10 Years in a Prius - Data

Nice data! I'm a car data nut, having tracked my vehicles for some time, first with a spreadsheet, then with Automobile for Palm OS, Windows Mobile and then Android and now with aCar for Anrdoid. I got it from my Dad who still does it the old fashioned way, with a steno notebook in each car.

aCar tells me that my 2007 purchased in October has a running cost of $0.118 per mile with a total cost (including purchase price) of $0.578. That total cost is dropping by every mile I spread that purchase price over. (True total costs are slightly higher as it doesn't factor in finance costs and I don't input insurance or registration costs.)

My also very reliable 2005 Mazda3, bought new in Feb of 2006, is at only $0.123 over about 145K (total cost of $0.239). Don't be fooled by the similar per mile costs, the Mazda's average per gallon fuel price is $3.03, the Prius' is 13% higher $3.42.

My 1993 Escort, which the Mazda replaced, had an average fuel price of only $1.39 (those were the days), giving it a running cost of only $0.062 and a total cost of only $0.130! That's over 10+ years (1995-2006) and 152K miles.

 

I wonder how the charges would look once inflation was accounted for.

 

My story is remarkably similar, all the way down to ownership transfer to my daughter a few months ago

Our data

 

There is very little maintenance or troubles before 100,000 miles. The increase in operating costs come after 100,000. You've logged many of the basic oil changes and tire rotations/tire purchases.

The driving after 100,000 miles on your cars will require significantly more money to upkeep. But it'll still be cheaper than driving a 25 mpg car in the long run.

Doing your services via DIY wouldn't be so bad, but seems you go out for services as the prices vary quite a bit from your 2004 and 2007 services.

 

Me too. I suppose I could export to a*.csv and replace all the fuel costs ...

Sounds like a lot of work.

 

It doesn't sound like too much work if you use a MACRO. If you send me the csv I'll take a crack at it for you. I use Google Docs so we could crunch it together if you enjoy that sort of thing.

 

Impressive, thanks for sharing. How many miles do you have on each car?