Fuel costs: €1.4 per litre; my ‘00 Citroen Xantia drinks 8L /100 km; I drive 17k per year = €1900/year.

Repairs: less than €1000/year.

Insurance: around €700/year.

Tax: €250/year.

Depreciation: I paid €8000 for this fast, smooth, comfortable car in 2002. Will trash it in 2012 (with luck). Linear depreciation €800/year.

Sum €4650/year, equivalent to 27 Eurocents per KM. Which is a lot less than most people this side of the pond pay.

No, A/C is a right — not a luxury.

In the erstwhile days of greatness, C&D’s John Philips III said in his sidebar opinion on the indispensabilitiy of the Porsche 964 RS America’s optional AC: “To air is human, forgive design”. Timeless.

How I miss the old C&D… thank you TTAC and Winding Road for being replacements, in essence.
Now it’s time to get a Vbox and take performance measurements, so I might cancel by C&D subscription.

“Yeah, I’m with Stephan on this one.

I just sorta wanted horror stories about $4.00 a gallon gas and dumb purchases.

Not calculations on depreciation (yawn) and cost per (snore) mile.

So, Stephan, sorry”

Ok, allow me to turn this thread around from people bragging on how little they spend on the car, lol.

I’m on my third intake because I just can’t decide which one I like better and will work better with my $650 dollar (plus installation and tuning) piggy back which is about to get replaced by a $650 flash unit, which will also soon have the availabilty of tune it software, which will require finding a Cobb certified tuner whom I trust not to blow up my car. So thats another $300 for the software, and most tuners around here charge about $150 or so an hour for tuning. If it was anything like getting my Standback tuned, it’ll take a few hours.

I’ve had my car on the dyno seven times at $75 bucks a pop each time (its only $60 for the three pulls, but another $15 for AFRs).

I just bought a new Cam Driven Fuel Pump, which, provides absolutely zero dyno proven horsepower, but supposedly gets rid of the lean spot in our car which our stock ECU already takes care of via the electronically controled throttle body.

64 responses shows a lot of interest. Sorry Stephan!

But maybe we’re all much more interested in our own costs than everyone else’s.

Say, did I tell you about the ‘77 Toyota I bought used in ‘85 for $450, and ran for 8 years and 90k miles and it was SUCH A DEAL?! Oh, alright, I’ll shut up. Enuf is enuf.

“Repairs” include oil changes, 45k and 60k service, tires, and a decent stereo and Dynamat, 2 window regulators, battery, alt, CV Boots….

It’s still worth about 8-10K, so I’m not sure if I should factor that in (or out)a la TTAC-math. Also, my number get jacked because I’ve always lived 3-4 miles from work, and only drive 5k miles/year.

I just sorta wanted horror stories about $4.00 a gallon gas and dumb purchases.

Not calculations on depreciation (yawn) and cost per (snore) mile.

So, Stephan, sorry…

Current ride is a 1997 Audi A6 Quatro Avant….paid $7900 for it with 73k miles on it….so if I drive it for 120k miles, my cap cost is roughly 6 cents per mile, which leaves me $4800 in major repairs over the roughly 8 years it will take me to hit 120k miles. Buying used, higher-end vehicles like Audis, Beemers, Accords or Lexus/Acura (5-7 years old with 70-90k miles) is the most cost-effective way to motor. I might add, buying those types of vehicles is very satisfying, as they have a lot of life and luxury left in them. An additional tip is to BUY STATION Wagons. Usually they are available at a $1 to $2k discount from sedans of the same model and age….but are GREAT values….

I drove 26,000 miles in 06. My major costs were:

1. insurance 1726
2. repair/maintenance 1782
3. gas 2197

Total expenses were $6063

No car payments. I bought the car used, for cash, $5500, in Nov. ‘04, with 67k on the clock. I’m not sure why I got the car for essentially about $2500-$3000 off book value, but I”m not complaining.

Now, I spent $4500 in one year on my last 900, but that was 5 years into owning it and doing nothing but tires and fluids. With no car payments in over 2 years and the thing in fantastic shape, it bought 2 more years of cheap and safe driving.

