I'm trying to figure out how old of a car to buy. The pleasure of a
new car is subjective so I'm interested purely in the objective cost
of ownership issues here.
What is the optimum age car to own in terms of "total cost of
ownership"?
Ideally I want a table or chart that gives "Age vs. Yearly_Cost",
along with the references to where the information came from.
Factors that probably most affect this are:
Depreciation of value - higher for newer cars
Repairs - higher for older cars
Other lesser factors probably include:
Insurance - higher for newer cars
Gas - higher for older cars
This question is probably too broad, so lets consider the specific
case of:
Honda Civic
Northern California
I'll accept answers that consider only the two factors of depreciation
and repairs, but would prefer numbers that include "the total cost".
I'll also accept answers that are averages over all cars, or are
calculated for a similar car, say in the Civic-Accord price range,
regardless of manufacturer.
The location information may not be relevant but wanted to include it
in case it comes up as a factor. |
Request for Question Clarification by
tar_heel_v-ga
on
11 Feb 2003 15:26 PST
Actually, there are 6 factor to consider: Interest, Depreciation,
Insurance, Fuel, Maintenance and Repairs, and Taxes. I can provide
you with a table that provides a per mile cost of operating various
sizes of vehilces in 2001 that are based upon costs over 5 years or
70,000 miles which includes depreciation, financing, insurance,
registration fees, taxes, fuel maintenance, and repairs. It is not
model specific, but rather size (compacy, van, etc). Would this
suffice?
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Clarification of Question by
jamesdavis-ga
on
12 Feb 2003 12:43 PST
Catagories of cars rather than specific cars are fine.
However let me comment that I want a chart that extends to 20 years of
age. I'm pretty sure I will not be buying a car newer than 5 years
old, so that the information given at Edmunds is not enough. Its the
right kind of information, but not sufficient. My car is currently 15
years old. What I want to know is should I upgrade to a new car, a 5
year old car, a 10 year old car, or keep what I have.
A link to the Edmunds site is here:
http://www.edmunds.com/new/2003/honda/civic/100178487/cto.html?tid=edmunds.n.options.leftsidenav..5.Honda*
And the data for a Civic is here.
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 5-yr Total
Depreciation $2,398 $1,305 $1,150 $1,019 $914 $6,786
Financing $1,020 $826 $616 $388 $141 $2,991
Insurance $900 $914 $928 $942 $956 $4,640
Taxes & Fees $1,411 $195 $178 $163 $150 $2,097
Fuel $712 $733 $755 $778 $801 $3,779
Maintenance $327 $643 $450 $1,002 $1,130 $3,552
Repairs $0 $0 $90 $215 $317 $622
Note that I will buy with cash so Financing is irrelevant, and
insurance, tax and fuel do not substantially change for the 5 years
given.
Also I question their maintenance and repairs lines since they think a
5 year old car requires $1500 to run. My 15 year old car has only now
gotten to the $1500 level (the pending repair is the reason for this
query). For the past 10 years it has been significantly below that.
Nevertheless I don't require the answerer to explain where the numbers
came from, just provide the table for a sufficient number of years
that I can see the whole curve.
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