When I did math for commuting I used (15 years ago):
$0.10 / mile depreciation—based on buying a $13,000 used car and expecting to sell it for $3,000 in 10 years after driving 100,000 miles: number should be higher today.
$0.10 / mile for gas—based on ~28mpg and ~$2.80 /gal.
$0.03 / mile for oil/tires/normal replacements—based on spending ~$60 / 3,000 miles for an oil change and ~$200 / 20,000 miles for new tires.
$0.25 / mile for my time—assuming it’s mostly driving 60 miles an hour for a California commute at my at-the-time wage of $15/hr; adjust for your time value if using this to calculate commuting costs
Then I rounded it off to $0.50 / mile one-way, which is conveniently $20/month/mile for commuting. This let me easily compare potential rentals—and led to me moving in to apartment closest to the office, even though it was the highest nominal cost.
Ok, so the ’10 cents a mile for maintenance’, back checking, would be:
today it’s $400 for a tire change and you can get tires rated for 70k miles, let’s say they last only 60k.
0.667 cents
Oil is now about $70/10k miles, or 0.7 cents.
1.337 cents for consumables. So 8.663 cents for unforseen events, or each 100k miles, $8,663 in repairs.
A hybrid battery can be swapped for 2k, an engine can be replaced with a low mileage junkyard engine for about 2k-2.5k. A transmission can be swapped for about 2k as well. (for a low mileage one from a totaled vehicle)
It does sound like the repair cost is an over-estimate. Still, sometimes the simplest repair can be extremely pricey, I had leaking oil pan that cost $700 to get repaired in a hurry.
Those repair prices seem low, but we may just have an expensive mechanic and no inclination to try and DIY car stuff.
Personally, I’m on my third car (bought used from a dealer, so ~3 years old) in 20 years with a pattern of replacing the previous one the second time it has a repair bill over $200 (without doing the second repair), and having a 30 minute commute for most of that time.
Location and market dependent. There are large “engine swap” shops in some metro areas with specialists who advertise low swap prices. Bigger engines are more expensive.
I don’t like your algorithm. The design lifespan of a car is around 15 years, that is most parts are designed to last that long. More if a higher quality brand or low mileage. But mistakes get made—even highly reliable vehicles like a toyota prius have a couple of mistakes in their design. In the case of the prius, it has 2 main issues:
Blown engine head gaskets
Eventually, failed hybrid battery
The engine head gasket repair costs $1-2k. The hybrid battery is $2k if you swap it yourself for a new one, it’s straightforward given it’s a battery.
Point is you can see either failure at a point where every other component is in tip top shape. Like euthanizing a 25 year old because of a broken leg.
When I did math for commuting I used (15 years ago):
$0.10 / mile depreciation—based on buying a $13,000 used car and expecting to sell it for $3,000 in 10 years after driving 100,000 miles: number should be higher today.
$0.10 / mile for gas—based on ~28mpg and ~$2.80 /gal.
$0.03 / mile for oil/tires/normal replacements—based on spending ~$60 / 3,000 miles for an oil change and ~$200 / 20,000 miles for new tires.
$0.25 / mile for my time—assuming it’s mostly driving 60 miles an hour for a California commute at my at-the-time wage of $15/hr; adjust for your time value if using this to calculate commuting costs
Then I rounded it off to $0.50 / mile one-way, which is conveniently $20/month/mile for commuting. This let me easily compare potential rentals—and led to me moving in to apartment closest to the office, even though it was the highest nominal cost.
Ok, so the ’10 cents a mile for maintenance’, back checking, would be:
today it’s $400 for a tire change and you can get tires rated for 70k miles, let’s say they last only 60k.
0.667 cents
Oil is now about $70/10k miles, or 0.7 cents.
1.337 cents for consumables. So 8.663 cents for unforseen events, or each 100k miles, $8,663 in repairs.
A hybrid battery can be swapped for 2k, an engine can be replaced with a low mileage junkyard engine for about 2k-2.5k. A transmission can be swapped for about 2k as well. (for a low mileage one from a totaled vehicle)
It does sound like the repair cost is an over-estimate. Still, sometimes the simplest repair can be extremely pricey, I had leaking oil pan that cost $700 to get repaired in a hurry.
Those repair prices seem low, but we may just have an expensive mechanic and no inclination to try and DIY car stuff.
Personally, I’m on my third car (bought used from a dealer, so ~3 years old) in 20 years with a pattern of replacing the previous one the second time it has a repair bill over $200 (without doing the second repair), and having a 30 minute commute for most of that time.
Location and market dependent. There are large “engine swap” shops in some metro areas with specialists who advertise low swap prices. Bigger engines are more expensive.
I don’t like your algorithm. The design lifespan of a car is around 15 years, that is most parts are designed to last that long. More if a higher quality brand or low mileage. But mistakes get made—even highly reliable vehicles like a toyota prius have a couple of mistakes in their design. In the case of the prius, it has 2 main issues:
Blown engine head gaskets Eventually, failed hybrid battery
The engine head gasket repair costs $1-2k. The hybrid battery is $2k if you swap it yourself for a new one, it’s straightforward given it’s a battery.
Point is you can see either failure at a point where every other component is in tip top shape. Like euthanizing a 25 year old because of a broken leg.