Featured Conversations at a Toyota dealership

The gps stopped working on my 2012. I had no clue, so I just used my phone

 

What do you mean to cost $x to fix my car? I'm not paying that. You guys are robbing me lmao

 

You put that much faith in what "the government" says?

Yes, the IRS offers a business deduction rate that assigns all costs to amortize over mileage only, not over time. But it has restrictions. Other uses are allowed only much lower rates.

In a more nuanced model of personal car ownership, apart from IRS business expense deduction rules, costs don't stop while the car is parked, but continue ticking up with the calendar. For some use patterns, more costs are better assigned to the calendar than to the odometer.

When you leave your own car parked at home and rent another similar vehicle to drive, do your fixed ownership costs drop? Mine don't. The rent-to-drive model works better when it allows someone to either avoid ownership entirely, or to reduce the 'household fleet'.

Maybe true now, but I remember some times when the expected fuel cost over the life of the car, was similar to or sometimes greater than its MSRP.

 

That car is still just a baby. We can revisit this again sometime between 100k and 250k miles.

 

i agree that fuel costs are insignificant. that's why so many americans drive vehicles much larger than they need.

 

I agree with bisco's post - with an exception-
if you are a cheapskate and pay close attention to buying an economy vehicle you can save just a tremendous amount of money.

Example:
Car A gets 50 mpg and you keep it for 10 years and drive it 150,000 miles.
Car B gets 20 mpg and you keep it 10 years and drive it 150,000 miles.

Car A -50 mpg over 150,000 miles = 3000 gallons of gas used.
Car B - 20 mpg over 150,000 miles = 7,500 gallon of gas used.

Car A = 3000 gallons of gas x $3.50/ gallon = $10,500 spent on gas.
Car B = 7,500 gallons of gas x $3.50 = $26,250 spent on gas.

Car A saved $15,750 on gas cost.
They would have also probably saved considerable money also on tires, maintenance, insurance etc.

The fuel cost savings are even more if you have a PHEV or EV and the electricity cost are cheap.
For our PHEV currently we average about $1.10 for a 50 mile run on electric.

If you are a penny pincher you can save tremendous amounts of money over time with a smaller efficient car-
this money can then be invested and grow even more or spent on the family.

 

agreed. if you get a car that will last 10 years, and compare the opposite extremes of mpg's, a lot of money can be saved.
i'm not sure that's a common experience, but i could be wrong.

 

When I got my Model 3 to replace our failed Hyundai Tucson, I calculated that including taxes and loan interest, electricity cost, gas cost, oil change cost, for the eight years I planned on keeping the car, its TCO was similar to have bought a $22K car instead of a $56K car. My yearly mileage is 30K km.

Since then though, we also bought a Prius Prime to reduce the mileage on the Model 3 and it the year we've got it, we added 18K km to it (so about 18K less on the Model 3, a bit less since we sometimes used both at the same time). We averaged 1.8L/100 km so for 18K km, that comes up to 324L of gas used, for a cost of around $486, way less than my Tucson was costing us on gas alone. 324L would have driven us just 3240 km with the Tucson (10L/100 km). As far as electricity for the Prime, it's probably less than $50 a year, about half the cost of a oil change, that I do only once a year instead of at least twice with the Tucson.

I'm not going back to a plain ICE ever again, even a plain hybrid is out of the question.

 

I hear ya sylva, if I was paying the same for electric I'd probably not even bother watching our meter.
The numbers are important with ele usage and personal preferences.
Our variable ele rate has almost doubled in the last couple years,
a couple years ago I tracked cost/kW every month,
I track it per year now while calculating solar as I learn more about its benefits and issues.
And still glad to say our rates are low when comparing to what some others are paying today. 9 12 19 42 etc. Our Prime uses about 300kW (estimated) a month at one to two full charges a day (( also estimated )).

 

Ok, but with some cars needing $9,000 transmission replacements before 100k miles, I'm not sure that those fuel savings are as much of a concern to some people as other factors.

In my own experience, I've kept my Avalon hybrid for the past 6 years and so far can't say that's it has saved me any more money on fuel than our previous non-hybrid car, not to mention that now I'm a bit concerned about what it will cost me to replace the HV battery here one of these days since the car is 11 years old with 150,000 miles and I'm keeping it until I can't drive it no more.

 

I think you mean, much of the motoring public feels that way. Along with vehicle size, I take typical traffic speeding as an indicator that those people don't really believe fuel prices are too high, even amid the political griping about it.

But I see this as more a reflection of their financial literacy or discipline, not fiscal reality.

Just 10 years? Just 150k?

Keeping it longer can significantly reduce annual cost. With many of today's cars, repairs on old units can stay cheaper than depreciation on new units for considerably longer.

I wish.

Actually, not really. I live in a carbon-tax state, and will voting against the ballot measure to repeal this carbon tax. Successfully addressing Climate Change demands such measures.

... or fund an earlier retirement, to go play outside and travel more while the body is still able.

The spouse (older than me, and born when her mother was ~40) vividly remembers aunts and uncles sitting around at family gatherings and describing what they planned to do in retirement. None of them were able to follow through with their stated plans, at least as couples, due to health and/or finances. That is why my spouse insisted that we will be better prepared, on both counts, so that we can.

It succeeded.

 

Issac Zachary said
"Ok, but with some cars needing $9,000 transmission replacements before 100k miles, I'm not sure that those fuel savings are as much of a concern to some people as other factors.

In my own experience, I've kept my Avalon hybrid for the past 6 years and so far can't say that's it has saved me any more money on fuel than our previous non-hybrid car, not to mention that now I'm a bit concerned about what it will cost me to replace the HV battery here one of these days since the car is 11 years old with 150,000 miles and I'm keeping it until I can't drive it no more."

I am speaking from experience - not a bs perspective. Not wanting an argument just stating facts.

I had a 2008 Prius that I kept 12 years and 160,000 miles - traded it in on a 2019 Niro PHEV which I have kept for 5 years and over 60,000 miles and I plan on keeping it 5 more years. Both cars got over 50 mpg and had only minor problems.

Had a 2004 Sienna that I kept for 16 years and 170,000 miles - traded it in on a 2020 Santa Fe SEL we've had it now for close to 5 years and I plan on keeping it for another 5 years. Sienna got 26 mpg Santa Fe gets close to 30 mpg. Neither car experienced any big problems.

It took me over a year of comparison shopping and deal bargaining before buying either current vehicle.

I don't own a car that gets 50 mpg & 30 miles electric range by accident. I worked hard to afford them and spent a lot of time researching and shopping to find the most efficient, reliable and comfortable vehicles to fit our lifestyle- it wasn't an accident.