Originally Posted by
enine
If you want some #'s.
From 2/25/2005 to today:
Maintenance $1654.70. Thats 10 oil/filter changes changes, 5 tires, one wheel to make the spare match the rest, and one wheel bearing.
Fuel Record:
Total Miles 63,822
Total Gallons 3836.84
Avg. MPG 16.634
Total Cost $9,718.27
Total Hours 1,732
Gallons / Hour 2.22
Avg. MPH 36.847
Cost / Mile $0.15
add in registration once a year at around $89 * 4 years, I'm up to about 11k. for 4 years. This is higher than average though since its a full size 4x4 truck and since we moved in July we never go more than a couple miles from home unless its recreational use as everything we need is here but those .5 drives to work kill the gas mileage, my highest mpg is 21. So take your average sedan wher it gets 30mpg and averages say 20somehting you should be able to cut those costs by a third, then remember that car tires can be had much cheaper too, I bought truck rated 8 ply off road tires because I was tired of fixing flats on the farm.
I also added $934 in accessories from a truck cap to second battery and isolator as I'm setup like an RV for long days at the parks or camping on the farm.
Here is my experience with my last car. Car was a sedan average gas mileage of about 27 fuel price calculated at $2 per gallon.
Purchase Price 1800 - sale price 4500 = 13500
Annual maintenance 200 * 7 - 1400
Repairs - Brakes 800
some switch - 200
some leak 300
power steering pump - 350
Tires 600
Total: 2250
insurance average -1500 average (This may be high for you but this is the cost in my location) *7=10,500
gas 800 *7 = 5600
Total cost per year - $4,750
Also, from this example you can see my depreciation was $13,500 or $2000 per year. Using both purchase price and deprecation would lead to an inflated cost per year but using just depreciation per year will give you an accurate amount for how much value your car is losing per year.
My bike expenses are probably about $1,000 per year.