The Money Mustache Community
Mustachian Community => Mustachian Marketplace => Topic started by: JasonCouponKing on July 05, 2016, 07:35:02 PM
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Hi folks!
I'm a parsimonious aficionado, and have learned many money saving methods. And one of my favorite methods is buying used cars off Craig's List. I know this territory has well-deserved notoriety, but as long as you're doing your homework, you can score great deals on a used car.
I know this will come off as spammy, so I emailed the mods (arebelspy), and received his blessing to share my Car-Cost-Calculator (http://www.jasoncouponking.com/car-cost-calculator/ (http://www.jasoncouponking.com/car-cost-calculator/)
Each car has more than just the sticker price. So it's challenging to factor the exact cost for your vehicle. But the most important factor you need to consider when car shopping is how many miles you plan on adding onto that engine. 50,000 miles? 100,000 miles? I recently bought a 1997 Mazda Protege for $1500 with 112,000 miles. I plan on owning it for another 100,000 miles, while averaging about 25,000 miles per year. So, when I punch in some numbers into my Car-Cost-Calculator, my car comes out to a price of $0.13 per mile driven. If I only plan on driving it for 50,000 miles, then my cost per mile increases to $0.14 per mile, which increases my annual cost by almost $400. So, by driving more, I'm saving more.
But I figured you're all the right audience, so punch in some numbers, and let me know what you're cost per mile is.
Thanks
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I very well might be flamed for this, but if you ever consider buying a new car (I know, the horror!), use the Costco or Sam's Club buying service. They have pre negotiated prices with specific dealers. I have used it once myself, twice for my sister, and once for a friend. The deals are pretty good. The worst you could do is get the Costco price, then go to another dealer and get them to beat it. It takes a lot of the hassle out of the process.
https://www.costcoauto.com/enterzipcode.aspx (https://www.costcoauto.com/enterzipcode.aspx)
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Put in some numbers.
I noticed mine were way higher than your protege. But you only have $800 in maintence for 100'000 of driving. Oil changes alone($20 for on sale oil, $5 filter every 5k miles) is going to be $500 you will need at least one set of tires and stuff just breaks. Otherwise nice job. On,t one post so he will probably never read this
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I don't exactly love the assumption that every engine is the same, and won't break to some degree over the course of the miles you add onto it.
High-miles cars can be bargains, but don't assume all you're going to do is fluids, rubber, and brakes.
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I don't exactly love the assumption that every engine is the same, and won't break to some degree over the course of the miles you add onto it.
High-miles cars can be bargains, but don't assume all you're going to do is fluids, rubber, and brakes.
The calculator doesn't make any assumptions about the cost of maintenance. It's all based on your own input. If you assume you'll be spending more than average on maintenance/repairs, then plug it into the calculator! Also, hoping2retire35 makes a good point that $800 of maintenance for 100,000 miles/4 years of driving is hopelessly optimistic.
One point of contention about the calculator: Why is the cost of gas hard-wired at $2.64? It would be more useful if you could tweak the cost of gas.
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I don't exactly love the assumption that every engine is the same, and won't break to some degree over the course of the miles you add onto it.
High-miles cars can be bargains, but don't assume all you're going to do is fluids, rubber, and brakes.
The calculator doesn't make any assumptions about the cost of maintenance. It's all based on your own input. If you assume you'll be spending more than average on maintenance/repairs, then plug it into the calculator! Also, hoping2retire35 makes a good point that $800 of maintenance for 100,000 miles/4 years of driving is hopelessly optimistic.
One point of contention about the calculator: Why is the cost of gas hard-wired at $2.64? It would be more useful if you could tweak the cost of gas.
My reply was directly to this.
But the most important factor you need to consider when car shopping is how many miles you plan on adding onto that engine.
This is so ridiculously over-simplified that it's just plain wrong.
If you do enough research to know the expected lives of different engines under different use cases, and precisely which engine goes into which trim of which model, then you already know how much the other stuff matters.