Cost of Car per Day

[lrjohnson]

I was shocked to calculate how much it has cost me per day to own a car.

In June of 2003, I bought a used car with 23 thousand miles on it, a 2000 Saturn SL1. I've only put 11 thousand miles on it. I jeep all my Quicken records; including the $8200 I paid for the car including tax and fees, then all fuel, car insurance, AAA, and auto service since then, my car has cost me $12,485.62. Divided by 35 months, (June 03 through April 06), that’s $356.73 a month. If a month has 30.42 days average, it's $11.73 a day, to own and maintain a car. And, with my low mileage, it's cost me over a $1 a mile.

If I can keep the car a long time, without high maintenance, the cost per day should get lower; my rate at the five year ownership level will be better than now.

I had thought that since I avoided a car payment, and bought a used car that was new enough to be in good shape, that I avoided paying too much. $12 a day is a whole lot, though; can't imagine what it costs people who have high car payments or high gas consumption or lots of repairs.

What do you think your cost of car per day is? Or per month?

[abowers]

That's interesting... I'll have to do some calculating. I bought a new Ford Focus back in October, and am financing it over 5 years... so I don't know how to calculate my current cost per day, or if I should try to project over 5 years, when I will officially own the car (although I've been paying more than the minimum every month so far).

[34saving]

lrjohnson -- A little happy news for you . . . I assume the current value of your car is somewhere above zero. So, you really should subtract the current value of your car from the $12,485.62 to get a better idea of your "total cost of ownership".

As for my car ownership . . . I'm not very good at keeping track of things like that but: I drove my first car, which cost $3500 for 11 years. I then sold it for $400. There were a few repairs in there, but nothing too terrible. I bought my second car in 2001 for $8900. . . . I'm going to have to drive that one a long time to compete with my first car!

[jodi]

A very rough estimate would put my daily expenditure at $18.50 for my car, which I bought with cash about 20 months ago. But if you subtract the current value of my car (app. $5000), my per day cost drops to $10.17 (thanks to pp who mentioned this - it makes me feel a bit better!). This will drop even further as I plan to own the car quite a while - that is, if the repair costs on this lemon don't keep escalating...
Unfortunately, living in a rural area, I don't have any alternatives to owning a car.

[lrjohnson]

$4505 is what I'd get if I sold it, under KBB, as private party. That would bring my cost per day to $7.50. So that does help a little. But I think it's the total of everything that got me-we might think of gas costs for a vehicle, or the amount of repairs, but at least I had never added gas, maintenance, repair, triple A, insurance, and the cost of car.

[PrincessPerky]

hmm, 400 a month is a lot more per day than I want to know, and I don't own it so there isn't anything to subtract. come to think of it, 50 a month is the old gas budget, that needs to go up.

[debtfreeme]

There is a website for my transportation issues that helped me calculate that my cost last year was around 70 cents a mile to have my car. Guess I am going to be riding light rail more in may and through out this year.

[Ima saver]

I don't think I want to know. !!

[jeffcovey]

i did the same calculation last year, and
i came out just a little ahead of you, at $12.25/day. getting rid of the
car has been one of the best things i've ever done. i wish i could have the
extra capital and all the interest it would have made during all those years
i didn't stop to realize i didn't really need one!

[sakigt]

My car is my biggest expense, but its also my favorite!

Id rather tackle an item thats also not my hobby

[eisor]

Well, i'm not sure the cost of my car per day. But, I calculated how much it is going to cost me per day to commute to school (and ONLY to school) for the summer and I came up with $10/day (with $3.00/gallon gas price) for gas and $1.81/day for parking. So, that will be $11.81/day.