Have you computed? What has been your avg annual cost of vehicle ownership?

[BonzaiDuck]

Exclude your annual insurance premiums. Exclude your gasoline, oil and tire replacement.

Start with purchase price -- new or used, and add the expense of parts, repair, parts replacement etc. etc. If you had to borrow, the interest can also count as an expense.

What has been your average annual expense?

For my 28-year-old SUV ride, purchased as a 6-year-old used vehicle with 97,000 on the odometer, my average expense has been $1,500 per year. That is approximately $125 per month.

I feel comfortable with my numbers, but I don't know how good or how bad they are. I can say it certainly beats a $600/month car payment on the new-car equivalent for a vehicle in my vehicle's class -- mid-sized SUV.

Some people get frustrated for an unexpected repair of -- say -- a door-and-window mechanism for closing/opening the window, of maybe $800, so they dump their used car. I've been determined to keep my ride totally restored and repaired. I have the patience and the time.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Hyundai Genesis Coupe - bought for 23, interest total was 3k, and my only major repairs were a transmission at EoL ($1500) and a master cylinder (net $400). Had the vehicle for 10 years. 232/mo.

Current mazda3 - 2017 model bought for 15k in 2018. Interest probably 1k at most (paid off early). Replaced my spark plugs but that was about it. So an extra $100? Currently at 268/mo and getting lower the longer I have it.

Part of me wants to trade up for a new mini Cooper EV next year. We'll see.

 

[pete6032]

2018 Subaru Impreza owned for 3 years.

2021: $400
2022: $1,200
2023 YTD: $350

All standard maintenance items. Some done myself, others done by mechanic.

I have 10 years of service on my Civic that I can check too. All saved in Google docs.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Hyundai Genesis Coupe - bought for 23, interest total was 3k, and my only major repairs were a transmission at EoL ($1500) and a master cylinder (net $400). Had the vehicle for 10 years. 232/mo.

Current mazda3 - 2017 model bought for 15k in 2018. Interest probably 1k at most (paid off early). Replaced my spark plugs but that was about it. So an extra $100? Currently at 268/mo and getting lower the longer I have it.

Part of me wants to trade up for a new mini Cooper EV next year. We'll see.

I haven't kept up! I had been eyeing the mini-Cooper before it had become clear that hybrid or EV was probably the best way to go. I didn't know they'd gone "EV", so thanks for the tip-off.

I checked your numbers, and they seem about right. In comparison, one could say my $125/month for a 28-year-old orphaned model is a tad high. But, starting in 2018 when a discarded 32" "tube-type" TV decided not to stay in place and broke my rear windshield, I embarked on restoration as anything subsequent needed it.

First off, I lost my mechanic and his shop to retirement in 2018, and had to risk the vagaries of market-search to find new support. So, one of the sampled repair shops was given the task of replacing my ball-joints, and they chose to use a defective issue or model of MOOG units, requiring eventually new replacements again when tires were replaced in 2021. They had overcharged for the parts markup, and several other items of front-end suspension repair.

I even replaced the harmonic balancer on the front of the engine at the crankshaft. I'd added fog-lights, a $350 sound, wi-fi and bluetooth sound system with rear-view night-vision, and a $500 grille-guard, but those shouldn't count in this cost estimate, as being discretionary and extra to the intrinsic cost of necessary repair and maintenance. Overall, since 2018, I'd invested about $6,500 excluding these extras. But as part of a long-term 21-year average including the $8,500 purchase price, that still makes my monthly average lower than what I'd stated.

It's sort of a paradox. I was determined to squeeze everything out of this old SUV, so "de-prioritizing" a vehicle in my life-style expenditures. But the value of having a tip-top ride was a high-priority. I think it's been successful. I feel proud about it, actually, but I imagine my neighbors with their Mercedes and Teslas asking themselves quietly "Doesn't that guy have any money at all to afford a newer car?" So Pride confronts "Keeping Up with the Joneses".

