Evening time. Time for conversations, drinks, jokes and . . . spreadsheets? Apparently so. I’ve caught this nasty computerized bug lately. The symptoms are harder to shake than swine flu and almost as appealing. It’s figuring out my ‘cost to own’ for a variety of cars. The goal: get my cost down to 10 cents a mile. Three hours and too much wine later, I wondered. “Can it really happen in this world of $3 gas?” With purchase price, insurance, gas, opportunity cost, maintenance, repairs, and government fees aplenty, not to mention a junker selling price with inflation to boot, I wasn’t quite sure. In fact my head was spinning. The final answer?
Yes, possible. If your name is Chuck Goolsbee. This lucky and ingenious IT guy (and TTAC contributor) has access to a gas that’s cheaper than gas. It’s artery refined, cheaply acquired biodiesel. Decades endorsed yet continually on the fringe: Grease.
Some states require that consumers get some type of licensing to refine it. And, yes, your local McDonald’s or Chopstix owner may scoff at your offer to free him of his oily waste since, considering that you’re about the twenty-seventh person to ask him. But that’s part of the fun! Beating the system, bribing strangers, and leaving the taxman in the dust. Chuck’s fuel costs are around 3 to 4 cents a mile these days thanks to his engineering penury. Quite impressive. That’s thousands of dollars better than even my Insight over the long-run.
But what if you’re not the fringe? Most folks are mechanically declined and could care less about their cars as anything less than commuter fodder. Forget about 40 acres and a biodiesel spewing mule for these drivers. They want a Toyota and a radio. They have three options: hybrids, gas sippers or reliable clunkers.
Hybrids are the ‘dead horse’ of automotive frugality. The right wing nutjobs think these things are pseudo-environmental basket cases of smug righteousness. The left wing see them as an exact opposite of a modern day neo-conservative. Smart, frugal, reliable and low maintenance. The truth is that it’s several technologies rolled into one broad label. And it’s not political. Just another choice in the marketplace.
Non-enthusiasts could care less about the wizardry, so I’ll just get to the bottom line. They cost more to buy and, unless gas shoots to the $4 mark throughout the 2010s, they will usually cost more to own than a conventional gas sipper.
On the other side of the engineering scale is the depreciated econocar. Most of them are simple. Many are under-engineered or built to a price tag. For $2000 you may be able to find a 2000-ish Cavalier that can indeed hit north of 30 mpg for a long time or even an Escort with about 120k on the odometer. Parts are cheap. Oil changes can be had as a $10 Pep Boys special. Plus if you go for one with small 13″ wheels you can . . . wait. These all come in 14’s. However, you can also find plenty of 1990s Proteges, Mirages, Tercels, Sentras, and Civics that come with the skinny wheels.
What’s the best? In a perfect world, I would say a 1995 Honda Civic VX owned by an eccentric uncle who rarely drove it. In the modern world I would opt for any model that has been conservatively driven and well-maintained. I find plenty of older folks with Saturns in Florida. I hate them. But a person in search of a Corolla may find it a perfect fit. All things being equal, with Toyonda price premiums, my choice would be a 5-speed Protege with the 1.5-liter engine. But if I had to tolerate 250 commutes in any of these tin boxes, I’d probably move to the city and walk or buy a diesel. I enjoy the fringe.
Non-enthusiasts could care less about the wizardry… Not!
Steve: its sounds like you’re looking for the holy grail of automotive nirvana: the Beemer experience with Kia frugality. Ain’t gonna happen. I know. I’ve been trying to find that perfect balance for 45 years. My solution? One of each. Then I drive whichever one that relieves my conscience.
The biggest problem with the Goolsbee choice is that your choices for vehicles is very limited. I happen to like the VWs but I’m certainly in the minority.
When it get right down to it though, the price for independent mobility in North America is cheap. Ridiculously so.
just a minor quibble:
couldn’t care less rather than could care less.
It’s early and I’m a jerk like that….
for most people, well no, $0.10 a mile is not realistic.
$3.00 gas at 30 mpg leaves nothing for the rest of it and the rest of it is probably $0.30-40 a mile.
Steve Lang of course does not fit the mold. He can buy at auction, drive a while, then sell at profit. His cost to own could easily be negative cost, i.e. profit per mile.
I’m happy if I can get to $0.10/mile running costs NOT including purchase price, insurance, and gasoline…
Last I calculated, my neon is probably between $0.10 and $0.20/mile
My STi is around $1/mile.
YMMV :)
It’s not the cost per mile that counts, it’s the total cost of driving. Simply move closer to work – or move your work closer to home – and then drive whatever the hell you want.
I’m a right-wing nut job, and this strategy works for me. The best part is that I can out-smug the Prius drivers. While they’re busy poking their little fashion accessories through traffic every morning, I’m at my desk enjoying my second coffee, feeling good about how I’m protecting Mother Earth.
I am with don1967 here. It’s not easy to get to the nirvana of .10-.20 mile. Even if it is refine your own bio-diesel, how much is your time worth to put that effort in? If you are greenie selling beach art out of your trunk and don’t have a 8-5 job, maybe. But for normal folks, it would be impractical.
