Track your *actual* clown car costs

[Glenstache]

I've found the "How much does your commute cost and how do you justify it?" thread very interesting. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people only have a vague clue as to how much their vehicle actually costs them, and a lot of people were using just the gasoline cost in estimating their commute cost. On my last car, I made a spreadsheet to track all the expenses so I would know how much it *actually* costs me to own and operate a vehicle. It was a real eye opener for me. Anyways, I cleaned up the version of that sheet I'm using for my new (to me) car, added a few calculations for kicks, and have attached it to this post. The current values reflect the early, high cost per mile miles of car ownership (only had the car for 1,700 miles at this point). Replace those values with your own numbers and see where you end up! Enjoy.

[RetiredAt63]

Years ago I was using my car partly for a side business, so I kept track of all costs, and divided mileage between personal and business use.  That was definitely an eye-opener.

Right now I am living in a rural area => low cost of living, car essential.  If I move to an urban area, location will be partly determined by quality of public transportation, and the car will go.

[Dr. A]

Nice. I've got an app called "Road Trip" that similarly tracks my various auto expenses, with the benefit of making it easy to add entries on-the-go and summarized per-mile cost for each category of expenses. It's only for Apple devices, apparently.

To account for depreciation, I look up the value quarterly and add it as an expense line.

Not expense related, but the app can also be scheduled with maintenance reminders based on time and/or mileage.

http://darrensoft.ca/roadtrip/

[APowers]

I plugged my approximate numbers in for the last couple months and it gave me $0.49/mile actual cost per mile to date, with a "projected"/sold cost per mile of $0.11/mile.  0.11 x 18 = $1.98, so only slightly more expensive than taking the bus to work (bus costs $1.50), and about 50min/day faster.

But I only pay insurance every six months, so that's not being caught; but even still, it beats having to bike all the way to the bus stop (not because I hate biking, but because I'd rather spend all that time with my wife and kids).

[RWD]

My cars have cost me about $25,500 (estimating depreciation, including insurance for two people, and including some one-time new car purchase costs) since I started tracking all my finances in January 2012, or about $8,750 per year. We probably drive 15-20k miles per year total, so maybe $0.55 per mile. Not bad for buying a new car last year, as the initial depreciation and sales tax hit are significant.