 

[NutBucket]

I think in general I've spent way more money on modifications than repairs. I'm OK with that.

That's changed with more recent vehicles but overall still holds true.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think in general I've spent way more money on modifications than repairs. I'm OK with that.

That's changed with more recent vehicles but overall still holds true.

I can see how that would happen if you have an inclination for that sort of thing. In fact, finding someone who leans toward my own proclivities is inspiring as well. I think I cited my $1,000 in total projects. The only recent annoyance occurred when I replaced the 7.5" Chinese tablet with a considerably faster Samsung (could've been made in China no less . . ). It had a newer Android version, so now, when I'm going through my "instrument checklist" and initialization, I must also touch the tablet to pair my BlueTooth. But the Sammy tablet doesn't start clucking over "relocating" when Google Maps has been severed from the internet for weeks at a time. Everything works perfectly, even with the extra Bluetooth attentions.

So.

Inspired as I seem to be at the moment, I am finally going to install that LED "Disco-light" kit I'd bought at COSTCO two years ago. I had already set up the wiring and low-amperage fuses with the auxiliary fuse-box connection, so I just have to place the LED strips in the car and hook them up. I want to test out how they respond to some "Public Enemy" sounds from the Android with "Pulsar" and Polk Audios.

IMAGINED "THEM": Why doesn't he buy a newer vehicle?
ME: This is soo-o-o-o coo-uullll! [thump-thump-a-thump . . . thumpity-thump]

 

[NutBucket]

While I have installed a few stereos, the bulk of the mods were performance related.

Heck, even my 2012 Accord has an aftermarket rear sway bar.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

2017 Focus Ecoboost SE bought new - $14,400 including tax & registration.
Totaled in 2023 with 66K miles on it - $13,450 payout after $250 deductible
Zero repairs required.
Cost of ownership of 71.9 months = $950 or $13/month.

2012 Focus Titanium bought new- $22,500 including tax & registration
$3500 transmission repair + $60 vacuum line
11.7yrs old and still running = $185/month

I refuse to calculate the "other" car - over $9K in expenses over the last 24-months including radiator, hoses, heater hoses, all vacuum lines, all heater lines, engine out head gasket repair & resurfacing, water pump, coils, plugs, timing chain 2X, Cam gears, engine mgmt computer, Bremob pads & rotors, and the most recent a $450 convertible top sensor. Ugh!

 

[Fenixgoon]

2017 Focus Ecoboost SE bought new - $14,400 including tax & registration.
Totaled in 2023 with 66K miles on it - $13,450 payout after $250 deductible
Zero repairs required.
Cost of ownership of 71.9 months = $950 or $13/month.

2012 Focus Titanium bought new- $22,500 including tax & registration
$3500 transmission repair + $60 vacuum line
11.7yrs old and still running = $185/month

I refuse to calculate the "other" car - over $9K in expenses over the last 24-months including radiator, hoses, heater hoses, all vacuum lines, all heater lines, engine out head gasket repair & resurfacing, water pump, coils, plugs, timing chain 2X, Cam gears, engine mgmt computer, Bremob pads & rotors, and the most recent a $450 convertible top sensor. Ugh!

what is your "other" car? cause i too have an "other" car

 

[repoman0]

I think in general I've spent way more money on modifications than repairs. I'm OK with that.

That's changed with more recent vehicles but overall still holds true.

I am in for modifications more than my purchase price at this point for my “other” car … certainly more than repairs which have been surprisingly very close to $0. If you ignore the thousands in preventative maintenance of course

 

[Saylick]

2015 Honda Fit which I bought new for $19000 out the door. Put $2000 down and the rest was financed at 4% interest over 4 years. Final monthly payment was around $400 per month, so I paid about $2000 in interest. After that, I haven't had much maintenance expenses outside of your normal oil change, tire change, registration renewal, new cabin air filters, car insurance, that kind of stuff.