Live closer to where you need and drive what you would like. I use the train to get to my job in the city and it’s only 3 miles to the parking lot. I go 90 miles a day on the train and it is $153 a month. That works out to about .12 a mile for the train ride.
OK – you’re talking to the ultimate cheap ass here. I do have 50ish acres of soybeans growing right now, but I’m not bothering to press and process raw oil into bio or SVO. I do have a 81 Rabbit Pickup diesel (50 MPG) and an 85 300SD to dump it into. I do run waste VO in these but don’t have the time to dumpster dive lately (for the amount of fuel I burn in a week.)
Now on to the practical solution. The current back and forth to work (900 mi/wk) beater is a 1994 Aspire. It’s a Mazda engineered Kia built tin can with a B3 Mazda built powertrain. I paid $1800 for it with fresh paint, a new clutch and new tires. I’m getting 38 MPG on my 75 MPH commute, and I’ve only begun to tune/hypermile. It does have AC, air bags and a stereo.
I know this car well as it is essentially an updated Ford Festiva, and I put 250,000 miles on one of those. I’m insuring it for about $100/yr – Progressive didn’t ask how many miles a year I drive. 13″ tires are cheap. Brake pads are $20/set and 15 minutes to change. Cost per mile? Dunno – silly cheap. If gas gets to $2/gal I’ll be getting 176 round trip miles to work for about $9. Hard to believe it can be that cheap.
I’ll take don1967 and crush157 one-half step further: Live within six miles of your job and bicycle to work, weather permitting. At that point, your cost per mile drops to something like $.001 per mile, figuring that a $15.00 tyre will last you 2000 miles on the rear, probably double that on the front. You should be able to do the ride in 30 minutes, once the body is used to it.
There are moments when an ICE-powered vehicle isn’t worth the trouble.
1994 Escort bought 9 years ago for 3500 dollars. Currently at 192K.
Cheap tires, cheap parts. Brake job is 50 dollars an axle. 32/41 MPG easily. Air works. And as a hatchback you can carry anything.
I’m tired of this car so this is the last year for it but I recommend these little shitboxes to anyone looking for cheap reliable transportation without the toyohonda premium.
How about a motorcycle? 50 mpg, cheap insurance, I bough one for 75 dollars and after 500 invested it runs and looks perfect.
A big factor is keeping the car long. The longer you avoid payments the better off you’re going to be.
If I were in New York City or lived nearby my work, I’d go with that formula. But I do a LOT of driving.
Auto auctioneers and wholesalers generally work one of these three formulas.
1) Buy a full sized vehicle at 80k to 100k miles. Drive until it hits 250k.
2) Find a comfortable car that you got a good deal on, and drive it for a year. Sell for the price you paid.
3) Buy whatever appeals to you and drive it. Sell for profit whenever and repeat.
I started at 3, did 2 last year, and now I’m orientated towards one…. and a weird on at that. Between my wife and I, we’ve probably had about 200 vehicles from 2003 to 2007. Now I just want something that’s fun, comfortable, and economical. That’s why I’m keeping the Insight… unless I can find a low mileage Jetta TDI for 2k less than wholesale book like I did last year.
In today’s market, that just ain’t gonna happen.
Owned an 1992 Honda Accord EX Wagon, (I loved that car, but that’s another post).. bought used in 1999 for $7,900. Sold it 7 years later for $1,400. Annual insurance, about $500. Annual maintenance for the 7 years I owned it: about $260. Plates, $40 per year. Three sets of tires totalled about $900.
Total net cost of ownership (excluding gas) for the 7 years: about $13,000 during which I put 136,000 miles on it….$0.0955 per mile.
Assuming gas averaged about $1.85 per gallon during the time I owned it, and I got a rock-steady 24 to the gallon while I drove it, so that’s another $0.077, so I averaged a smidge more than seventeen cents a mile total cost for those years….lowest cost I’ve ever tracked.
Now I have a 12 year old Audi A6 Quatro Avant (love the depreciation original owners take on used station wagons!)and hoping to do average $0.30 – $0.35 per mile total cost while I own it. (3+ years so far, plan to own it 7….).
Low-cost motoring can be done….you just need to be conservative and smart. You don’t have to drive a cheap penalty box, just buy careful, buy used, and target models (like station wagons!) that depreciate fast for original owners. Then maintain them well to reduce/eliminate major repairs: and, as a previous poster mentioned, own and drive them for a long time.
Do it like this, and you can ride comfortable, safe and cheap. Ya know?…the sweet spot.
Yes, I am an accountant. Why do you ask?
My preference is to buy an new Honda and drive it for 10 years. After a decade, my cost is at least $2/mile, and that’s just purchase price. Add in gas, oil, insurance, maintenance, etc., and it’s probably at least $3 per mile.
And you know what, I like it that way. 10 years of trouble free driving. 10 years of knowing my car will always start. 10 years of knowing, w/o fail, that I’ll get to point B.
It’s not the cheapest way to drive, but then, there’s more to life than saving money.
