How much cheaper to own is a motorcycle than a car?
Monday, March 8th, 2010 at
9:39 am
I’m trying to choose between a couple years old honda civic coupe (approx k) and a couple year old motorcycle (not sure exactly which one yet, but planning on getting a reliable and affordable bike that is a couple years old).
I also will buy a quality helmet, jacket, boots, and gloves.
Is insurance more or less expensive? Also take into consideration gas savings, potential medical bills (hopefully not), etc.
Specifically, how much cheaper is it?
Motorcycles are considerably cheaper. The primary cost is much cheaper. You can get a nice, brand new bike for around $8,000 or a one or two year old bike for around $6,000.
Insurance varies widely depending on what coverage you’re looking for. Liability, that’s coverage to pay for things you hit, is generally very cheap with bikes. Collision and Comprehensive, the coverages that pay for the bike if you wreck or it’s stolen, varies from person to person but as a general rule, you can get Collision, Comprehensive and liability coverage for under $300/year. That’s pretty cheap. What you’re not getting is any medical coverage for yourself if you get hurt. That’s, for obvious reasons, very expensive coverage to buy on a motorcycle, expect about $100/mo just for that coverage.
Motorcycles usually get at least 50mpg, so good savings on gas. If you get decent safety gear you’ll spend about a grand on that.
So, there’s really only two reasons not to get one. First, and you nailed it here, motorcycles are EXTREMELY dangerous. What would ruin your day in a car, say a guy merges into you and scrapes your door, could kill you on a bike. Even if you’re an extremely safe rider, who’s to say the guy on that cross street is? Oops, didn’t see that stop sign, there goes a leg, right?
Motorcycle bodily injury coverage, the expensive stuff I was talking about, usually only covers up to $10,000, and that’s if you buy a lot of it. So that coverage could be used up with just one helicopter ride to the hospital. The rest would be on your own dime. A couple days in the hospital can easily cost over $100,000. So, if you’re on a bike, you MUST have your own health insurance.
The other issue is, what do you do when it rains? "Sorry boss, can’t come in until the rain stops . . . " If you live in Arizona, or maybe LA, you can get away with having a bike for your only vehicle, just about anywhere else, it’s just stupid.
Probably 2/3 or maybe even half the cost.
Ive always gone by, "half the cost twice the fun"
If you think buying a bike is going to save you money, think again. While you will get better gas mileage, you have to put tires on it much more often than a car, more maintenance costs etc.
The only reason to buy a bike is because you want to ride.
We all know motorcycling is a high risk activity so I won’t cover that aspect in my answer. My only advice(25years +) for any rider is ride as if your invisible but make yourself as visible as possible.
Benefits;
Better MPG unless you compare to a hybrid
Can split lanes
Use car pool lanes
Easy parking
Cheap liability insurance
Low cost to performance ratio
Cons;
Exposed to the elements
One passenger max
No conversations with passenger unless you invest in COMM gear
Expensive repairs if you go down
Target for theft, easy to lift and load for thieves
A WHOLE bunch cheaper. Especially if you don’t go crazy on the bike and gear.
Myself, for example: Bought a 2000 Savage five years ago, $2325, plus sales tax when I registered it (gotta love California!) added lockable saddlebags ($460) swapped the muffler ($100) added a windshield ($100) and a new saddle ($60) — under $3250 total. I could take a long ride off a short pier and I will have gotten my money out of it. And it’s still running just fine! Boots I wear normally, gloves were about $20 and are still good, the leather jacket was $70, helmet about $30. Few bucks for a cheap rainsuit, if you live where it rains more you may go for higher quality.
Yearly registration and insurance is $75 and $70, liability only. I figure *if* I ever get into a collision it will be the other person’s fault. So far, no one has been good enough to catch me.
Tires cost about $120 each, last 8,000 miles rear, 16,000 front. Get 50 mph *hard* city driving, 60+ mpg on the freeway, have hit 70 mpg on a 55 mph putt across the Mojave.
Medical bills? Worst I’ve had on the street is a small scrape. The real killer isn’t motorcycles, it is stress and stress related illnesses. Motrocycling is a *fabulous* stress reliever. Motorcycles are *not* dangerous. Someone tries to slip slidways into your lane? In a car: bump. On a bike, slip sideways yourself — it’s a big lane and sharing is legal. Stopsign/light runners — yeah, they happen, and anyone not watching for them will be hit.
Bottom line, the Bike has run me between a half and a quarter as much as a cage would have. Operating costs, gas, oil, tires, is about $0.10 per mile. I only do 5,000 miles a year so my fixed costs per mile are high, but still lower than a cage. Even so, I ride for about $0.28 per mile. Less than half the cost of an econobox. And I do *NOT* have to put up with econobox performance.