I've had the car for 8 years now, so if you want me to exclude normal maintenance items, I guess that just leaves the interest as the only expense: $125/year.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

2015 Honda Fit which I bought new for $19000 out the door. Put $2000 down and the rest was financed at 4% interest over 4 years. Final monthly payment was around $400 per month, so I paid about $2000 in interest. After that, I haven't had much maintenance expenses outside of your normal oil change, tire change, registration renewal, new cabin air filters, car insurance, that kind of stuff.

I've had the car for 8 years now, so if you want me to exclude normal maintenance items, I guess that just leaves the interest as the only expense: $125/year.

What's your mileage now on that bad boy? I ran a whole string of Civics during my previous incarnation and work-life. I'd bought one of them new for $4,500, and each of the others for between $500 and $1,000 -- all interchangeable parts. Of course, that's nominal dollars for 1980 to 1995 . . .

 

[Saylick]

What's your mileage now on that bad boy? I ran a whole string of Civics during my previous incarnation and work-life. I'd bought one of them new for $4,500, and each of the others for between $500 and $1,000 -- all interchangeable parts. Of course, that's nominal dollars for 1980 to 1995 . . .

It's not much, like 40,000 miles. I have a motorcycle which is my true daily driver so I don't rack up too many miles on the good ol' Fit. My car insurance asked me twice to verify in writing what my car's mileage is because they don't believe me when tell them I'm only putting 6k miles per year on the Fit, if even that.

She's mighty reliable and I treat her as well as I can. Pure synthetic motor oil with Mobil 1 filters. I change the oil myself when the car's self reported oil life goes down to 10%. Just spooned on new Yokohama tires not too long ago and they roll smooth. Gas mileage is solid at 40-42 mpg highway. With hypermiling techniques, 45 mpg is feasible.

I plan on keeping her for another 10 years if I can.

 

[alfa147x]

I have two cars and am considering taking on more of the routine maintenance myself. I had a 94 Altima, a 07 Civic, and a 13 Civic. Then, I spent about 3 years carless and bought a car when I moved out west. I hate paying for mechanics to work on my cars, so now that I have a garage, I'm leaning towards DIY'ing oil, brakes, and other auto fluids like I did on my previous cars. It was a shame, but I installed a new radiator and did AC repairs on my last Civic before selling it a few months later.

But that means I'm in the market for a jack and some jack stands.

2017 BMW F32 - 428i MT @ 32k miles	Cost
Buy car	$ 24,500
Annual maint + registration - Year 1	$ 1,000
Annual maint + registration - Year 2	$ 1,000
Annual maint + registration - Year 3	$ 1,000
Annual maint + registration - Year 4	$ 1,000
Tires	$ 1,000
Total	$ 29,500
Per year	$ 7,375
per month	$ 615

2018 BMW F22 - m248i @ 18k miles	Cost
Buy car	$ 30,000
Annual maint + registration - Year 1	$ 1,000
Tires	$ 1,000
Total	$ 32,000

 

[BurnItDwn]

My numbers all wrong as i didnt exclude tires/maintenance ....




my 2008 Subaru that i bought used in 2009 with 6k down and ~11k in payments with 5 year financing (that i paid off in ~2) cost me around 18K for the total P&I and sales tax
Registration was around 100 per year for the 10 years I owned it.
I took it in for around 25 oil changes on it during the time i owned it. It had around 15 tire rotations. Sometimes free since bought tires at costco, sometimes like $35 from my local mechanic.
It had new tires twice at around $700 or so a set.
Head gasket job was around $2500
Timing belt and some other repairs around 100k miles cost me around $1500 out of pocket.
Resonator/muffler repairs around 130k miles was under 1K
Various other repairs/maintenance over the decade i drove it took place .. car had rear drums, and the front disks lasted a long long time.

Overall, i spent between 25K and 26K for the 10 years on purchase and maintenance.

