Repair-It

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2014031 ... dailydrive

This isn't as good as I thought it would be. Nothing I own costs me $9150/yr.

Wow, that's a lot. That is probably more than any of my cars have ever cost. Including fuel over the life of the car.

That does seem steep, but I think we're all forgetting how poor some owners' decision making skills are. For example, I replaced the front pads and rotors and flushed the brake fluid in my wife's Kia Rondo yesterday for around $85. If she had gone to the dealer and requested the same work, it might have been around $300-400, or maybe more than that. Worse yet, if someone does that and then says, "I can afford a car payment for the cost of these repairs," then they can really increase their cost of ownership.

Fun with metrics thanks to Fuelly.

Total spent on gas in 2013:

Ranger: $45.41 / 234.7 miles / 12.48 gallons
CTS-V: $495.70 / 2,618.7 miles / 132.04 gallons
Caprice: $1,062.30 / 4,706.1 miles / 295.17 gallons
Malibu: $541.17 / 3,308.7 miles / 145.85 gallons
Maxima: $887.09 / 6,006.9 miles / 241.4 gallons

Keep in mind I do use the stop and shop gas points.

But all 5 of my cars, between 2 drivers, and 16,875.1 miles of driving, cost me $3,031.67 in 2013. Used 826.94 gallons translating to a fleet average of 20.4 mpg. If my fleet average went up a whopping 50% to 30.6 mpg, I'd save $1,000 a year. Big deal. If I DOUBLED my fleet mileage (how much would this cost and would I really want to drive whatever would accomplish that?) I'd still only save $1,500 a year.

Basically I can drive whatever I want (MPG wise) as far as I'm concerned. Yay.

For me (2013):

Prius: $728.22 / 11842 miles / 229.5 gallons / 51.6 MPG overall
Elise: $161.93 / 1245.9 miles / 44.7 gallons / 27.9 MPG overall

Under $1000 for the year! That's probably a first for me, or at least a first since gas was really cheap. My conclusion from looking at this is I shouldn't be concerned about economy in the fun car because I drive it so little.

Say I went out and bought a 2 year old Prius (2012) with 35k on it for $18k (a real car). Say that I drove it 80% of my fleet's non-Malibu miles, that I average 48mpg and gas cost the same average $3.68/gal that I paid in 2013 across all cars.

Recalculating all that mess would give us:

Prius: $832.07 / 10853.1 miles / 226.1 gallons
[fleet_ave]: $489.45 / 2,713.2 miles / 133 gallons
Malibu: $541.17 / 3,308.7 miles / 145.85 gallons

My total 2013 fuel bill would have been $1,862.70, saving me $1,168.97/yr.

Ok, now let's say I drive the Prius for 5 years. That would add up to $5,844.87 in saved fuel cost. Now, since this is the best metric I have, a 2007 Prius with about 90k on it is worth about $9k private party. So in terms of depreciation, it cost me $9k to drive this car for 5 years and 54k. I haven't even broke even yet.

Let's say I drive it 10 years and 108.5k (god help me). The saved fuel cost would be $11,689.73. A 2002 Prius with 143.5k is worth about $2,900 private party. Before Bob flips out, I think it's fair to assume the average relative values will remain fairly consistent. The amount a 2012 Prius is better than a 2002 is probably in the ballpark of what a 2022 will be ahead of the 2012, no? Anyway, this theoretical 2012 Prius cost me $15,100 to drive 10 years and 108.5k miles. I still didn't break even.

Now I could run some more numbers with the assumptions that I just sell all my cars but my CTS-V, and factor in the real world insurance/registration/inspection savings but I don't think that is a realistic scenario. I could sell all my cars and keep the Maxima and CTS-V today, but I wouldn't do that either.

I still conclude that I can continue to drive what I want (in the way that I have, which is to say cars that are mostly not worth much, so selling them is mostly pointless). If I were driving cars today that were 1) worth a lot of money and 2) costing me a lot in fuel, then TRADING that for something like a Prius would certainly change these numbers around, but that's not the situation. And conversely, if I were to go out and blow $45k on a Chevy SS and daily drive that, those costs would blow these right out of the water (probably by an order of magnitude).

I think it only makes sense to replace cars for the sole purpose of fuel savings in very rare cases. When I bought the Prius, I was going to buy a new car anyway and fuel consumption was one of many factors in my decision. I also considered the Mazda3, Cruze Eco, Volt and the Prius Plug-In. The Volt actually had even lower operating costs than the Prius, but at the time GM hadn't gotten as aggressive with pricing so the payback period was too long. I might have ended up with a Volt if I was making the decision today. The Prius also had a better back seat and better predicted depreciation than the others. Depreciation actually ends up being a larger cost of ownership than fuel for many cars, especially new cars, so it's worth considering.

As far as comparing Prius resale values goes, I would stay away from the Gen I as a point of reference. I would use the 2004 (first year of Gen II) since it is already 10 years old. From what I have heard, the Gen I really isn't on the same level as the Gen II and Gen III cars (much smaller, less refined, mileage not in same league). Because of this Gen I resale has always been worse than the others. I am wondering if the first generation Leaf and Volt will suffer similar fates since they are the first attempts at the technology.

In a similar vein, I bet I could drive a Chevy SS for 5 years without much of a depreciation hit, unless they massively improve upon it.

I would say the likelihood of massive improvement is lower for vehicles like the SS (high performance RWD V8) than it is for vehicles like the Prius (small to midsize hybrid). Future demand for each segment is probably headed in opposite directions, but if fuel prices stay flat, who knows.