what it really costs to drive a car

[Howell]

Ever wonder how much you're really paying to drive your car every year?

$7,967

That's how much a person driving a medium sedan 15,000 miles a year can expect to pay, excluding loan payments.

http://www.aaapublicaffairs.com/Mai...ID=&SubCategoryID=9&CategoryID=3&ContentID=23

 

[Handruin]

I don't want to figure out how much it costs me to use my car, I might cry.

 

[Howell]

I don't want to figure out how much it costs me to use my car, I might cry.

My motorcycle is in the shop getting work done. I'm gonna get the subaru fixed and buy an old diesel truck. No more car payments for me.

 

[Pradeep]

I don't understand, it says it doesn't include loan payments, but then it says it includes loan finance charges. So it's not including the principle, just the interest?

In any case, I'm getting around 33mpg with the Elantra, coming to less than $1400 per year for 15,000 miles. Even with insane insurance, I'm nowhere near $6250.

 

[sechs]

Subtracting out the cost of busses, trains, cabs, etc., I figure that I'm saving over $7000 a year by not owning a car.

Wow.

 

[timwhit]

I spend about $4500 a year owning a car that I drive about 2 times per month. I still owe about $6000 on it. So, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to sell it at this point. The interest rate on the loan is 0.9%, so I am paying very little in interest. If I get married I will go down to one car. No point in owning two cars for two people, if they just sit there depreciating.

I spend about $900-1000 per year on public transportation. Much better use of resources, if I say so myself.

I was pondering a thought the other day: what if the US gov't (state/local/federal) put 25% of the money that they spend on road infrastructure into public transportation. Think about how much public transit would improve in all metro areas. Maybe the day will come when ridership increases enough to warrant this. Maybe when oil hits $120/barrel and stays there for over 12 months.

 

[ddrueding]

My 35,000+mi/yr kinda goes off their charts...but I am in the "small" category, so I'm probably around $0.30/mi ($10,500/yr). My sailboat consumes no gas, but is also likely to cost me about $10,000/yr (sails, breakage, storage). I'm taking it out for the first time in about an hour; if you don't hear from me again, you know I've gone down with the ship

 

[sechs]

what if the US gov't (state/local/federal) put 25% of the money that they spend on road infrastructure into public transportation

What if the state of Texas put 10% of the money that it spends on road infrastucture into public transportation?

I figure, at least, Houston wouldn't have the highest per-capita mass transit accident rate.

If Alaska can get a bridge ot nowhere, maybe I can get some mass transit pork.