Inspired by /u/points4trying, aka Altima dude over there, I decided to see what my total cost of ownership was on my little putt putt car. Now we can compare a brand new car's TCO to a car that would be crowned king of cheap transport, if such a title were to be crowned. It's a 2005 Toyota Corolla CE with an automatic transmission.
I keep pretty good records, though I'll admit not as perfect as that dude, and not as accurate (we have multiple cars on the policy, and I can't find where Progressive breaks down which cars cost how much, so I took the easy road and just divided it by 2). It could legitimately be cheaper, because this was always the lesser valued vehicle on the policy.
I paid cash for this car in August of 2012. My purchase price includes all the dealership fees and tax, but not registration or new tag. I purchased it with 128k miles on it, it currently has 228k miles on it. I think the blue book value is a little high, there are some on craigslist here for around $1500-$2000 with similar miles, but some closer to $3k also.
- Purchase price: $3,629.75
- KBB private party value right now: $2,813 in "good" condition.
For fuel, I've tracked my miles fairly well using fuelly.com. I missed almost 19k worth, probably when my wife was driving it because she never writes down the damn mileage. They're fairly evenly dispersed, and my MPGs are fairly consistent week to week, so I averaged the miles and am using these values. I also have a ScanGauge on the dash which logs miles and fuel used and etc. It's always within 1 mpg =/- what I calculate at the pump. Maybe a difference in how much the pumps fill, maybe it's just a little off. I feel like it evens out. It agrees with the 34.1 Fuelly says though, and it's been in the car since about 1k miles after I bought the car. Again, these values are estimated, but pretty damn close.
- Total gas used: 2,932.551 gal
- Total cost: $7,683.82
- Avg $/gal: $2.62
- Avg mpg: 34.1
Maintenance, Insurance, and other stuff. Disclaimer here: I'm an auto tech at a dealership (non-Toyota) so I get oil, tires, etc at cost. Sometimes it saves quite a bit. I also do my own work so I don't have any labor costs, and already have all of the tools I need. The 20th oil change is due in about 100 miles, so I'll include that for the hell of it.
- Number of oil changes: 20
- Oil change cost: $213.34
- Repair parts: $225 (battery and ATF filters/fluid is actually the only non-oil/tire repair costs I've incurred)
- Tires: $380 - but I'm almost due for another set so we could double this safely to $760
- Insurance: $1600 - liability only
- Registration: $558.12 - it's an old car and I live in a county with fairly low property taxes.
I've done a few upgrades, like some retrofit projector headlights, aftermarket speakers and an aftermarket head unit. Speakers and head unit were out of a used car trade at the dealership, but we can ballpark it anyway with used prices on eBay for the same head unit, and speakers are pretty easy to find for $50-$70, so I'll go with one of each. This is just so I don't feel like I'm cheating.
Headlights/projectors: $252.73 Head unit: $105 Speakers: $120
Overall, my total spent on this car (sans upgrades) comes out to $14,670.03 over almost exactly 100k miles. $15,147.76 with the totally wicked upgrades. With upgrades, minus KBB valuation, $12,335.76
TCO/mile: $.123 - $.119 if you don't include the upgrades
In closing, I'm rather impressed. I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find another model doing it better. I specifically bought this vehicle because I knew it would have a low cost of ownership. It could do a little better than the 12.3 cents/mile if my insurance were more accurate or if the upgrades weren't included.
Submitted January 26, 2018 at 11:20PM by smittyjones http://ift.tt/2rIP29k
