| MuseChaser |
05-21-2017 12:13 PM |
While it's interesting to think about cost-per-mile in terms of gas mileage and gas purchase price, the true cost per mile of a vehicle includes not only gas, but routine maintenance (as others have already said), repairs over the life of the car, and the difference in what you paid for the car vs what you sold the car when you decide to part ways. Divide the total cost of all the gas you've purchased, purchase price less eventual sale price, all maintenance, and all repairs, by the total amount of miles you've driven since you bought that car, and THAT will give you what it actually cost you to drive your car each mile.
The cheapest cost per mile car I've ever owned was a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with a 350cu V8. Bought the car for $300, put 70,000 miles on it after buying it, didn't maintain it hardly at all (I was young and dumb), and sold it a few years later, all rusty and in poor running condition, for $400. Car got about 17-18 mpg at best, and was still, BY FAR, the most cost-effective car I've ever owned.
Good gas mileage is nice (and believe me, as a self-confessed penny-pincher, I value it highly.. one of the things I truly love about my FRS), but it's really a lot less consequential than most folks think. I shake my head in wonder at folks who plunk down $35,000 on a new car but fret about gas mileage, unless their concern is purely environmental.
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