Thirty-second cost check
Where the money goes
A typical £3,580 a year
What a car costs to run in a year
UK average, all costs included
Show the data
| Fuel | £1,400 (39%) |
| Depreciation | £1,104 (31%) |
| Insurance | £561 (16%) |
| Repairs & servicing | £273 (8%) |
| Vehicle tax | £141 (4%) |
| Parking & tolls | £44 (1%) |
| Everything else | £75 (2%) |
Free PDF owner’s manuals
Oil grade, torque figures, fuse charts, warning lamps
Ford
Fiesta, Focus, Kuga, Puma, Transit — PDF handbooks by model year, plus the SYNC guides.
Ford manuals
Jeep
Wrangler, Renegade, Compass, Cherokee — including four-wheel-drive modes and towing figures.
Jeep manuals
Volkswagen
Golf, Polo, Passat, Tiguan, Transporter — plus the DSG and AdBlue sections.
Volkswagen manualsHaynes has stopped printing workshop manuals for newer cars. How to find, search and use a PDF manual →
Marque names and logos are the property of their respective manufacturers and are used here only to identify which handbooks each site covers. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any vehicle manufacturer.
Books worth owning
A £15 book that saves £60 of labour has paid for itself
The cheapest mile is the one you don’t drive
2,000 fewer miles is £940 back
A five-mile commute, costed five ways
2,200 miles a year — the car at 47p a mile, all-in
Show the data
| Bicycle | £250 |
| Electric bike | £430 |
| Bus, monthly pass | £780 |
| Car, free parking | £1,034 |
| Train, season ticket | £1,100 |
| Car, £4-a-day parking | £1,914 |
Five free calculators
Nothing stored, nothing sent anywhere
Add up your car costs
True cost per year, per month and per mile, including depreciation.
Open CalculatorCar tax (VED)
First-year CO₂ rate, the £200 standard rate and the £440 supplement.
Open CalculatorJourney fuel cost
What a specific trip costs in fuel — and what it costs all-in.
Open CalculatorPetrol vs electric
Pence per mile at home, off-peak and public rapid prices.
Open CalculatorYour CO₂ a year
What your mileage actually emits, on the official conversion factors.
Open ZonesClean air zones & ULEZ
Only four UK zones charge cars. Which, how much, and Scotland’s different rule.
ReadThat light on your dashboard
Red means stop. Amber means book it in.
Keep it on the road for less
Servicing bills are mostly labour
Eight jobs you can do yourself
Oil, filters, wipers, bulbs, pads, battery, tyres — and the four to leave alone.
Read The testPass the MOT first time
36% fail. Lighting alone is 15.6% of failures and takes ten minutes to check.
Read BuyingUsed car checklist
The free checks that eliminate most cars before you leave the house.
ReadEvery figure here is sourced and dated at the foot of the page it appears on. Tax bands change each April and fuel moves weekly — treat ours as a starting point and put your own into the calculator.