Puma Expenses

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MikeT66

Member
Joined
May 4, 2016
Messages
194
Location
Manchester
I've just had the car in for it's latest Service and MOT - two bad oil leaks (Rocker Seal and Selector Shaft Seal) and the whole Handbrake mechanism renewed, and a pretty hefty bill followed.

So, it's a Bank Holiday weekend and Mrs.T66 is away with friends. I thought I'd do something useful and tidy up my Puma folder, which includes all my invoices, Log Book, MOT certificates, etc. and add my latest bill to my new Ford-blue file.

Just out of interest I thought I'd tally up my costs (minus fuel) from my car since I bought it in May 2013... so 4 years.

Final total - which doesn't take into account the £2000 I spent on bodywork, is...

... £4213.96! :eek:

Wow - I knew I'd had everything that was ever needed on the car sorted as soon as I could (99% by Ford, the remainder from a few bits like Windscreen Wipers from Halfrods, etc), but never really thought it would amount to that much.

Anyone else looked into the history of their cars and costs? I wish I'd taken a Brave Pill before doing mine! :grin:

While I was sat in the Ford dealership waiting to collect my car one of the technicians came out.
Him: Is that your Puma, then?
Me: Err, yes, why?
Him: It always gets a lot of attention when it comes in - we don't see any others. A couple of the guys here think you're mad to be spending as much money on a car as old as that.
Me: Oh... er, well, that's honest. (not knowing how to take the comment)
Him: However, everyone else in the workshop is waiting to buy your car off you!
 
Oh dear lord. Don't ever do that! :p

My black Puma is well over £15k over the 14 years I've had it, the FRP? We don't talk about that. Let's just say it's significant!!!
 
Had mine for 4 years exactly before I sold it in 2012 - Sheesh!! can't believe I sold it that long ago :-(

Anyway - I paid £1400 for it in Oct 2008
Spent;-
£2,662.40p on parts/fitting (where applicable, mostly me & mates fitted)
£5,017.49p on fuel
£897.50p on tax & mot
£1668.85p on Insurance (More due to having 2nd car in last year which meant I swapped NCB so paid double for Puma :evil: )
£765 on nitrous kit
£338 on nitrous gas

Sold car for bargain of century at £500 in Oct 2012
Nitrous kit went with car for extra £250
Received £7,140 expenses for business mileage in Puma

Meaning the car cost me £4859.24p net for the 37,646 miles completed.

Summary:- 12.9p for every wonderful mile I drove in it.

Wish I'd still kept it :cry:

Last photo on day it went to new owner....

Puma271012.jpg
 
Just went through my paperwork (while the wife is out, needless to say!) and since I bought my Puma i've spent £3,386.93 not including petrol tax or insurance.

Or - £1936.93 excluding purchase price, which in my head doesn't sound *too* bad in 3 years for an 18 year old car, I suppose :eek:k: fingers crossed for next MOT

The day she clicked over 50k a few weeks ago:


 
Must be love, not spent anywhere near that in 2 and bit years on mine, and majority has been tyres and oil. Had belt, water pump etc done, but majority I do myself and have broken s few Pumas to fund. Biggest cost by far is tyres as set of T1R's which were awful, so then went firestone, then PS3's and now Rain Sport 3 and semi slicks for trackdays.

Net spending (paid out-money made in breaking) excluding tyres/tax/insurance on Pumas is sub 500 quid
 
Cost of car £550
Timing belt etc £300
Tyres £200
Bearings, brake shoes/pipes, fuel filter any various other odds and sods around £ 300

But biggest saving of course is not putting it in the garage and paying the hefty labour charges so doubt if I have spent more than £1000 since buying her.
Of course in my case having her off the road for 4 years saved a lot :grin:
 
I suppose 'running costs' is always something that will raise it's head. I used to look through the various classic car magazine adverts for Aston Martins that had £100,000s work done and were seling for a fraction of that, or MG BGT's with £10,000-worth of 'bills' that were going for £5,000 and think to myself "what clown would do that?" Maybe I'm now one of those 'clowns'!

My last car was a great little KA. It needed loads of work (mainly chassis/rust-related) to get it straight for a few more years. I was chatting to a petrol-head friend at work and mentioned about getting the KA sorted. He listened carefully, then said "Mike, you know what you will have once you've spent a few thousand pounds on that KA?" "No," I replied. "You'll have a KA. Just a KA. Think about the money and what you'll get at the end of it," he answered. It made me realise it was time for a change of car.

