I wish it were that easy, just drive down, fix it and done.

Last night had a long chat about car costs. Can't figure out why a country that has no-speed-limit highways makes it so expensive to own and drive cars that have a bit more power to take advantage of those highways.

Car taxes in Germany are based on emmission standard and also how many cubic centimetres your engine has (in hundreds). This year the price went up to 15.13 per 100 ccm. The SVX has a 3319 ccm engine, so they round it up to 34 for the calculation.

15.13 euro x 34 = 514.42 euro

From 2001 to 2004, SVX tax was 10.84 per 100 ccm.
In 2000, it was only 6.75

Today, new/er cars with the best emmission class of Euro4 cost 6.75 per 100 ccm. The SVX is classified as a Euro1. It might be possible to get it up to a D3, which is what the German SVX Club is trying to organise. That would bring the tax down to 6.75, same as current best Euro4. But the fact that the govt has made a special class for 3 litre motors makes my husband suspicious that soon it will also be increased. I blame it all on the current coalition government which includes a strong Green Party. But German politics is another story

Here's our cost rundown for the next 6 months:

Registration tax for one year: 514 euro (assuming no further increase)
Insurance: around 450 euro
new winter tires: about 600 euro
head gaskets,brakes,service etc at least 2000 euro

So we're talking about costs of at least 3,564 euro in the next 6 months, not including gas and anything else that comes up. That's about $4,350 USD.

I need about 10 litres per 100 km. At current prices of around 1.29 euro per litre, that means it costs me about 13 euro per 100 km for gasoline. My trip to Switzerland will cost about 100 euro just for gas. Thank goodness I can stay at a friend's place, so no additional hotel costs.

Well, we'll see what the mechanic says in his estimate.