We currently have a CPO 93SS with about one year factory warranty left, the original owner took a huge beating on it and I stole it from the Buick dealer where it was traded on an Enclave. Fast, safe and so far fantastically reliable, it sits on a line of credit and we fire money at it to keep it ahead of the depreciation curve. About $500 per month does it. The fuel economy approaches that of my company Prius, but it bites for a $100 oil change, 6.5 litres of Mobil 1 only, I go about 10K on it. I’m thinking strongly of dumping it and getting a nice CPO 95 when the warranty expires.

I don’t count tires, insurance and basic servicing as operating costs as you pay them on anything you own, and I don’t care about the price of gas, because I think it is still undervalued.

Gas is another $50/month.

People often forget interest cost. Even if your car is paid for, you should include the cost of capital tied up. I use 6% as a proxy.

Synthetic oil change every 6 months, random wiring that likes to go bad in the hatch, AC Re-charge, new battery, snow tires, and that’s about it so far.

This spring though I’ll be investing in new shoes, and replacing a bunch of suspension/brakes bits. Not too bad though for a Volvo with 265,500 miles on it.

Oh, and I need a new rear wiper.

“Hands up who else has a spreadsheet for their car spending.”
-DrBrian

That would be me.

So I ran an expense report for my car, and it makes the most sense to do what nikita did and break down expenses into ownership costs and operating costs so that the comparison between all our different degrees of usage is more meaningful.

As such, the ownership costs since I bought my present vehicle are;
Depreciation: $5252.00
Insurance: $8394.85
Lic. & Reg.: $666.00
Parking: $1485.00
Which altogether, divided into 106 months of ownership, adds up top $149.04/month

Add to that operating costs which are;
Fuel: $7620.99
Maintenance: $6929.23
Tickets & Tolls: $594.94
Parking: $242.31
Which works out to 0.16$/km for the 96000 km that I’ve driven the car (or 0.26$/mi)

Sorry to ruin a great discussion :-)

My ‘07 Focus (the wifes) about $420 a month.

We both commute 60 miles per day.

Tires on the Focus 195-60-15, cheep!
Tires on the F150 255-65-17, not so cheep.

Of course, if/when the car starts needing expensive repairs, cost-per-mile then spikes, right? Knowing when to dump a paid-for car is a skill I am still learning.

I have kept records on all that I’ve spent on a ‘68 Mustang I’m restoring. I’m currently just over $2,000 (soon to double), and I still need to get it painted. I’m estimating another $4,000 to $5,000 for a basic paint job at a very reputable local paint shop.

I think the final tally (as if it ever is really final) on my ‘58 Chevy restoration was around $12k including $5k for the paint job.

I have no monthly payments on any of mine or my wife’s cars.

Not at all. Been there, done that…and I’m cheap because of it.

Maintenance? 1 used brake caliper. 1 synthetic oil change, every 25,000 miles.

Diesel fuel has gone up. I spend $40 on a tankful every six weeks or so.

Insurance costs me $50/month, because I live in a bad part of town.

The car is making me money, not costing me.

As if there’s something wrong with being broke…

Depreciation $6000
Interest $500
Fuel $2250
Tools $150
Insurance $618
Maintenance $40
Repairs $500
——————
$10058

$9908/12000mi = 83.8 cents/mile

Depreciation accounts for 50 cents/mile

If I replace depreciation/interest with my car payment of $217/mo then it looks much better at 44.6 cents/mile

You mean like bobble heads or vanity mirrors?

I just stick with the absolutely necessary mods
like:
Dinan Stage II suspension ($2K)
AA gen III cat back exhaust ($500)
Urethane rtab, trans mount, subframe bushings ($300)
Delrin differential bushings ($150)
Euro floating rotors ($150 used)
stainless steel brake lines (~$100)
and soon..
helmet for performance driving events ($300)
aluminum radiator ($400)
M50 manifold & conversion kit ($475)
AA c38 supercharger ($4K) or used TT turbo kit ($4-5K)
lightweight flywheel and clutch ($1K)
ltw splitter ($1200)
Zenon lights ($700)
BBK ($8 million) or so it seems

and the basic maintenance stuff:
Oil change ($100)/7K miles
all other OE bushings ($400)
control arms ($300)
new ac control unit ($300) + maybe much more or a very hot summer
Inspection II ie. coolant, fuel filter, plugs, trans fluid, diff fluid ($200)
+ unknown electrical issues ($1,000,000)

So basically nothing and certainly not more than if I had just bought a comparably priced Mazda 3.