A car for $2 per day, $0.10 per mile

Cars
1

Our family just sold a car we bought used in 2009 with 50k miles on it. Just counting the capital expenditure, we logged $2 per day, $0.10 per mile.

2

I bought a new RAV4 in 2008 with 67,000 miles today. Never gonna sell it…

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3

curious what it would be if you include gas, maintenance, repairs.
Probably still a bargain, but more realistic as to the cost of having/using a vehicle.

I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of repairs (when, where, cost). It helps me to remember what has been done and when something is up for maintenance.
I never did this for fuel refills/costs though!

4

Probably so but I never considered it worthwhile to track this data. I only spend time recording data if it’s somehow actionable or if it would change my behavior. You’re inevitably going to have big maintenance spends especially as the vehicle ages and you’re off warranty. In a sense you have to ignore those, but I do follow Clark’s rules about “fix or replace?”.

5

Bought a new Outback in March 2014. We’ve taken only one longish trip with it over the years, most of our regular travel is within single digit miles from home, so it still has less than 30k miles. It spends over 90% of its life garaged, even more since the age of Covid. I am thinking about dropping all the insurance on it except liability coverages. What would Clark or the participants here do?

6

My Volvo EV just turned 1 Y/O. It cost me $60K new. I drove it 4,900 miles and it cost me $232 to charge it for those miles.

I deducted $7,500 from my 2022 FIT taxes for a net cost of $52,500. The current Kelly Blue Book is $54,456.

So the net cost of the 4,900 miles I drove is ($52,500 + fuel costs + maintenance costs) - market value = $1,724 more than paid.

So…I made 35 cents a mile driving it… :nerd_face: … right?

volvo-trade-in

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7

Wow, drive it at 55mph and you’ll be making close to $20/hr. Beats Minimum Wages. :innocent:

8

Dropping to only liability may very well be a good idea, especially if you don’t drive it much. But, you should have enough money on reserve that if you should accidentally wreck the car you have the money to repair it, or buy a new one. Looking up the car’s resale value should help you make a decision. Of course, if the car is totaled due to your own fault, you will have to replace the car at your own expense.

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