Lorry -v- Car and Trailer - Which is cheaper to run??

E

Eccles

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 April 2007
Messages
755
Visit site
OK I need some advice because I am seriously starting to freak out how much my car and trailer is starting to cost to me run!
frown.gif
frown.gif
I have a Land Rover Discovery 3 - its one year old. Now at the moment its costing me around £60 per week in fuel
shocked.gif
shocked.gif
, and on top of that obviously tax and insurance which as you can imagine is less than cheap. I have worked out that it costing me to run my car and trailer (including fuel - but not fuel to competitions) around £4,400 a year.
frown.gif
This doesn't include servicing. Now if I were to sell these and buy say a diesel golf, and a small lorry (2 horse with day living) what would a lorry cost me to run? Do you think it would be cheaper or not? How much would a lorry like this cost? It would need to be reliable and not too old.

Getting very despressed as Christmas is coming up and OH is less than sympathetic (he bought me the car) and I have no money.
frown.gif
 
I think if you went for a really economical car for using every day, you would save.

I think you need to work out how many miles you would do in a car and how many in a lorry, then add in the tax, insurance, servicing, etc costs and compare to what you are paying now!

The problem with a lorry is that when something goes wrong, it is usually very expensive to repair! Things tend to go wrong if you don't use the lorry very much!
 
I do about 14,000 per year in my car so its not very much but it eats fuel particularly now the cost of diesel has gone up. Having had absolutely no experience with a lorry though (apart from 15 years ago) I'm really ignorant about the cost of servicing them/plating them (whats that??) etc.
blush.gif
Would you get a decent lorry for say £10k?
blush.gif
 
Yes, you can get a decent reliable lorry for £10K, it may not be the prettiest. Plating is just testing for lorries, about £50 and done annually, but you would also need to get somebody to check your floor and box area as this doesn't form part of the DOT test.

i have just done this, got rid of the Trooper and trailer and am running a diesel Golf and old Ford Cargo lorry - for considerably less than your proposed budget and am saving an absolute fortune.
 
I am reading this with interest. Until now I've shared my sisters 4x4 & trailer but sadly circumstances change and that won't be possible for much longer. My first instinct was to look at getting a 4x4 myself to tow (replacing my dirt-cheap to run fiesta) but I am considering getting a small 2 horse lorry instead (no living as need one light enough to drive on a car license).
 
I have a ford transit 3.5T and my costs are as follows:

Tax £190
Insurance £350
Breakdown cover £90
MOT/Service £200

£50 fills the tank and I can do several long(ish) trips for that.

I use my car a lot and probably do about 20,000 + miles a year so this is definately better for me!
 
I looked at both, as I am 21 the insuarance on a car and trailer would have been extortionate, as would the initial outlay of a decent 4x4 and trailer! Instead I have kept my old diesel 306 and got a 3.5ton lorry. My car costs me £60 in diesel a month at the moment, and the lorry is relatively cheap in diesel, it cost me about £30-£40 to drive from Nottingham to Oxford and back again fully loaded so not horrendous!! Insurance on my car and lorry is about £280 each annually, which is cheaper than the approx £1k it would have cost me for car and trailer insurance. The only more expensive bit is the servicing and taxing of 2...but fingers crossed this wont be horrendous for either now....
 
I went through all these pros and cons too. To justify having one horse, it seemed a bit silly having a HUGE lorry on the drive, which my OH doesn't have a clue how to look after or repair, and I have to take two children and lots of kit to and from school, sometimes with friends, so need a biggish car,

I ended up keeping the discovery and trailer.

I guess if you drove the lorry lots of times it would guzzle fuel. But if you got one of those light, lady's boxes with almost no living, that would run cheaper, as cheap as the disco in fact and only need normal MOT.
 
Tax on a Lorry is £165 if it is a 7.5t.

Insurance about £200 fully comp

And I would have thought diesel was similar per trip to your discovery, maybe a bit more.
 
Your cheapest option would be to buy a 4 Wheel drtive that uses bio-fuel. It would have a petrol engine so would not have as much power to pull but you are saving 50% on fuel costs.

The expense with vehicles is the maintenance and an old lorry can always end up costing loads of money.
 
Well the majority of you seem to be telling me that a lorry and a car is much cheaper to run!
smile.gif
Although I only have one horse and certainly don't plan on travelling miles and miles in any lorry I might have!
I'll have to show this post to my OH for him to think about. What about those transits with no living that one of you mentioned?
confused.gif

You are all so helpful thanks so much for all your replies.
grin.gif
 
I am in a similar position to yourself & many other horse owners with trailers & 4x4s.

