Cost to Drive a PT Cruiser
Just for fun I figured the cost to drive my 01 PT for the past three years.
Miles 36,330.40 Car put in service 04/13/01
____Cost/mile____ Cost
Gas____0.0648____2,355.66
Maint__0.0315____1,142.97
Ins____0.1073____3,900.00
Depr___0.2477____9,000.00
Tax____0.0165____ 600.00 ( I may be a little low here)
______-------____-------
Ttls___0.4679____16,998.63
If I lived in California the cost of gas would be 20% higher! By the way, I averaged 21 MPG in those 36,330 miles - mostly commuting to work in town.
If I did my own maintenance the cost would be lower. My maintenance was solely at the dealer and includes a brake job, trasmission fluid change, new belts, tire rotations every 6K miles and oil changes every 3,000 to 3,500 miles.
Depr = Depreciation or the decrease in market value in 3 years. I may be a little optimistic here as I figure my $22K car is worth $13K today. Hopefully this cost per mile will drop as I plan on getting at least 120k miles from this car.
Since it's tax time, here's a tip for those who take a deduction for auto expense. Use cost - don't take the safe harbor 39 cents per mile. It costs a lot more than that to drive these days!
Puck
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