Cost to Drive a PT Cruiser

[Puck]

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

[amazingarthur]

Are you sure that the mileage isn't a better choice? My accountant always adds mileage up higher.

[quicksilverdon]

$1,143 for maintenance? Seems high. Did you get new discs with brakes? You did belts at 36,000 miles? What's $600 for tax? What tax? Is that registration?
Interesting - wait'll you need tires.

[grantwildbill]

AAA just had an article where they said average cost for differant cars ranged from .65 to.75 per mile. they listed differant cars with their cost.your depreciation is to low. I would check the internet to price out a 01 .i would guess about 10 to 11k. just my thoughts

[Puck]

quote:Originally posted by quicksilverdon

$1,143 for maintenance? Seems high. Did you get new discs with brakes? You did belts at 36,000 miles? What's $600 for tax? What tax? Is that registration?
Interesting - wait'll you need tires.

Brake job was for new pads and turn the rotors - No new rotors. I forgot to mention I also had new spark plugs put in and that's not an inexpensive job on this car. That cost is in the $1,143.

The belt looked a little frayed to me so I had that done. Better safe than sorry.

The tax is personal property tax and annual license plates. I probably was a little low as I didn't look up the actual PP tax in my records. I threw the 3% initial registration fee into the cost of the car. It should have been included with the tax instead.

As for the safe harbor mileage deduction for 2003 it is .36/mile not .39/mile - more of a reason to use actual cost versus the per mile deduction.

Tires are due soon. They are about 85% gone. Another cost that could have been included - about a penny a mile or so.

The depreciation is probably low but I'm not selling and I like to be optimistic. The per mile expense for this will drop as I rack up the miles in the next 10 years. The first couple of years cars lose the most value.

In any event it was an interesting exercise. It costs money to drive a car, more than some folks think - Uncle Sam being one.

[quicksilverdon]

It is very interesting. Most people just figure gas & oil. I know when I could use it on taxes, I went with the allowance. I had a "beater", so I may not have lost much.
Thanks for clarification.

[stirfry]

wow that's hard to swallow. Seems high. I can't belive you had a 9,000 deperaction in 3 years. I just bought a 2002 PT . It replaced a 89 Jeep Wrangler that I had for 4 years and sold for 500 more than I paid for it. And only required usually maintanice. It cost a lot in gas but the PT get much better.

[KingKole02]

[/quote]
In any event it was an interesting exercise. It costs money to drive a car, more than some folks think - Uncle Sam being one.
[/quote]

Any government employee thinks cars cost less to drive. Why do you think they all drive 85 thosand dollar and higher cars. Not to mention they own more than one.