Strange that I've spent that easily on the Puma - but then I think it's a better car anyway, and a bit more special.
 
The only car I ever spent money like that on was my FRP.

The biggest expense I had was having the engine taken apart to 'fix' the death knock, however whilst it was fixed with a new bottom end (I seem to remember) the issue was actually manifesting from the top so it ended up going again. In retrospect I should have just replaced the whole lump rather than trying to retain what I could.. should have had better advise from the garage maybe.. anyway.. I'd still do it again to keep it on the road. At least the new owner fixed it.

Had all the standard expenses, cambelt, servicing, stainless exhaust, had custom seat covers made for the Sparcos :grin:
 
gingerdave said:
[post]362500[/post] I no longer check expenditure on cars now .Last time I did it scared the shite out of me!

Yup, I started keeping similar expenditure details on my RX8 but got scared early on.
As it's been costing me over £1 a mile in road tax ALONE for the last 2 years I daren't even think of the overall cost per mile of my ownership :lol:
 
I budget £500.00 a year for the Puma and that's to cover getting it through the MOT (not the cost of the MOT) and everything else. So, last time, it cost me £90 to get it through, so that leaves me £410 to spend on whatever I like on the car.

I've run out of things to change/improve engine/suspension wise (apart from the exhaust, I keep it 100% standard) and the car accelerates and handles like it should. Nothing left to improve inside, so I'll probably spend my excess this year on getting the bodywork, which is not that bad anyway, machine polished and generally tidied up.

In theory, as I have a DA polisher, I could do the job myself, but I don't really know what I'm doing and I strongly suspect that my back has plans for me that don't include standing for hours half leaning over the car.
 
This is very scary topic! I try to look at it like this: I don't smoke (hence saving on cigarettes every day) and don't frequent pubs (also saving there) so I can justify the money going into the car as it is not missed by anyone......
 
I'm with GingerDave one this one. I used to keep track but I can't afford therapy too, I'm using the 'ignorance is bliss' technique.

Their a dying breed and won't be around forever, so every penny is well spent...
 
100 to buy, 19.99 for new number plates, 25 for hid lights, 50p for sandpaper, 11.47 for paint, 70 for a back box, plus oil and filter Changes (2), plus fuel and insurance and 2 mots. Oh and 14.99 for struts
Over 2 years

Don't think that's bad
 
Been thinking about this post again.Why did I stop checking build costs?.I remember now,when I started the rebuild on my old Jag the first thing I did was a complete refurb of back subframe which consists of suspension ,brakes and diff(this was about 1996).Finished it after a few months and checked expenditure,£800!,just for bits!.Thought ffs this is gonna be big money so carried on without ever adding total but I did keep all bills.When the car was 80% finished had to start buying the big bits and noticed there was a common a repeating number coming up within a few quid......ready, set of chrome wires and spinners £1000 ,complete stainless big bore exhaust £1000,rechrome all brightwork £1000 uprated front discs ,calipers and tyres £1000.Fcuk knows what it would cost today .Since then done a rebuild on a Mk1escort(second rebuild) and a Mk2 Escort and did not keep tabs on either.Unfortunately I'm now 75 so 1, I don't have the spare cash to undertake a rebuild and 2, I don't have the energy.
 
gingerdave said:
Been thinking about this post again.Why did I stop checking build costs?.I remember now,when I started the rebuild on my old Jag the first thing I did was a complete refurb of back subframe which consists of suspension ,brakes and diff(this was about 1996).Finished it after a few months and checked expenditure,£800!, for bits!,plus £700 for rear dampers and springs,there are 4.Thought ffs this is gonna be big money so carried on without ever adding total but I did keep all bills.When the car was 80% finished had to start buying the big bits and noticed there was a common a repeating number coming up within a few quid......ready, set of chrome wires and spinners £1000 ,complete stainless big bore exhaust £1000,rechrome all brightwork £1000 uprated front discs ,calipers and tyres £1000.Fcuk knows what it would cost today .Since then done a rebuild on a Mk1escort(second rebuild) and a Mk2 Escort and did not keep tabs on either.Unfortunately I'm now 75 so 1, I don't have the spare cash to undertake a rebuild and 2, I don't have the energy.
 
Might have done what I nearly did a few times and clicked the quote button instead of the edit one. Luckily I keep catching it.
Don't know if the buttons swapped position, changed appearance or I'm just getting too old and senile myself.
I think the latter :lol:
 

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