Well I’ve had my Coupe for 1 year now and I’ve been looking at my service records for the 11,000 miles I’ve driven. It makes for a frightening read. This is bearing in mind the car had a £2,500.00 service bill from PowerItalia the day before I bought it and it was in fine fettle, needing nothing!

Brace yourselves.........

Statutory Requirements
Vehicle Registration Tax €804.00
Road Tax €599.00
Number Plates €30.00
Fully Comp Insurance €1,150.00

Servicing
New Turbo & Fitting €1,100.00
Oil filters, air filters, spark plugs for 3 services €198.00
3 Services €400.00
1 years worth of Mobil 1 15W 50 (20 litres) €180.00
New Millers 75W 90 Gearbox Oil €42.00
1 Pro-Alloy Rad repair €280.00
Fix sticking rear calipers €55.00
Replacement Engine & Belts €1,211.25
Replacement U-Clamps for exhaust €40.00
2 sets wiper blades €40.00

Trick Bits
New Kenwood CD Player €99.99
Clear side repeaters €24.00
White LED sidelights €15.99
HID Kit €50.00
Boost Gauge (now in bin) €25.00
Osram Nightbreaker bulbs €22.00
Meta Alarm Fob Case replacement €18.00
1 RR session €60.00
Gliptone Liquid Leather Care €40.00
Barnacle Widget €180.00

Bodywork
Respray Bonnet, fix dent in drivers door and respray drivers door €550.00

That comes to €7,124.23 or Stg£6,350.76

I guesstimate that I've spent about another €2,100 on petrol based on 11,000 miles driven at a average of 29mpg's with an average petrol cost of €1.20 per litre.


Work Outstanding to be done in the coming weeks
Respray Bonnet AGAIN
Respray front bumper
Replace and Spray drivers side LE Lip
Replace Front Disks and Pads
Replace Rear Disks and Pads
Replace Handbrake cables

?????????? Perhaps €900.00 will cover that ????????

Paid this years Road Tax on Friday which was another €614.00
Just bought another 20 litres of Mobil 1 15W50 yesterday which was €180.00

The above is a good arguement to have a Coupe as a static display model only

Bargain

As they say on the L'Oreal adverts, 'because you're worth it.'

Ouch!!! That is a fierce amount of running costs Daithi!

Perhaps a dumb Question would be is it worth it?

We all spend a fair whack in up keep of our Coupes but the way I (0r Perhaps a Therapist) would look at it is; you'd only end up blowing it on junk anyway.

I know for certain if I'd bought a run-o-la-mill car I would certainly not have £000's staring at me in the Bank wishing to be spent if you know what I mean?

Fantastic commitment to a fantastic motor!!
Well done I say!!

I guess it's worth it Karlos.

I'd still prefer to have €10k in the bank though!

Still, I feel quite happy today. I just sprayed up one of my replacement LE lips for the car. Two coats of black so far and it looks pretty good for a first attempt!

May give it another coat or two yet.

Now I must get on the phone to steve at AA and order those pads and disks. I still have some loose change burning a hole in my pocket

If you dint think it was worth it you wouldnt have spent the money. You know its worth it!

Personally, I'd say that actually, no it's not worth it. Over 6k and you've still got quite a bit more to come. I can't quite believe some of your running costs! Mentalism...

I'd say that is a running cost of 3.546,25 € which includes a new engine and new turbo. Which is really bad luck + was covered by a deal with that garage, not? The other things make up for 1.235 euro which is not bad.

Trick bits and some touchup work: € 1084,98 which I think is good money for what you have done.

And all the other stuff is tax / insurance / ... which you will have to pay for ANY equivalent car.

So yes it might sound like a whole lot, but I don't think that total cost is a very fair number. I'd say for around 10.000 euro total cost you now have a very good car which will probably prove to be very reliable... but you will hate to see anything that is not 100% perfect AND will want to spend money fixing it all. So that's just the price for you passion, not?

Name another car that is as fast, as stylish, and cheaper to run? (Apart from another Fiat coupe which may have less to do)
Not possible.

Lotus Elise

That seats 4?

...and that doesn't leak ;-)

seriously though, Lotus Elise, good choice, but is a definite track/sports car as opposed to a useable road car (read safe in the wet and not bone jarringly stiff)

PS: And can you really buy an Elise for £2-6K? I think not.

sounds like you'll need a new manifold, wishbones, oil cooler and pipes, cam belt and clutch yet, its never over. still it will be worth it.