We own two very mustachian vehicles, one which is a beater that we bought for $2,500 in 2005 and continue to infrequently get around in, the other a slightly nicer salvage title Subaru we bought for $5,000 that we intend to drive into the ground.
As the Prizm sits idle in front of our house while we bike I regularly talk with my wife about selling it and relying more on our bikes (we already bike anywhere within 2-5 miles almost always and 5-10 pretty regularly) and the one car.
I just did the math in this spreadsheet and could use some mustachian advice. (
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmyTUlzD72vpdHRocHAzMWdBOEQyNmZaa1JGeGRaSXc).
It appears, presuming no major breakdowns, that it costs $966 a year - at the level of use it currently incurs - to keep the Prizm running. We could MAYBE sell it for 5-700 bucks if we were interested. I think having the second car encourages use when we could probably consolidate, make fewer trips all together and probably shop/consume less if we had one car. The best use I can think of for the second car is occasionally (once a month) I fly for work and am able to leave the Prizm in long term parking (transit access to the Denver Airport from my home is a huge pain in the ass). The high mileage on the Subaru is primarily due to my wife's work use as we bought a home closer to her work, I work from home but she needs to drive between many schools during work some days.
Initially I was thinking we would sell the Prizm but $966 a year seems like it might contend with the cost of renting a car, taking a cab, or transit to get to the airport and occasional light rail/transit passes to go downtown, or somewhere we wouldn't bike.
Any thoughts after looking at my specific costs how I can maximize our situation? Is selling such an economical car even a good idea? In theory I'd love to be done with this thing but as I look at the numbers closer it seems like it isn't worth the pain.
Thanks for thoughts in advance!