*Edit* I punched a number wrong on the calc-a-mater, and had the fuel costs wrong in the initial post. It's correct now.


As I've mentioned in the past, I have a company-owned 2001 Accord. It currently has 258,100 miles on it. All work and maintenance has been done at the local dealership, according to the maintenance intervals. There have been occasional oil changes at quick-lube shops, but by and large 98% of the service this car has seen has been at Williamson Honda. The car is 100% stock from the assembly line.

They're talking about replacing the car, so I sat down and did some quick math. Some numbers are just rounded estimates. I tried to think of everything, but did NOT include insurance costs. The parts and labor records came from the dealership data base. 3 sets of tires are from outside the dealership, 1 set came from them. I figured that into the numbers below. For fuel costs I used the average price of fuel spanning 2001 to 2008 in Nebraska, 87 octane. I fully realize this is hardly scientific. It's just my findings, I'm not attempting to make any kind of point.

It's also worth noting that one-fourth of the labor & parts listed below have been in this last year,after passing approximately 225,000 miles.

Purchase Price in 2001: $21,000.00
All labor on the car to date: $5,689.00
All parts on the car to date: $3,373.00
Tires not purchased at dealer: $1,750.00
9,200 gal of fuel at $2.30/gal: $21,160.00

TOTAL PURCHASE AND OPERATING COSTS: $52,972

COSTS DIVIDED BY 258,200 MILES: $0.205 / MILE

 

Great info! Thanks for sharing it!

If you could split it year wise (w/depreciation accounted for at the start of each year), then it would reveal the true worth of the car as a used car purchase. It'll require a lot of patience though...

 

Doesn't mean that your costs will remain low after 258k miles.
Here's Edmunds True Cost of Ownership:
http://www.edmunds.com/apps/cto/CTOintroController

 

lol awesome.

 

I would quibble about a couple of points.Firstinsurance will probably cost several thousand per year. I would also include depreciation differently, as the car is continually losing value which is a cost of ownership. Subtract estimated current value from purchase price. This will slightly reduce ownership costs.

thanks for the post.

regards

 

I have state minimum - liability only on my accord and it costs me about $240 a year.

 

Very true.
That was the point in my last paragraph.
The costs have gone up exponentially in the last year.


As stated in my second paragraph, I did not include insurance. Insurance varies too widely for each driver and geographical area. Including it would make the operating costs meaningless to others in other areas. The info is mean only as true operating costs.

 

Mr. Bosch

My thougts:

Your costs are interesting but as you say not the true cost of ownership.

If your transmission or engine should fail today the cost per mile would go up quite a bit.

The cost today of operating a small Honda in CA. must be at least .50/mile.

 

I keep my maintenance log in an excel spreadsheet. So I can add up maintenance & other costs. For grins I converted costs into present-value. For me it's about like this... (per mile)

$0.236 capital depreciation
$0.091 maintenance
$0.094 gasoline
$0.070 insurance

Maintenance is low because I only pay for parts. If I gave myself a few bucks an hour for labor, I'd have to admit to my wife that it would make sense NOT to do my own work.