At the time the car was totaled (my younger cousin crashed it.), I got around $7000 from the insurance after 1K deductible.


Cost was around 150 per month for a car that was lightly used when i bought it, and drove like 150k miles on, and never broke down or left me stranded.



Car I bought for my wife in 2016 gets very low miles, had a lot of use at first when MIL lived near us and always needed to borrow. Was around 19K for total P&I and sales tax. It has needed a few expensive repairs as well as all the regular maintenance and new tires. Around 8k in total for brakes, tires, oil changes, ring gear problem, fuel tank valve issue, and radiator issue and accessory belt related issues. Around $320 per month in total ownership expenses excluding gas and insurance.

Current replacement cost if i tried to find a 2010 Ford Edge with around 130K miles in similar condition is around $8K, so if I factor that into things, then we have essentially lost around $225 per month in depreciation/wear/repairs.


In 2019, i spent about 30K on a 2016 Lexus GS350 AWD. It has only had regularly scheduled maintenance. I work remote, and put MUCH MUCH less miles on cars now.
Brakes expensive, Tires expensive. I haven't had sticker shock on anything yet. And haven't broken down or had a failure of anything yet. We are looking at 4K between oil changes, tire rotation, radiator service, brake job, and tires.

Car still has around 60K miles on it, and finding a replacement in the current car market would take some time since GS-350 AWD cars are not very common.
If i do a search across all of USA for cars with under 75K miles plus or minus 1 year, the cheapest private party sales are around 21K for a 2015 with more miles.
Finding a 2016 with comparable miles, most dealers are asking 27-30k. If I increase mileage in my search to up to 100k, then im seeing some on autotrader in the 24k price range.

In any case, I've spent 34k in total in the 4 years i've had it, but its only seen like 7K in depreciation/maintenance/repair costs over 4 years

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Gas, payments, insurance, maintenance, tends to be anywhere from $0.10 to $0.22 per mile depending on the car.

 

[Brainonska511]

Why exclude things like insurance and gas? Isn't the best comparison going to be total cost per year for the vehicle, all inclusive of the things you need to do to keep it running and street legal?

I just got a new car in October, so maintenance has been non-existent. Goes in for dealer included maintenance at 8k miles/1 year in about a month. Outside of that, full coverage ($1k deductible) insurance runs about $1k annually, $100/mo for a garage spot at my apartment complex, and we probably spend about $20/mo on gas, thanks to not too much driving and the vehicle routinely gets 50+ mpg thanks to being a hybrid.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I buy used, at least 5 years old. I usually run them 'til they die, only rarely selling one. I only fix what breaks other than tires, oil changes and routine items like brakes. If I was spending $1,500 a year on maintenance and fixing a vehicle, I'd be getting rid of it.

Other than gas, my largest onging expense is usually insurance since I try to pay off the purchase price in under a year. Paid $4K for this '98 Tahoe and paid it off in about 6 months. Fixed a few lower cost items the previous owner let go. We'll have to see how it holds up, but if it starts costing me money, I'm not opposed to getting rid of it.

I don't drive enough to eat tires in less than 7 or 8 years.

 

[manly]

Why exclude things like insurance and gas? Isn't the best comparison going to be total cost per year for the vehicle, all inclusive of the things you need to do to keep it running and street legal?

I just got a new car in October, so maintenance has been non-existent. Goes in for dealer included maintenance at 8k miles/1 year in about a month. Outside of that, full coverage ($1k deductible) insurance runs about $1k annually, $100/mo for a garage spot at my apartment complex, and we probably spend about $20/mo on gas, thanks to not too much driving and the vehicle routinely gets 50+ mpg thanks to being a hybrid.

OP: Exclude a lot of things that go into TCO.
Not sure if anybody mentioned depreciation, which is a top line item for late model cars.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

OP: Exclude a lot of things that go into TCO.
Not sure if anybody mentioned depreciation, which is a top line item for late model cars.

