I can prepare for it this summer .

Thanks for anyone who answers,
x

[jollytiddlywink]

I don't know how much MOT or insurance will be, but a lot of the price will be determined by how much you spend on the car in the first place. The more it costs, the more insurance will be, but a newer and pricier car might mean less repairs.

As for petrol, I'd reckon on it being 20p a mile. Years ago, the AU paid out 10p a mile for fuel, and even when petrol was a pound a litre, that was wildly inadequate. These days, I think you should calculate on a drive costing 20p a mile.

And don't plan on finding anywhere to park in the centre of town.

[ajg75]

Petrol is about £1.30 and Diesel is about £1.40 at the moment, give or take a few pence either way.

MOT's are generally around £50, provided your car passes with no repairs necessary, which rarely happens. If it fails it's MOT those issues will have to be fixed and then the car will have to have another MOT. Although if the repairs occur at the same garage as the MOT they tend not to charge for the re-test as all they have to do is fill in another form. My MOTs have tended to range from £100 - £350.

Info on car tax can be found here, my is too old to conform to the emissions price range so I'm stuck with paying £130 a year in the old system.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Ow ... G_10012524

For insurance you can just whack you details into on of the many comparison websites as advocated by the annoying Meerkats or the hateful fat stereotypical Italian man. Mine did decrease by quite a bit this year when I turned 25 but was offset by the decision to protect my 5yrs no claims bonus. I also found out that if I was of the fairer sex my insurance dropped by another £80 or so. Last year the cheapest I could find was £330. I should mention that I do have 3 points from 2007 but they made little to no difference to my insurance.

All in all it costs me about £600 a year for the car, before I even start to put petrol into it. I don't use it too much up here but I do enjoy being able to get out of St Andrews whenever I want to without being reliant on public transport.
Other people may have different ideas of figures but this seems about right based on my experience: male, 25, 5yrs NCB, 14yr old Nissan Micra 998cc (not even a litre! ) Hope it helps.