Actual Cost Per Mile?

[Devil's Advocate]

Cost per mile, including:
monthly car payment

[Devil's Advocate]

Sorry bought that;

Cost per mile, including the following costs:
monthly car payment
insurance
maintenance
oil
tires
Fuel

Averaging 29 cents per mile. (was dropping but being offset by higher fuel costs)

Once the car is paid for the cost to operate should drop. I anticipate over a ten year lifespan, and approximately 250,000 mile lifespan then average cost to operate will drop to about 19 cents per mile.

[a priori]

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

My total operating costs including gas, oil, four tires, scheduled maintenance, and insurance (that is everything except the original sales price and TTL) over four years and 28000 miles amount to about $6000. Include the purchase costs and it's up to nearly $29,000, pretty nearly $1 per mile or $20 per day.

Cars are not cheap, even considering only their direct costs to the owner and ignoring their external costs to society.

I would say this is more likely your total costs per mile, not your operating costs. Drop the purchase price out, replace it with depreciation since your purchase, and that should come a bit closer. Still, $1.00 per mile is much lower than about any vehicle out there.

[a priori]

Originally Posted by Devil's Advocate

Sorry bought that;

Cost per mile, including the following costs:
monthly car payment
insurance
maintenance
oil
tires
Fuel

Averaging 29 cents per mile. (was dropping but being offset by higher fuel costs)

Once the car is paid for the cost to operate should drop. I anticipate over a ten year lifespan, and approximately 250,000 mile lifespan then average cost to operate will drop to about 19 cents per mile.

I don't even play an accountant on TV, but I would suggest that these costs are a bit incomplete. I would continue to include the interest payments on your car payment, but I would subtract the principal amount and replace it with the depreciation on your car.

I think this gets closer to a real operating cost scenario. I don't think you'll be able to hold to $.26/mile.