Future Owner (hopefully !) - Running cost question

Hi All, I have been dreaming about owning an OKA for many years, hopefully one day soon. I live in NSW and was wondering if someone can give me some idea of how much it costs to keep an OKA registered each year and also what sort of fuel economy do you get ? Great website, great information. Hopefully one day I will be the proud owner of an OKA.

Welcome Paul
Like all hobbies and big boys toys, an OKA cost money.

In addition to the purchase price, you may need to add stampduty and costs for getting it to your place, as the OKA you fall in love with just happens to be overeast if you are in WA, or in WA if you are overeast.

The cost of owning an OKA are in three parts:
1. Fixed costs, regardless if you use it or not. This includes insurance, licence. Licence for WA is $497 per year (licenced as motorhome). Insurance depending on which insurance company you are with, and the insured value, maybe around $1000 pa.

2. Running costs includes things like fuel, maintenance and repairs. My van at its worst (heavy 4WD) gets 4km out of a litre, and at its best 8 km per litre. On average just under 7 km per litre. Average fuel cost per km is $0.26 per km (over nearly 3 years). Maintenance and repair are for me around $0.10 per km.

3. Then there is a cost that you are totally in control of, but are likely to blow any budget you have: that is adding things/gadgets to your OKA, customising, improvements, making it better or more comfortable etc.

4. Did I mention a 4th cost? Depreciation.

But let the above not discourage you.

Here in NSW country rego is around a grand for both greenslip and rego, pink slip for rego as per normal. City or some regions will be more.
Comprehensive insurance really depends on you, your residential address and how much you insure the Oka for, ours costs around $900 for $100k as it is virtually a motorhome.
Those costs are not a whole lot more than our previous 4wd's allowing for inflation.
Cost for consumable parts like seals, brake pads are similar or cheaper in lots of cases than Toyota's depending on where you buy them from. If you can do mechanical work then servicing costs will be similar to an older model Landcruiser.
Tyres for the Oka are a similar price to Toyota's if running 16" one piece rims with larger sized 4wd AT or MT tyres. If running 16" splits with the big Michelin's or 19.5 rims then tyres will be in some cases more than double the cost.
We find that fuel costs for trips are very similar to the troopy when it was laden.
Buy the lowest mileage cleanest bodied Oka that you can afford unless you have the skills and gear to do chassis up rebuilds.

As a rough guide, I would allow 5 to 10k for repairs/upgrades etc when you buy an OKA.

Personally I dont think you can buy an OKA and not having to spend some money on repairs.

Maybe I have looked at the wrong OKA`s, but every OKA I have seen requires some type of work. Even if its rust repairs, spring fixes, valve clearances etc etc.

Paul, a lot of good financial sense there.

If you want to compare Oka ownership with "normal" car ownership there are a couple of useful sites/documents on similar large 4WDs here, RACV and RACQ .

Note that depreciation is one of the largest costs but may not be relevant if you buy an Oka as a leisure pursuit, not an investment. Anyway, Oka values haven't dropped over the past few years, if anything they've appreciated due to their relative rareness and the value that owners have put into them.

My quick assessments:

Fixed costs (even if it just sits in your driveway registered and insured), between $2-3,000 a year.

Running costs (tyres, fuel, essential maintenance) based on 20,000km a year would be roughly fuel $7k, 2 x tyres $1k, general maintenance $2k, total $10k.

Add to that any discretionary upgrades and modifications (usually a few $k a year), say $2K. (These, and maintenance, will depend on how much you DIY).

Annual total, $15k a year (this excludes purchasing, interest, depreciation costs and one off initial start up costs, eg a new set of tyres, relevant tools, personal mods), not a lot dissimilar to the RACV/RACQ costs.

YMMV

I should have added, the value of being able to go almost anywhere and whenever you want with relative security, comfort and reliability is priceless and will soon exceed the costs involved. We've never returned from a trip not wanting to go again ASAP, even when we've had problems.

To a great extent, running costs are relative to where you go.
They don't wear out in the shed.
Many kms of very tough tracks cost money.

But you do have a choice that many others don't have.

Obviously Fuel used depends on weight and speed

Grossing 5 tonne
Relaxed touring, 15~16 litres per 100km
Pushing it @ 100+ km/h, 18 litres per 100km

Towing, grossing 7 tonne
Relaxed @ 70~80 km/ h relatively flat terrain, 18~20 litres per 100 km
Pushing it, big hills SW Tassie etc, 22~ the sky's the limit litres per 100 km.

IMHO the biggest cost in keeping an Oka on the road will be rust repairs if you get a rusty one. Look carefully before opening the wallet.

I think that an Oka is probably the cheapest 5 tonne truck to keep on the road in terms of cost of parts. Way cheaper than any Japanese truck.