Help me figure a cost per mile

From my 164k miles experience with 06, tires were the highest cost. Oil changes (DYI) came in second.

 

I think it is something that varies between owners. But to get what I would consider the true cost of ownership, one would need to keep track of all expenses, including fuel, associated with the car. When I did it with my first Gen II, I included maintenance, tires, gas, registration, taxes, insurance, initial cost and selling price (depreciation) when I got rid of it. It came out to 21 cents per mile for 2 1/2 years and 70K miles. Resale was especially good at that time. I don't think I will do as well with the PiP, but I'm hoping to get several years out of it in order to spread the depreciation out. But I put fewer miles on than I did with that car, so the cost per mile will likely be higher.
I suppose you could leave out some of the things, like registration and insurance, as those are similar for probably most of the cars in the class.

 

In addition to usbseawolf2000 statement, In my case would be the cost of car washes; a maintenance item for the looks of it.

 

First you have to know how many miles you get out of a set of tires, and then the cost to replace them. Some folks only get 20-30K out of OEM tires, while others, myself included, get upwards of 60K miles out of those same tires. Makes quite a difference in the CPM.

 

An oil change is anywhere from $30 - $70 depending on where you get it done. Its needed every 10K miles, so that's easy to calculate....at $50 it would be 1/2 cent per mile.

And on insurance...you can get a reduction for low miles so it does make a difference. But so does your total coverage, deductable and accident/ticket history.

Mike

 

You should expect to pay at the higher end for synthetic oil changes, but at my local dealer I think it will work out to the same CPM since it is done at 10K intervals rather than 5K. They charge roughly double the cost of a service using "dinosaur oil". I do my own tire rotations, so if I go in at 5K intervals, it will be a fluid check only. Not sure what they will charge for those. Then you have to factor in replacing the engine and cabin air filters, and whether you change them yourself or pay the dealer. And if you DIY, do you use Toyota parts or aftermarket filters. As I said earlier- lots of variables. I know of no way to really get the actual CPM until you are done with the car and have tracked all expenses. Anything else is guesswork. The other way to go is to use average estimates published by organizations like AAA and Consumer Reports. But I don't think they get specific as to models, but rather use examples of different sized cars.
BTW, just because I've answered your original post doesn't mean I think I am in any way a "PiP genius".

 

Engine filters...yes...but in a PIP I'd want to take into account how many HV miles you go not odometer miles.

Cabin air filter...I think is mostly a deal to get more service money for dealers. YMMV. A lot depends on how often you use the fan, heat or A/C. And it depends on recird vs outside air. And it depends on how dusty (etc) the outside air is. You can change this every 10K miles or every 50K miles, IMO.

Mike

 

Makes sense, but wonder if Toyota would honor engine warranty work on this.

 

On fuel alone mine is roughly 14 cents a mile. Car payment of $80 isn't really factorable. $60 oil every 7500 miles is $0.008 a mile. Tires are pretty debateable...

 

If he really is the TheEnglishman then he's doing excellent at $0.14 a mile.

On my calculations. I figure I usually drive my car 200k miles before getting a new one. My cars don't get sold but handed down to family members so I recover 0 resale.

PiP cost total = $28,800
Gasoline @ $4/gallon and 70.9 mpg average including cost of electricity = $11,283 (See my Fuelly for how I got this)
Tires every 50k miles at $500 a set = $2000
Other maintenance every 10k miles at $100 = $10,000 ($100 for an oil change is excessive so it will have some built in for additional maintenance I neglect to include)
Insurance at $500 every 6 months for 8 years = $4000

Total it all up to $48,083 over 200k miles and 8 year ownership.
Divide by miles and I get $0.24 per mile.
I'll just bump it up to an even quarter a mile to give me some room for unexpected repairs/insurance claims.

 

What about the free Toyota service for the first 25K miles (technically 30K since the 25K service carries you to 30K)?

On my 3 previous Prius (none were at 200K miles) I didn't spend even $2500 for the first 75-80K miles.
I bought the Toyota pre-paid maintenance on 2 of the cars and it was ~$1500 - $2000 for first 60 or 75K miles.
Non-planned maintenance...very low. Zero on one car (except a $10 tire plug) and ~$700 on another (including 12v battery replacement). Zero on 2010 Prius w/ 30K miles and zero on PIP).
I'm not incuding washing which I mostly do myself.


Mike

 

I think it would be OK...just don't know about the Toyota warranty. I would think they know this is OK, but don't want dealer service revenue to go down...so they won't say anything one way or the other.
When Toyota changed the oil change interval from 5K to 10K I was at a new owners night at my dealer and I directly asked them. They flat out denied Toyota changed it in front of 40 people.

Mike

 

Woops, typo, I have $2000 in my spreadsheet for routine maintenance not $10000. $2000 is rather low in comparison to your maintenance for half the number of miles so I am purposely ignoring the free Toyota services as I am not naive to think I will get that many miles with such a low number. Echoing Rogerv, there's a huge fudge factor in the calculation anyway.

For reference, my 2006 Civic had $25 conventional oil changes every 10k miles, a $500 major maintenance tune-up performed at 100k. No unscheduled dealer visits. 2 4-wheel alignments. Maybe 3 pairs of wipers. A few air filters. I ignored the cabin filter. Only 1 pair of front brake pads and resurface rotors. (Hypermiling, Drive Without Brakes) So I spent around $1500 for maintenance when I gave my mom the car at 144k miles. I expect the PiP to have slightly higher maintenance costs due to the synthetic oil requirement.

 

I made a mathematical mistake. I'm actually doing about 7 cents per mile on fuel @ $3.50/gal.