Originally Posted by
charbucks
I finally figured out that you need to put in a zip code for the cost to own thing to work.
[snip]
Mind you, I didn't buy it new, so the depreciation estimates go out the window.
Depreciation isn't a cost of ownership. It may be useful to know if you are planning on selling your car in a couple of years, but it's not something that you pay out of pocket.
Also, my fuel costs were much lower due to my low usage. That being said, the estimate is double my actual costs for 8 times the usage, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were pretty accurate for 15,000 miles a year (really? that's average?
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I probably drive 10,000 miles per year on average; I was surprised by how low my fuel cost was compared to other items. I thought it would be much higher. No wonder people drive gas guzzlers.
My insurance is about 800 cheaper than Edmunds' estimate, but my car is registered as an "occasional-use vehicle"; if you commute with your car, the insurance goes up a lot. Mind you, our insurance doesn't increase as the car gets older... is that a normal thing?
That's normal.
By far the largest risk insurance companies face is you getting involved in an accident involving personal injury. Medical bills for an accident serious enough to break major bones can quickly go over $100,000; your own medical bills may be just as high...and if there were passengers in either or both cars, it can quickly reach astronomical levels. Compared to these risks, the difference in cost to the insurance company if you total a $20,000 car or a $40,000 car are pretty minor. As your car gets older, it can become slightly less expensive to insure (a 7 year old $40,000 car may be worth $8,000 or less if you total it). But the risk of you causing expensive medical bills by plowing into a schoolbus remains about the same.
All in all, I think it's better to over-estimate the costs of car ownership. If you decide that it's worth it under the assumption that you'll just have to feed your car fuel and it'll go forever, then you'll be hurting when surprises happen. I'm sure Edmunds has factored in the "average surprise" into the estimate.
This is true, but you should have figures that are at least somewhat in the ballpark. Insurance for my mazda (bought new in 2005 for $20,000) runs $840 year.
The total cost of ownership for my car, including fuel, works out to something like $380/month over the course of 7 years. (That's an average of course; I've driven it twice this month for a total of less than 20 miles, so this month's out of pocket is about $75 with insurance. But I did have to come up with the $20,000.)