As an example, picking on my partners car:
€80 a week on fuel : €4000/annum
Insurance €400
Motor tax €790
NCT €55
Maintenance (this year so far and we are only a 3 months in although the tyres and pads will be the biggest cost, 2 tyres, motor oil, brake pads, lights) €600
My partner works closer than I do to home and spends €5245
Neither of us are big car users so this would be conservative compared to many and both work within a commutable distance by bike
€80 a week is a lot! i spend about a quarter of that and do about 12k a year; 16k a year is the average IIRC.
That's an average of about 5l/100km / 56mpg over 12,000km which, while possible, is unlikely.
I'd recommend people use something like fuelly religiously for a couple of months, it's always surprising! :)
that's a rough use of 'about'! i didn't mean exactly a quarter, but yeah - i think my car averages about 5.5-5.8l/100km with the driving we do. generally hovers around 10c/km in fuel costs.
most of the time, i'd fill it about once every four weeks. but then a week's holiday down in west cork would be a tank on its own.
i've often wondered how it'd affect people's attitudes to cars if they could actually see how much fuel they use. we've an odd relationship with petrol and diesel in that the vast majority of people never actually see what they're spending so much money on.
Sadbh was also on Radio1 Drivetime extolling the virtues of the car-free life
It's certainly odd to see how many people think nothing of sitting in their car with the engine running for long periods, without a thought of the cost of fuel or environmental damage arising.
when i'm in charge, petrol tanks will be transparent.
My last petrol car was a 2005 model, so I don't know if they've moved on from the rough gauge for fuel, but driving an EV with a large percentage display for the battery makes you very conscious of what you use.
Conversely, it does make you more likely to use it for short trips, because you can see it only uses a fraction to pop down the shops.
I learned conservative driving from my 99 Saab 93 that gave you l/100km. My partner drives very differently than me and there is a noticeable difference in fuel consumption dependent on who is driving
I don't know if it would work for your partner, but they'd save a fortune switching to an electric car.
How much does an electric car cost (assuming a car loan, interest included), and then how many kilometres are you driving before you break even on the cost?
i guess a potential there to save over 3k on fuel and tax costs. if the mileage (kilometerage?) was consistent, say 200km a day or less, and not requiring say 600km a day, an electric car could be a no-brainer. lots of caveats though.
One issue that we've been hit badly with in the past year has been down to the ever increasing dependency on electronics to make the car do anything. My philosophy has been to buy something a few years old, then drive it until it doesn't owe me anything. Last summer our family car, a high spec Ford S-Max from 2014, effectively went into a huff and would do nothing - wouldn't start, central locking not working, nada. We got it towed to the local Ford service center who alongside Ford themselves proceeded to mess us about for 6 months to no avail (except for the guts of €2k spent on a non-fix). Ford eventually told us that the no longer make the part (the ECU) and that our car was essentially scrap as far as they were concerned (despite similar going for €9-10k on Donedeal). We eventually got it fixed by a lad that was able to put in a 2nd hand one and reprogram it.
Anyway long story short, and this is somewhat contrary to my guestimate of depreciation above, to my eyes there is built in obsolescence by the manufacturers facilitated by the complexity. You just know the first thing to go will be the huge touchpad invariably found in the middle of the dash of modern cars. You can bet the replacement, if available at all, will come at a much inflated price. Similarly the proprietary nature of a lot of this means that it's much more difficult to drop the car round to the local garage to fix. This is something that I fear will be an issue on EVs as they pass the 10 year mark (though I do grant they're mechanically simpler).
It's something I can see regulation for standards coming in eventually. The ECU is as the end of the day a computer that talks to systems - there's no reason it can't be a generic component that costs €100. Sure, let each manufacturer stick their own software on to it, but if the hardware is generic, it avoids all the nonsense.
Anyway, I'll knock off the rant against the auto industry as I'm straying way off topic. To bring it back somewhat depreciation is much more of a factor in 2025 than it was 25 years ago - the complexity I've talked about brings much higher costs when new, and to my mind you're living on borrowed time beyond 10 years - and quite possibly less.
