Clio RS 200 - real life running costs

[MarkCup]

Picked up the 200 at the beginning of December 2011, the last fill up took me past 6,000 miles. Since I got it I've recorded every single penny spent on fuel, insurance, VED, consumables, tools, cleaning shizzle, accessories, and trackdays. Going to keep this going so will post updates as the miles pile on.

Points to note;

Depreciation is estimated based on me having a glance on Autotrader and seeing what similar age/mileage 200s to mine go for.
VED and insurance are based on a daily share of the full year cost.
All other costs are written off when incurred.

Fuel costs have not been kind, although this is skewed by the switch from 95 to 99 RON at the start of February.

Despite this, my pence per mile fuel cost has remained fairly static

Finally, all running costs together, a total of £ 3,060.55. Ouch.

That all breaks down to;

49.98 pence per mile
£ 23.91 per day

So it costs me almost £25 a day, or £175 a week for the privilege of RS ownership!

 

[RDH]

That is alot of wonga! It's the price we pay for the pleasure of owning a car we love. Would much rather pay that sort of money than drive any old generic eurobox!

 

[yellow_chris]

that works out at £9100 a year? :O that is crazy.. is it worth it in your opinion?

 

[alanc1000]

wow that is a very impressive summary! And much higher than i was expecting.

I wouldnt want to even look at mine, my last Z4 lost £10,000 in 18 months in depreciation alone.

 

[Alex5]

£25 a day is outrageously expensive

 

[Daniel]

Take away accesories, track day (and as a result of track days, tyres?) and its not that bad.

 

[Revels]

Ouch.

But then it makes you think how much some of these cars must be costing people along with finance etc. A lot of money.

I'd be annoyed (and probably selling it) if mine cost me £175 a month, let alone a week!

 

[Munson]

I just drive my cars TBH.

Impressive charts though

 

[Šįk]

Ooooooffff :dead:

 

[SuperJ]

Is that MPG correct? cos a lot of 197/200 owners seem to say getting anywhere near 40mpg is impossible, let alone going above 40mpg.

 

[MarkCup]

Take away accesories, track day (and as a result of track days, tyres?) and its not that bad.

Original tyres soaked up the trackday with no issue...the two replacements were due to a punctures.

That is alot of wonga! It's the price we pay for the pleasure of owning a car we love. Would much rather pay that sort of money than drive any old generic eurobox!

that works out at £9100 a year? :O that is crazy.. is it worth it in your opinion?

wow that is a very impressive summary! And much higher than i was expecting.

I wouldnt want to even look at mine, my last Z4 lost £10,000 in 18 months in depreciation alone.

£25 a day is outrageously expensive

Ouch.

But then it makes you think how much some of these cars must be costing people along with finance etc. A lot of money.

I'd be annoyed (and probably selling it) if mine cost me £175 a month, let alone a week!

HUGE amounts! Most people don't realise the true cost of motoring or they choose to conveniently ignore it. Ignorance is bliss LOL

These figures are for me paying £10k for a 2.5k year old car so a massive hit on depreciation was absorbed by the first owners.

Imagine what it would cost if you specced one up brand new, to say £21k or something? Christopher?!

Is that MPG correct? cos a lot of 197/200 owners seem to say getting anywhere near 40mpg is impossible, let alone going above 40mpg.

The MPG is absolutely 100% certified. This is calculated based on pump dispensed fuel volumes and mileage covered. So if what the pump says along with what the trip meter/mileometer in the car say are correct, then so is my MPG calculation.

The reason most don't see these figures are;

I have a favourable commute, 26 miles, no traffic, country A/B roads only.
The figures the car calculates for MPG are pessimistic - in my experience by 2-3 mpg (so if people actually worked it out properly they'd likely find they're getting more).
My IAM training means at times I can be obsessed by smoothness and planning to give maximum MPG - so the readings over 40 MPG are a bit OCD.

