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> $20,000 - $30,000 people spend to own a car Yearly? That seems high. My car is paid off and I pay nothing for parking (other than whatever portion of my stee
by llimllib 15y ago
> $20,000 - $30,000 people spend to own a car
Yearly? That seems high. My car is paid off and I pay nothing for parking (other than whatever portion of my steep Baltimore City property taxes pays for it).
Anyway, let's say I drive 8000 miles in a year, my car gets 30 mpg and gas is $4 a gallon. 8000/30=267 gallons * 4 = $1068 per year on gas.
My car's paid off, but I bought it 5 years ago for $10k, so let's just amortize that evenly per year, and assume it will die at the end of the year, and say I paid $2k per year for it.
My maintenance in the past year has been minimal; I think my greatest cost was replacing a headlamp. (knock on wood). Let's say $250 just to be conservative.
Let's add another $250 for government taxes, fees, etc.
Therefore, in the last year, my car cost me about 1068+2000+250+250 = $3568, nearly an order of magnitude less than your assessment.
- _delirium 15y agoI assumed his estimate was for buying a new car, not yearly. Your numbers seem approximately right for yearly, although you also have to add in insurance. I think my maintenance expenses have averaged more like $500 as well, between routine maintenance and an oil change once a year, new tires every 4-5 years, battery change every 3-5 years, and miscellaneous mishaps (had to replace my windshield once after it got hit by a rock when parked in a city).
- llimllib 15y agoGood points both, my insurance is $1300/yr, and if we up the maintenance estimate we get ~$5000/yr. I've been fortunate that my car has run with nearly no repairs, and city living hasn't done much damage to it besides some moron who ran into the bumper and drove off while it was parked. (I assumed it was for buying a new car too, I just wanted to point out that the yearly cost of owning a car is much less than the number he was using.)
- jedbrown 15y agoYou might have skipped insurance in your list, but I don't think the parent meant $20k-30k as the yearly cost (because that much is rare), but as the initial purchase price (which is common when buying new).
- llimllib 15y agoright, and I just mean to point out that it's not the relevant number to compare to, while providing a useful comparison.
- lutorm 15y agoWhat's your insurance cost? Most people probably pay at least $500 per year for insurance. But the majority of a car's cost is depreciation, which of course will quickly take your estimates up by 2-3x if you buy a new car. (Which, even though it's such an atrociously bad economic decision, a surprising lot of people seem to do.)
- llimllib 15y ago> What's your insurance cost? Right, I forgot that, and you can see in a comment above that it brings my yearly cost up to about $5000.