172 costs
It is a bit like how long is a piece of string! from my experience with my cessnas (i have owned models H to N) i have to say that just now you would want to pay £30,000 with plenty of hours on the engine left to run. Avoid N model like the plague as the engine has chocolate cams and runs 2 mags off one drive(redundancy?) You will rarely notice the engine sliding into self destruction as the power tails off slowly with the reducing valve lift as the hours build toward 1000. The French built(corrosion proofed from birth) M model is my favourite as the 0-320E2D engine is always good for TBO if used often but get a K&N airfilter and a screw on Oil filter and as a private owner get the engine Microlon treated for lots of reasons. This model has better handling with a subtly different wing not optimised for speed so it lands nicer. Fly at 90 knots for 25 L/per hour - you can get 105 kts for 34 lph which is not worth it. Avgas is costly. Think a couple of K per year to get it fettled plus £10 an hour for routine maint. insure for similar. Well maintained aircraft cheaper to run in the long term so buy and give a good fettling then add a new toy each year to eventually get the avionics you want. Be very careful where you get it maintained and pm me if you do buy as i may be able to help. These aircraft are good all round aircraft without being stunning at anything. If you really want to learn to fly one well go to EGBD and hand yourself in to Paul for an hour or two. You will be surprised at the short field ability when flown properly. Safe flying - Spernkey Bowlock.