I worked out that if i sold my 4x4 & trailer I would still have to put several thousand pounds to it to buy a lorry & I would still need to buy a car to run around in. At the moment I am using the 4x4 all the time & it is thirsty.(4x4 is good condition but quite old)

I decided that I may aswell keep the 4x4 & trailer & only use them to transport my horse about & I would buy another saloon car to use for everyday. I decided that buying,maintaining & running a 7.5 ton lorry would be more expensive. Do I need some day living that much....not really ...there is always a cafe at the venues I go to & have tea.
smile.gif
 
The problem you have is that your annual mileage is too small to really reap the cost savings that would justify running a second vehicle.

Ignorning the cost of purchasing a lorry (you mentioned £10k which a reasonable sum to layout...and it WILL depreciate and quickly !), based on the combined fuel economy of a Disco III 2.7TDI at 27mpg against a Golf 2.0TDI at 51mpg, you would only be saving £1163 per year in fuel...assuming the cost of a litre of diesel to be £1.05.

The lorry will cost you an extra £400 to insure with breakdown cover, £165 to tax, £49 to put through the plating...and then anything from nothing to many thousands of £££'s to service each year. Do NOT underestimate this cost ! In the last three years my servicing costs have been £600, £1200 and £800...and in none of those cases has anything too major needed doing. There have been a couple of exhaust parts and a brake cylinder...but the vast majority of the bill is always labour.

You only need a bill of £600 to wipe out all your savings, and as I already mentioned, I haven't even factored in the price of purchasing the vehicle OR depreciation !
 
How about sell the disco, and get one of those lightweight trailers designed to be pulled by a large family car. A good estate has just as much space as a 4x4, cheaper tax and cheaper fuel?
 
Why own by yourself? Find a friend who also wants to trailer on rare weekends, and share the lorry purchase and expenses (I did the same thing when I owned an airplane).

You can lease horses for the times when you can't normally ride to offset fixed expenses...same with farm equipment.
 
Rambo - the voice of reason! I don't do many miles a year in my Disco because I can't afford it!!
grin.gif
grin.gif

I'm going to look at all options as I would have a reasonable amount to spend on a roundaround car - hopefully. Thanks for your reply
smile.gif
 
Its completely the norm though isn't it to lease/share a plane and I think I'd be too difficult to share a lorry with! Unfortunately don't really know anyone who would look into it with me at the moment, and call me cynical but I have a feeling it would end badly!! (I know i'm a misery)!!
blush.gif
 
This is a subject I am pondering on as my car is becoming more and more expensive to run.
How much do you do with your lorry? Rough mileage/How often does it go out?

Roughly what mileage do you do in your car?

I am just hoping you might do something similar to me and I would trust what you say.
wink.gif
smile.gif
 
EJ, the true cost isnt £4,400 pa - you've got to allow for depreciation. A brand new, bottom range, diesel disco will drop about £5k in its first year, £2-3,000 thereafter, so its probably really costing you £7,000 (sorry!) - but lucky you to have such a great motor!

Rambo's right, you'll only save £ 1,000 - £ 1,500 a year if you run a high economy hatchback as well, but the extra cost of finance, depreciation, servicing, insurance etc of a decent 2nd car will be far higher than your saving.

Unless you fancy running around in either much older cars, or an older towcar (eg jeep/landie/disco1) or a knackered big box, you won't save yourself much, and will probably lose a couple of grand on the sale/purchase of changing for change sake, plus have the repair risk of buying 2 used vehicles.

I think the real choice is whether you like driving the disco3 as a road car, and/or whether you like towing a trailer. If so, stay as you are.

I dont like towing, dont like driving a heavy rolling 4wd as an everyday car, and the larger 7.5T boxes are too big for our tight lanes. If I had your funds, I'd spend about £10k on a newly converted low mileage merc sprinter ladies box which will depreciate slowly & go on forever, and spend another £8-10k on a 2 yr old economic diesel hatchback that was still nicer to drive than the disco3
 
I doubt you will save much money as Rambo say your milage is not that high. But also unless you drive the loory at least once a week it will go wrong and be very expensive. I gave up on lorries as I found myself having to 'exercise' the thing on a regular basis which was a complete pain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top