Like I said I tracked maintenance and repair costs over hundreds of thousands of miles. When I looked at the actual amortization of the vehicle cost there wasn’t a dimes worth of difference whether I started with new or a car with 100,000 miles. Over the long haul it made little difference. Just depends how much you drive. Buy new or used, driv3 for 15 years and 400,000 miles, no appreciable difference. So don’t think you save a lot of money buying used if you plan to drive it and not just look at it. Five year warranty, hardly any repairs compared to paying 50% for a five year old car with 100,000 miles. Suit yourself and your budget but don’t fool yourself.
Our fleet manager with several thousand cars, claimed most major work was needed in the 100 to 130,000 mile range. Then we’re good again for a while. Now that was many years ago and cars have changed.
Other factors to include in the cost of owning a vehicle are Depreciation (it will be worth less each year…), and Tolls and Parking Fees (none of which you would have if you took a bus, a taxi, a train, or your bicycle…)
It is a crapshoot, you can look at this that and the other thing and drive yourself crazy. My preference is to buy a car off a 3 year lease from the dealer that leased t with all records of maintenance
The OP is asking too many questions of one spreadsheet so let’s make it simple.
Take the “on the road cost” of the vehicle, subtract any expected resale value, divide it by the number of years you expect to keep it and that’s your annual depreciation.
Add your annual fixed costs, (insurance, tag renewal/taxes, garage, loan interest, etc.)
Add your expected variable costs based on your usage/mileage (gas, tolls, tires, repairs & maintenance, etc.)
Now you’ve got your expected annual costs and simply repeat for any alternative vehicles.
My general outlook is that the cheapest alternative is to “Buy New and Keep” until the cost of major repairs become prohibitive.
Leasing is the most expensive unless you can take a business tax deduction and/or have the need for a fairly new vehicle.
Buying Used can be a bargain because you avoid the Early Years Depreciation BUT without a warranty it can be much more risky. A through pre-purchase inspection will help reduce the risk
I have spent $13,697.31 in the 26 years of owning my vehicle + $3,446.57 for gasoline. That doesn’t consider the lost opportunity cost of spending the money otherwise, and it’s not adjusted for inflation.
But how many miles was that??? Last I heard you only drive 100 miles a year, but I know with that much in gas, that you used to drive way more… lol
But again that averages to only about $11.00 a month in gas over the 26 years…
To continue this list of expected maintenace:
Alignments
Coolant change
Transmission fluid drain and fill.
Brake fluid change every 10 or 15 years.
Timing belt and/or regular belts if applicable.
Air filter (sometimes behind some things)
Spark plugs
Then there are the things that usually fail but aren’t part of regular maintenance:
Engine mounts.
Exhaust issues.
CV axle rubber boot cracking, must replace or disassemble and repack.
Fuel pump replacement
Alternator rebuild or replacement.
A/C refrigerant charge and compressor replacement.
Replacement light bulbs. Not always easy to access.
Ball joints, struts, control arms, and other suspension.
Cracked rubber on brake calipers. Must rebuild or replace.
Wheel bearings
Belt tensioner bearing dries out.
Wires going to the driver’s door break
Window regulator wears out and the window won’t go up
Cabin fan wears out
Parking brake cable gets water in it.
Door handles break.
Remove and clean door and hood open sensor switches.
Hood and rear hatch struts need replacement.
ABS sensor goes out.
Electric power steering fails. Usually a non serviceable part.
Blend door actuator for climate control stops working.
Windshield needs replacement. The replacements often ■■■■■ (krack).
Some cars will need a whole transmission replacement.
Infotainment will go dead.
At least one power lock will get stuck.
Radiator will get a small ■■■■■ in it that grows.
Spark plug wires or a coil pack will go bad.
Something will happen with either the EGR or fuel EVAP emissions system and give you a CEL.
Rear main seal will star leaking (happened to 2014 RAM with ~120k miles)
So depending on the model of the car, any of the above things can be added to expected maintenance.
It makes a huge difference if there is a high chance the vehicle will be stolen or destroyed in an accident. A $20,000 almost new car and a $5,000 older but properly maintained car cost the same to own and maintain, but there is a $15,000 difference if the vehicle is destroyed. Full coverage insurance costs will reflect this difference.
I used to live in a cabin in the mountains. For a while I lived out of my truck. I used to go hiking in the mountains. As my health has declined I don’t get around so much anymore.
I hoped it was obvious that my example was extreme but also an invitation to others to post theirs. You don’t know until you look. I’ve spent $4,176.12 on my bicycle over the last 21 years, about 4¢/mile. I didn’t keep track before that, would have guessed less.
Pffftttt, I couldn’t tell you what I have spent this year on anything much, much less how much or little now a days I have spent on gas… without going through bank statements anyway…
Ask me next year and my Fuelly App will tell me…
I can however tell you how many miles I put on 2 full synthetic 0w20 oil changes for my truck… lol
FYI I like the Edmunds one better. It shows the cost for each year. I used my 2024 Mini as an example. First year depreciation cost is $12k!!! After that less than $2k per each year.
Moral of story. Don’t buy new. Saving $12k in just one year will easily cover almost any potential unexpected repair bill.
Yep, it says a 2025 Camry loses $4500 the first year on a $40,000 sticker. And benefits of buying new could well outweigh that cost savings, especially after lower interest rates are included.
If you look at the Edmunds site MikeInNH mentioned it shows expense by year. After the first year it’s pretty much the same for each year thereafter.
So it doesn’t really matter a whole lot if you buy a one year old car or a 5 year old car. Just comes down to how much you can do for a down payment.
Btw that Edmunds calculation comes very close to the same numbers I was getting when I worked for a bank. I would tell the banks customers best to buy any used car regardless of age. It’s just the first year on a new car that’s a killer. Not worth it.
Yes I know some Japanese cars have much less than 20% depreciation the first year. But that’s about it. For most cars 20% is a good rule of thumb.
I ALWAYS buy new. You just never know (even with an inspection) what you’re buying unless personally know the person selling the vehicle. I’ve told this story in this forum before - I had an engineer who worked for me, and he leased a new car every other year. He would NEVER EVER do any maintenance (including oil changes). I buy new to avoid sellers like that. Then keep the vehicle for 300k+ miles.
Here we go again. Depreciation is just a bookkeeping entry, not an actual out of pocket cost. You don’t realize any depreciation cost until you sell the car. It may vary but cars lose around 50% of their value over five years, but so what? Sell or don’t sell, probably already spent the money. Stock goes up or down, did you make or lose money if you didn’t sell? It’s all funny money.
Once again, what is the purpose of trying to calculate total car cost. Trying to decide to walk or take the bus? Yep, cars are expensive. So are houses, and vacations, and . . .
If you keep a car that long then it’s not that expensive but that engineer certainly didn’t know much about finance. That first year depreciation is baked into the lease rates. Like I said I worked for a bank. I saw the numbers. He was paying a lot for that luxury.
My uncle always bought a new car every two years. Fancy too. Ended up having to work at Walmart to the day he died and was always broke in retirement.
This is what people in their lifetimes will now spend on cars. Sad to think that for a lot of people they won’t have that $1.6mill for retirement. Like my uncle. He spent it on cars.