 

[JayR]

I'll be happy to see 30mpg out of my commute so 40mpg would be a massive plus!

I don't doubt your figure's though as on decent 6th gear/70mph strolls to work in the 197 I used to see 32 regularly.

Are you using standard fuel or 97+ Ron?

 

[MarkCup]

99 from Tesco. Started out on 95, switched early in February.

 

[JayR]

And for anyone asking whether the expence is worth it, it depends on what you want out of a car!

I tried a regular daily driver after many years with RS's and lasted 4 months.


For me spending that bit more (I think around £100/150 a month is what I'm realistically expecting) is worth it for an enjoyable car but then we're all different I suppose.

 

[JayR]

99 from Tesco. Started out on 95, switched early in February.

I thought it might be the better stuff!

I always run my 197 on ultima but for the last few fill ups used esso 95.

Think I lost around 4mpg so considering its only saving about £5 on a tank it's more in my interest to carry on using the better juice I think.

 

[imprezaworks]

Did you notice improvement in using the tesco fuel? Performance/mpg?

 

[KMB]

I always pop up in 200 mpg related threads:


The figures above make perfect sense to me: my car has nearly 11k miles and I've also calculated tank fill voulmes over distance, 35.1 mpg is the 11k average (the trip computer under reads by nearly 2mpg), 34-36mpg is typical on mixed driving and has seen highs of 37mpg with more motorway driving, although short journeys and town driving has seen lows of 25mpg.

Completely run since new on SUL.

 

[CrippsCorner]

f**king scary tbh! I worked out one years worth of ownership of my blobeye STI cost me about £6k... I nearly cried.

This is why I get annoyed at the girlfriend saying I need to pay half for a meal she's cooking me, and she doesn't drive and earns £500 p/m more than me... loaded b**ch lol.

 

[Daniel]

f**king scary tbh! I worked out one years worth of ownership of my blobeye STI cost me about £6k... I nearly cried.

This is why I get annoyed at the girlfriend saying I need to pay half for a meal she's cooking me, and she doesn't drive and earns £500 p/m more than me... loaded b**ch lol.

Get a new girlfriend! What a tight fisted miserable wh0re.

 

[ditz]

Get a new girlfriend! What a tight fisted miserable wh0re.

Agreed!!!!

 

[Richyy182]

hahahahaha

 

[MikeCracknell]

These figures are also eye wateringly bad: £18.87/100mi 43087 mi and £8132 GBP - total distance covered and fuel spent on my 197 up until she went on Friday!

 

[MarkCup]

Did you notice improvement in using the tesco fuel? Performance/mpg?

Definitely. You can see the overall average MPG in the graph above improves from February onwards. Also, the car does feel more responsive, certainly is much stronger below 3k rpm.

Not really picked up on the spread of fuel cost per mile before.

A slight change in my driving style saves me 25% on fuel costs alone, and that saving is available to everyone.

 

[JayR]

I don't know about you mark but I always found that saving fuel heavily depends on the type of driving you're able to do rather than how you drive in normal conditions.

My mpg gauge always took it's heaviest hit if I was stuck in stop start traffic for an hour (I don't think iv ever had another car that was as juicy in heavy traffic) rather than normal round town driving or steady driving on A and B roads.

 

[Steve]

This is why so many buy new & after a while decide to get rid once the honeymoon is over.
Then they try & sell for stupid prices until it dawns on them that 10K is max a stealer is going to offer.
If you enjoy & can afford it what difference does it matter?
Guy at work smokes 40-60 fags a day, I do lots of trackdays & enjoy holidays, who gets the most enjoyment

 

[JayR]

^Indeed!

Took me two and half hour's last night to do 25 miles and ended up getting down to 22.8 mpg. Think it guzzled a gallon and half.lol

Nay bother as they say in scotland. Rather that that than be in an every day runabout or oil burne or worst still smoking 40-60 fags a day as you say.