Written by Faryal Raza Bhatti, Marketing Manager, Heritage Car Insurance
Last updated 21 September 2026
Running a classic costs less than most people assume, and the reason has nothing to do with the cars being cheap. It is that almost nobody drives them. Heritage’s 2026 Classic Car Report asked 841 UK owners what they spend on their cars in a year, excluding insurance, and 62% came in under £1,000.
| Annual spend | Share of owners |
| Under £500 | 26% |
| £500 to £1,000 | 36% |
| £1,000 to £2,500 | 24% |
| £2,500 to £5,000 | 10% |
| Over £5,000 | 4% |
One owner in twenty-five spends over £5,000. That figure deserves a caveat, and we will come back to it.
Why is it cheaper than people expect?
The intuition that classics cost a fortune comes from thinking about them as cars. They are not used like cars. The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs put average annual mileage for a historic vehicle at 837 miles in its 2025 National Historic Vehicle Survey, and our own guide on how mileage affects classic car insurance shows what that does to the cost base. That single number drags down almost everything else.
Fuel. At 837 miles a year and 25mpg you buy roughly 152 litres. Government figures published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero put the UK average pump price for unleaded at 168.1p per litre in the week commencing 14 September 2026, which makes that tank-and-a-bit around £256 a year. A daily driver covering 12,000 miles spends fourteen times as much.
Tyres, brakes, consumables. These wear by distance, so a car doing a fourteenth of the mileage replaces them at a fourteenth of the rate. Rubber perishes with age regardless of use, though, and tyres need replacing on a time basis every six to ten years whatever the tread depth reads. Cracked sidewalls on a car with 3mm left is a classic car problem and a modern car rarity.
Depreciation. Effectively nil, occasionally negative. The single largest cost of running a modern car simply does not apply.
Which costs are actually real?
Maintenance and parts. This is where classic money goes. Older cars want greasing, adjustment and tuning at intervals modern ones never see, and parts availability swings wildly by marque. An MGB or a Land Rover Series costs a fraction of something with a three-figure production run and no reproduction supply. Specialist labour rates vary by region and by workshop, and we have found no authoritative published benchmark for them.
44% of owners in our survey named maintenance and restoration among the things they most enjoy, and doing your own work remains the single biggest lever anyone has on cost.
Storage. 82% of owners use a garage at home, which costs nothing extra if the garage already exists. Professional storage serves 3% and varies widely by region and service level.
Road tax. Often nothing. GOV.UK confirms that a vehicle built before 1 January 1986 can stop paying vehicle tax from 1 April 2026 under the historic vehicle tax class, rolling forward a year each April. You must apply, and you must still tax the vehicle even when the rate is zero. Our guide covers when a classic car becomes tax exempt and how to do it.
MOT. Often nothing, on the same 40-year rolling basis, provided nobody has substantially changed the chassis, body, axles or engine in the last 30 years. Exemption does not lower the standard, though. GOV.UK sets the fine for using a vehicle in a dangerous condition at up to £2,500 and three penalty points. Plenty of owners book a voluntary MOT anyway, which costs less than a set of front discs and answers the question honestly.
Insurance. Specialist classic policies typically price below standard cover, because low mileage, secure storage and careful ownership all cut the risk. We have set out the numbers in our guide to the average price of classic car insurance.
