I will have owned my car one year this Saturday and was about to post about the costs, so this thread is well timed for me.
Overall I have found the car to be very reliable (touch wood etc) and in the c. 4,250 miles travelled the only issues of note have been:
• Reversing lights not working when the car was collected – fixed easily by me, simply by the fitting of a new sender beside the gear lever. I believe this was missed by the main dealer inspection on purchase (and me obviously!) and in fairness they posted me the part gratis.
• Dip bulb failure on driver’s side when home in N.I. at Christmas – fixed easily by Charles Hurst! (no way was I taking the car to bits in the snow and without any tools).
• Irritating squeak from driver’s side window. Fixed by spraying seal with silicon spray.
and that is it, outside servicing. Not bad at all for high maintenance Italian exotica.
As to running costs, in round sums it has been as follows (from memory, too lazy to dig out all the papers):
Insurance 500
Car Tax 190
Pair of front MPS2 340
31k service 1600 (at MP Supercars including tyre fitting, full alignment, MOT, bottom wishbone, rack gaiter, wipers & other misc stuff)
Petrol 1100 (assuming say 17mpg and £4.50 per gallon)
Depreciation 3000 (who knows? – bought privately, but not that cheaply)
Consumables 40 (bulb replacement - used no oil)
Paintwork 400 (to repair tiny crack in paint under rear lens, missed in purchase inspection)
Total £7170
Cost per mile £1.69
So most Saturday mornings when I go for my 20 mile blat down the coast road for the paper it costs me £34; an expensive newspaper!
However, compare it to say the costs of my Alfa 156 when new. It dropped £16k in the first 4 years in depreciation, so even at (a straight line) £4k p.a. all of a sudden the Maser costs little more to run than a newish Alfa. No comparison then and an easy choice!!! (If you are doing a low mileage, like me).
Things going well next year should cost a tad less (touch wood etc); I will need a pair of rear tyres but just an annual service. The clutch should be good for another 18k or so.
So there you go. Not cheap but then everything is relative; I have avoided new supercar depreciation and have been lucky enough to avoid horror story bills (touch wood yet again).
I did the same sums as above for the (11 ½ year old) Alfa and it comes out at £1575, or 37p per mile. Cheap fun but you simply can not compare the experience at all – only when you have driven the like of the Maser do you understand the difference between ordinary and supercars. Next year the Alfa cambelt service and a few tyres will be near as dammit the same as the value of the car!
Cheers