Depreciation is irrelevant if you assume you're going to bury the car after 250k miles. I've been offered $500 for a trade-in more than once - I get more money if I donate it.

 

[NutBucket]

Insurance is part of TCO but nearly impossible to use as metric since there are SO many variables.

Gas should absolutely be considered.

 

[manly]

Depreciation is irrelevant if you assume you're going to bury the car after 250k miles. I've been offered $500 for a trade-in more than once - I get more money if I donate it.

We have different definitions of irrelevant. Ignored by the owner is still very relevant in my book.
The average new car now costs about $50k; even amortized over 20 years that's $2500 annually. So whether you choose to consider that the initial purchase price or depreciation over many years, it's the most significant portion of TCO.

Obviously you can't avoid depreciation, but you can mitigate it by not buying brand new cars. But just because the typical car owner never consciously thinks about depreciation as part of TCO doesn't mean it isn't real and usually substantial.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

We have different definitions of irrelevant. Ignored by the owner is still very relevant in my book.
The average new car now costs about $50k; even amortized over 20 years that's $2500 annually. So whether you choose to consider that the initial purchase price or depreciation over many years, it's the most significant portion of TCO.

Obviously you can't avoid depreciation, but you can mitigate it by not buying brand new cars. But just because the typical car owner never consciously thinks about depreciation as part of TCO doesn't mean it isn't real and usually substantial.

Oh, I definitely thing of the cost of the vehicle as part of the TCO - I just don't try to lower the TCO by pretending it's going to worth anything when I'm done with it.

I should have said resale is irrelevant*.

*To me.

Typically, the people I hear worrying about the depreciation of a car are the ones who intend to sell it, in which case they'll go on and on about how their $50k car "only" cost them $20k or something when they traded it in for another $50k car.

Edit: Which is technically true, but also means you're not getting the majority of the value out of the purchase by amortizing the cost over the maximum number of miles. If you want to eat $0.50/mile in depreciation and add that to your TCO, fine, i guess?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yes -- insurance and gasoline would be part of TCO if they vary significantly depending on the car-purchase strategy.

I was tempted to get a replacement for my orphaned, 28-year-old Trooper. In town, I'm paying just over 50-cents per mile on the fuel; the other day, the price of Premium here had spiked to $6.80/gal.

But the Trooper runs perfectly, with new brakes, refurbed suspension, new starter and new windshield-washer pump. I recently took the plunge into uncertainty, dismissing the occasional sob-story about blown-out transmission seals, and put the recommended 9 oz of Blue-Devil tranny-stop-leak into the transmission. No more leaks to keep track of and top up! The Marvel Mystery Oil has completely cleaned my upper engine, which now runs quiet as a mouse. I expect to get good scores with low HC and NOx in my upcoming smog test. I met an owner of a ten-year-old Jeep Wrangler the other day, to compare notes about city gas mileage, and the Trooper matches the Wrangler's 12 mpg, so I shouldn't be in such a panic.

However, drastically increasing my annual mileage from the longstanding 3,500 miles per year would rouse me to consider other vehicular alternatives.

My insurance bill is about $450/annum on the Trooper. Various sources and opinions suggest that new car insurance would be considerably more. Risk of theft would be more on a new car, even if covered by the insurance.

I suppose I'm waiting for a day when I can find a used EV that can get 750 miles on a charge, and be able to pay for 75% of it in a cash outlay.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't really keep track of all repair costs, but I paid 14k IIRC for my 2009 F150 in 2019 and had a few repairs that were close to 1k and I also bought new tires at around 2.5k, so let's call it 1k/year average cost for total of 18k. Or about $375/mo. Come to think of it that's higher than I would have thought. Still cheaper than buying new though, since that number will go down the longer I own it.

Insurance and gas would add to that though. Around $170/mo for insurance (including house but the vehicle is the bulk of the cost) and maybe around $200/mo in gas give or take.