What's the running cost of a bike vs car?

**Ghost_Bullet** · 6th May 2007, 18:53

A bit geeky, but what is the cost, A bike of course uses less gas than most cars, for me The Grizz goes through on average 6.00 litres per 100km. And our family car, Honda Odyssey drinks and average of 12.00 litres per 100km.

I do all my own serviceing on the car, so with that including gas, consumables, and wof/reg the cost per km for the last year is 20.4cents per km.
The bike on the otherhand was bought new end of March last year, with Wof and reg included, so I took that out of the calculation.

I have never held bike insurance before, never felt the need. So was punnished by having to pay $1758.00 for the first year, ($1200 for the new year).
Shop does the servicing($760.33), tyres dont go as far($572.00)
I have done 11913km in that period.
The cost works out to be 34.87cents per km

A little suprising. Cut my services out and insurance down to about 500 bucks and the number would be 17.9cents per km.

The above info is accurate, as I record all fuel and millage at each fill for all our vehicles. Other costs are taken from a money program that records details of bank statements

**Mully** · 6th May 2007, 18:57

Ahh, but surely the bike is worth the extra 14c per KM in fun factor.

That and the fact that it ain't a Honda Oddity.

**miSTa** · 6th May 2007, 19:01

By far the cheapest option is not to worry about...works for me.

What price do you put on the smile you have on your face when you get off your grizzler?

**JimO** · 6th May 2007, 19:02

yes but your honda will carry several more people than your bike

**Ghost_Bullet** · 6th May 2007, 19:03

Oh yeah I hear ya!!!!

... in no way shape or form am I complaining about the cost of running me bike... hell I would not have bought it in the first place.

Just interesting, the differences between the extremes of travel. The oddy is just a plain old brick, sorta like taken a rough ride on the Cook Ferry

The bike... damn

**Hitcher** · 6th May 2007, 19:08

How long is a piece of string? What sort of bike and what sort of car? What sort of distance is driven each week?

There are 50cc scooters that are cheaper to run than an African orphan. A V-12 E-type Jaguar costs a bit more. However there probably are cars that are cheaper to run than bikes -- such as a Civic hybrid (not counting the ludicrous purchase price) versus some full-noise sprotsbikes.

I don't get the point of the question.

**dogsnbikes** · 6th May 2007, 19:29

There is no question about it the Car is out @$100 of desiel for 540 k's the bike wins as with 1200k's for $100 of gas more if I was to ease of the gas abit on the bike

Even the tyers cost $300 each for bike and car

But its worth the smile at the end of every day

**JimO** · 6th May 2007, 19:33

Originally Posted by dogsnbikes

There is no question about it the Car is out @$100 of desiel for 540 k's the bike wins as with 1200k's for $100 of gas more if I was to ease of the gas abit on the bike

Even the tyers cost $300 each for bike and car

But its worth the smile at the end of every day

never paid $300 for a car tyre yet

**MaxCannon** · 6th May 2007, 20:01

Well the GN does around 25km per litre in weekday heavy traffic and weekend thrashing.
It costs nothing to insure and servicing has been pretty cheap so far.

The GTB legacy is surprisingly economical for it's size and output (and my right foot) on the open rd but in gridlock traffic does about 7km per litre if I'm lucky.
It's $600 a year to insure and obviously more expensive for parts and servicing as it has lots more bits on it than the bike.

Having the bike has dropped my weekly fuel bill from $75 a week to about $40.
That includes using both a fair bit at the weekends.

I worked out I'll recoup the cost of the bike and my gear in about 9months.

**Ghost_Bullet** · 6th May 2007, 20:05

Originally Posted by Hitcher

How long is a piece of string?

I don't get the point of the question.

Thats just it, I am only taking my own example, and obviously some bikes and cars are going to cary massive amounts.

The point?? non realy. if no one gives a damn then this thread will just die...

"Mastercard"
Bike $23k
Gas and costs for a year $4.4k
The Joy of riding the Grizzler "Priceless"

**Timber020** · 6th May 2007, 20:34

I do this little figure which changes the sums for me at least.

Time saved per week gapping traffic = 5 hours which is worth about $300-$600 in work time and also equates to an extra $30 or so in fuel wasted in traffic if I was cage bound. Not to mention the ease of finding a park which would save me another hour a week and whatever parking costs.

No wonder my bikes a business vehicle.

**nudemetalz** · 6th May 2007, 20:58

My V6 Pajero averages only 6 km/l.
The Guzzi V11 averages a good 14km/l.
The XR250R dunno as it's off-road only.

However, the XR costs virtually nothing to insure, the Pajero costs $300 per year to insure and the Guzzi a whopping $1200 a year to insure (being a Guzzi not 'cause of me).

If I was really bothered by these expenses I wouldn't have bothered buying them, but they all fit a purpose.

**iwilde** · 6th May 2007, 21:12

My ZX14 averages 13.8km/l, the adrenaline factor would be 13.8L/km!

**Deviant Esq** · 6th May 2007, 21:30

Mine are both economical, though once I upgrade from the NZ250 to a bigger bike, I suspect the cost will even up somewhat. At the moment I pay far less to insure the bike than the car (even though I'm under 25 and still on my restricted bike licence), and less on fuel for the bike as well. But although I initially thought I was buying the bike to save money on fuel... that's gone totally out of the window. I don't really think about it now, I just love riding. I still keep track of how much fuel I use in the bike, but more out of habit than anything else.