VW POLO The Costs of ownership

Hi everyone,

I am about to say goodbye to my car, the Volkswagen Polo 9N from 2004. I did several video’s about this car, but now it is time to calculate the cost of ownership of this car.

So I decided to make a video about this to give you more insight into the calculation process.

Gas milage

So we start with the calculation of the gas milage.

First off some basic data. This data is recorded over the 56 month period of owning the car.

The data:

• Total kilometers driven, 103.000 KM
• Total amount of fuel consumed 5954 liters
• Total amount of money spent on fuel 8961 euro
• Average price for fuel 1,48 euro a liter

This is the basic data on which we can calculate monthly, yearly and overall costs of the car.

Let’s start with the monthly data based on the basic data.

• Average spending on fuel each month ; 160,- euro
• Average driven kilometers each month 1839 KM

Average consumption

And now some useful knowledge.

The average consumption of the polo over 103000 KM was 1 liter on every 17,3 kilometers.

I am very much surprised by this, better than expected.

Again calculated over a 56 month span. So we take in consideration different  driving styles, weather types, distances travelled etc.

The first 4 months of owning the car I made the most kilometers, at one point a drove about a little under a 1000 KM a month and needed to fill up the car twice a week.

But for the sake of keeping this simple we calculate the average over 56 months.

Maintenance costs

Now lets check out the maintenance costs on the car.

I do need a reliable car, so I will never let problems get out hand. I need to be able to trust my car and I will need to keep it in optimal working condition, basically it need to be safe and reliable.

What are some of the things I do when it comes to maintenance ?

I changed the oil on a yearly basis, I changed the oil filter, air filter and sometimes even the air condition filter.

After 6 months I put new 4 new tires on the car, I changed the waterpump, I cleaned the gas valve housing, i changed the fan belt, i replaced all spark plugs, I changed the battery, i changed some rubbers on the suspension,  I had the thermostat replaced.And my last repair was a broken exhaust sensor.

Sound like a whole lot right ?

Well, keep in mind that the car is 13 years old and some parts will fail on you if you like it or not.

Costs of repairs

You are curious what it all costed ?

I spend 3809 euro on repairs over a period of 56 months

That’s is an average of 68 euro in repairs on a monthly basis.

So we will add the 68 euro’s on repairs each month in order to calculate the ownership costs of the polo

Costs of ownership

We are now ready to calculate the cost of ownership for this VW polo 9N over the span of 56 months.

We start with the calculation of the depreciation

I bought the car 6500 euro back in 2012

Got back 3500 euro back in 2017 when trading it in for a new car.

So the car depreciated 3000 euro over 56 month, this results in a monthly depreciation of 53,57 euro. I am now ready to do the final calculation.

Monthly cost of the Polo.

Assurance 45 euro

Road tax 30 euro

depreciation 53,57 euro

Average costs of fuel 160 euro

Average repairs 68 euro

Month

Monthly cost of owning, driving, repairing and taking depreciation in consideration;

356,57 euro / or 406 dollars a month on average

Year

Yearly coast

4278,84 / or 4882,16 dollars a year on average

Costs over 56 months ( hold onto your seat !!!)

19967,92 euro / or 22.783 dollars

Price for each KM ( cost 56 months AND over 103.000 KM)

0,19 cent for each kilometer driven.

driving 100 KM a day, costs 19 euro.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the cost of owning a Volkswagen Polo over 56 months. As you see I did do a lot of repairs, gasoline prices are relatively high in Western-Europe, roadtax and insurance are not very expensive for this type of car.

Conclusion, driving a car is expensive, daily driving a car is even more expensive. I think you can safe the most money on a car that is already depreciated far enough. In the case of the Polo, it is a popular car here in the Netherlands, so when it comes to resale time, you get a nice amount of money back from your dealership. In the case of my Polo, I had a car with an automatic gearbox and a highline trim, the car kept its value well over the years.

The first owner bought the car in 2004 for about 19.600 euro.

So now you know that cars that depreciate hard can be picked up 10 years down the line for something 10% of the original purchasing price.

Especially big executive cars depreciate fast, small city cars are relatively popular so they hold their value better. This makes it relatively expensive to buy at first, but is beneficial when trading in the car.

Thanks for watching, if you have any questions leave them below in the comments.