I don't share your optimism for regulation making vehicles more consumer friendly.
We have just brought in a new way of powering cars and the biggest end of life issue is proprietary battery replacement.
Had consumer law insisted on standardized batteries AAA, AA, B etc type batteries with rated KW/h then that issue wouldn't exist. When you battery is end of life you go to your battery specialist for replacement and recycling.
European regulators never had a problem with VW until the Californian regulators raised the fraud that VW were getting away with.
Those people don't have Joe Public as their number 1 concern
So we have numerous dogs and mini versions of ourselves, so a small car would not be suitable. My partner's other issue is that style wise it's in line with their preferences.
This puts, even in the second hand market, at the cheapest, 40k, which is 10 years of running costs. There are more insignificant costs with an e car, tyre wear, but fuel for us and our solar panels would be negligible.
Either way, fiscally is makes much more sense to not move just yet. Our next car will be electric but for now we will drive this one until it has a catastrophic failure
McDowell's article today contains this gem.
"the low hanging fruit of bus and bicycle lanes"
I must have imagined all objections and court cases against bus and bicycle lane in recent years so.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/03/26/no-european-city-would-tolerate-the-decay-and-dereliction-visible-in-dublin/
Legendary cyclist, Gene Mangan, has passed away...
https://www.meathchronicle.ie/2025/03/25/sad-news-with-death-of-cyclist-gene-mangan/
It's a great quote in fairness, something we can attribute to him in future.
When discussing a lack of progress "we shouldn't focus on the low-hanging fruit" says McDowell. I'm going to go around the office quoting him today.
What is this sorcery of a seat that goes up or down at touch of a button? making it easier on slopes
Heard on BBC podcast https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028tzr
Haven't listened but hydraulic seat posts are very common on decent mountain bikes.
Says the guy who is objecting to MetroLink and now wants Luas lines, but when Luas was planned, he wanted a metro.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/mar/31/women-put-off-cycling-by-safety-fears-and-intimidating-drivers-study
…
..
https://www.thejournal.ie/woman-hit-cyclist-after-drinking-vodka-in-car-banned-five-years-6665307-Apr2025/
Doesn't sound like she has tried to overcome the problem of alcohol addiction but 5 years is a reasonable punishment compared to some of the punishments given by our judges.
had been drinking vodka from a 7Up bottle in her car
Quite the choice of photo on that article
Just to come back to this, never seen it in Dublin, but happens down here all the time, driver leaves the car running while they run into the shops. I sort of understood it back when cars might have issues starting, fuel was not as expensive and very few really thought much about the environment but with modern cars, it is bizarre.
As someone from a family of alcoholics, I know that many will read this and because of her contrition, respectable job, etc won't pass judgement like they might on some others. She is unlikely to drive as she is on a good PT network but don't be mistaken, if she were out in the country, she would be driving home from the courthouse.
I just can't have any pity for her, and I have the same attitude to members of my own family, she chose to get behind the wheel, she had drink on board, she should have faced worse but I suppose it is an improvement considering some judges have not even given any punishment to people who have killed pedestrians/cyclists, so it is an improvement at least.
I think we're talking about two slightly different scenarios - attended and unattended vehicles. I'm talking about attended vehicles, where the driver is sitting outside the shop, or the doctors, or the football training or similar with their engine running for the duration, without a thought given to the damage they are doing to others around them and to the environment in general and to their pocket.
Not really, I see that as well, parents waiting for their kids at a game, school, birthday party, engine ticking over. Same thing, the car ticking over for no reason. I actually would have thought unattended vehicles would be a worse scenario. Aside from the environment, you are literally leaving you vehicle with keys, advertising it, and saying, go on, take it. Just blows my mind.
I've seen a few courier vans left open, engine running, while the driver does a delivery.
Such quality care for our packages! No surprise that this happens:
A bad apple is a bad apple.
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