Cost of owning a 2 litre vs. 4 litre car

Curious question... is there a cost difference in owning a 2,0 litre car vs. a 4,0 litre car outside of fuel costs? Wondering what are all of the factors that I would need to consider if I bought a car.

I know I would need to cover inusrance and TÜV inspection (this every two years.) Is there anything else that I don't know about as far as yealy costs go or anything else? Does it cost more to register a 4,0 litre car then something with a smaller engine?

Thanks much for any input!
Gredik

Fuel consumption is much higher (although some of the new hybrids are pretty economical in comparison)

The Kraftfahrtzeugsteuer (road tax) in Germany would be double as it's charge per 100ccs engine size. Just how much, however depends on petrol or diesel power (diesel is MUCH more expensive) and the emission rating of the car. The exact and current rates can be found here

Insurance is usually higher for higher powered vehicles because the increased risk of accident, and the general higher cost of repairs to such a vehicle.

Vehicles with such larger engines usually are the niche market of more expensive manufacturers (BMW, Mercedes, etc), so are more expensive to buy, service, and repair.

Larger engined cars are heavier, and need more specialised performance tyres increasing their replacement cost and reduced life.

YL6

all true, but when you step down on the pedal, and are pulled back into the slick black leather of your premium auto as you leave other drivers in a swirl of emissions, it make the extra expense all worthwhile...

It's not so easy...

In fact, the road tax is based on the age and efficiency of the engine. If you have an old 2 liter car with (for example) Euro 2 rating you will probably pay more than a 4 liter new car with Euro 4 rating.

Excellent information. Thanks everyone.

I was thinking of a 2002 BMW 330i, an older style E36 generation M3 or a 2000-2002 M5. I knew that there was a tax based on the engine displacement, if you have a catalytic converter and the age of the car, but wasn't entirely sure. Thanks for answering my questions.

Now that I know that there is an extra cost, in addition to fuel and insurance, I can plan and choose accordingly.

So, is that extra ooommph in power with the M5 worth the cost or is it better to get a 330i/M3 and tune it instead? Hmm...

Gredik

If you are going to purchase an M car make sure you know the history of the car because most of the M cars that I know have a hard life. I used to own the US version of the e36m3 as well as the e46m3 and I drove both of them hard(on the track).

For tuning the 330 is a better choice than the M since M cars are already tuned near to the max. It would be very expensive for you to sequeeze another 10hp out of the s52 engine.

BTW what about the audi b4 platform S or RS cars? I know the b4 s4 2.7t engine is very easy to tweak, 50hp more from a chip upgrade.

I never understood why people would want to tune the engine of a car rather than buy a more powerful one in the first place. The dimensions of a stock engine were carefully calculated and took years of design work and thorough testing by a team of experts of a huge company. Of course it's not difficult to chip tune a stock engine or increase the boost of a turbo engine, but then you are bound to expect trouble in terms of temperature, lubrication, wear etc. not just pertaining to the engine, also your brakes, suspension and entire rest of the car were designed for a less powerful engine.

My suggestion: If you want a high performance car, buy the one you really want and don't fiddle with it trying to 'improve' it.

There's a difference between modifying cars for track use and street use. Yes the higher performance cars such as the m3/s4/porsche is almost track ready out of the box but as soon as you move on to the next class(from d to c to b and etc ) you'll find the need to start modding the car. Engine is usually the last thing that needs to be modified, from my past experience the brake and suspension mods need to be done before inreasing the engine output since it will be hard to control 400hp beast on the curves without the approriate brake and suspension works.

To be honest for a regular street use I also don't see the point of modding the engine and I'm not a big fun of modifying the look of the car either.

here's my silver beast @ VIR no cosmetic or engine mod only brake and suspension mods

the man knows of what he speaks.

if you want to be fast, get light. leave the engine alone and lose weight.

100kg = 10hp (more or less)

(since we're doing glory shots, here's me at The Glen).

is that the 930 behind you? and yours is the 993? i'm not well 'versed' with porsches but either way beautiful cars and the engines that can be run between extreme temperatures without worrying about coolants/water.

Those are the last air cooled porsches right?

To me, that looks like a 964 followed by an SC. All 911s up to the 996 were air-cooled.