I only do this BioDiesel stuff because:
1. I’m cheap.
2. I love an engineering DIY challenge, and I have the space (a barn) for it.
3. I spend at least one week (and several weekends) a year driving a ridiculously impractical 1960s sports car, with a seriously thirsty engine designed for 100 octane, all around the west (see #1.) By the way, I’m leaving on this year’s E-type road trip on Sunday, heading down the west coast and back again. Should be a blast. Cost per mile? Likely has an integer to the left of the decimal point, and with a 44 year old car, possibly two! (and a serious risk of three or more.)
There sure as hell is more to life than saving money.
–chuck
I’ll take don1967 and crush157 one-half step further: Live within six miles of your job and bicycle to work
Actually I’ve been holding out on you. I changed careers and set up a home office seven years ago, so my entire commute consists of a hallway :)
My father had it dialed in:
= Two Bugattis for the price (combined) of a new Chevy
= a Maserati 3.5GT for the price of a new Chevy.
Life was good in the ’50’s and ’60s, and gas was around 30 cents a gallon. Life now, is, as they say, very, very much more interesting.
I like my plan:
Buy a car I actually enjoy driving
Drive the hell out of it for a long time
Buy gas at whatever it costs a gallon
Fix it when it breaks
You only live once. It sounds like I’m an enthusiast! I figure the main benefit of extreme financial responsibility is being able to tell others how extremely financially responsible you are. I just go do some donuts.
If you can claim business use of the car, you get 50.5 cents per mile for the first half of 2008 and 58.5 cents per mile for the second half. If you are in the 40% tax bracket (including state income tax) then that’s worth another $0.20 to $0.24 per mile in savings. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine costs in the range of $0.30 to $0.34, making your cost $0.10/mile.
Chuck’s fuel costs are around 3 cents to 4 cents a mile these days thanks to his engineering penury. Quite impressive.
That IS impressive.
Obviously, that does not include Chuck’s time, or assumes his (spare) time is not worth much. (Or is he just extrodinarily productive?) Does it include the (rather impressive) biodiesel plant (I remember seeing the photos)?
Chuck, I for one, would really enjoy a hard-hitting, TTAC-style write-up on your experiences making your own biodiesel. Including driving experience.
Went the high-risk, low-cost option myself, i.e. blending…
And, on the biodiesel, how many fast-food restaurants are there in your town vs how many thirsty cars? Melted cow parts are only going to go so far…
TonUpBoi: “I’ll take don1967 and crush157 one-half step further: Live within six miles of your job and bicycle to work, weather permitting.”
Actually, the car has considerable fixed costs (especially insurance), so your cost for miles on the vehicle may increase. Still, it is a winning plan.
I live just inside of 3 miles and walk or bike when possible. I’m sure my cost per mile is higher but there are very few miles.
The exercise itself, though, offers more value in health benefits than the reduction in automotive expense.
My wife also works close by. One car is doing less than 5K miles/year and the other is probably going to do less than 10K (but that includes two driving vacations of 2K miles each).
Also, TonUpBoi, I recommend you spend a little more for tires… I switched to Kevlar 15 or so years ago and, while they are not cheap, I haven’t had a flat since. And I don’t live in a “Bottle Bill” state, so the roadsides have plenty of broken glass.
Best of both worlds…
1984 Volvo 245Diesel. With no mods, it runs a 75/25 mix of DinoDiesel/WVO.
The WVO is free, cuz a guy I work with gives it to me after he’s done all the hard work.
My effective fuel cost is about 2 cents per mile.
Engineer:
Obviously, that does not include Chuck’s time, or assumes his (spare) time is not worth much. (Or is he just extrodinarily productive?) Does it include the (rather impressive) biodiesel plant (I remember seeing the photos)?
My time is absolutely worthless! Just ask my wife.
Seriously I spend about 2-4 hours a week, usually on weekends, dealing with the stuff. Most of the time you just wait for processes to finish. BioDiesel takes a long time to make (about two weeks from input to output) but most of that time is just sitting and settling, so it doesn’t require a lot of human intervention.
I also do very little grease collection. Two other guys in my little informal co-op do most of that.
The “plant” is really a collection of barrels, a few pumps, plumbing, and a pair of old water heaters. I would not call it “impressive” by any stretch of the imagination. “Rube Goldberg” does come to mind however.
Chuck, I for one, would really enjoy a hard-hitting, TTAC-style write-up on your experiences making your own biodiesel. Including driving experience.
That would be up to Mr. Farago of course.
Went the high-risk, low-cost option myself, i.e. blending…
I did that at first, and clogged up an injector nozzle in the process. The hard part with blending is getting the mixture right, and hoping that the weather doesn’t catch you out with the wrong blend. That happened to me once and I barely lived to tell the tale! (it is however available for viewing on YouTube!)
KixStart :
And, on the biodiesel, how many fast-food restaurants are there in your town vs how many thirsty cars? Melted cow parts are only going to go so far…
Lots of sources for waste veggie oil. I get mine from a BBQ place near my office. My co-op gets theirs from a teriyaki place, a bowling alley, a local diner, and a tavern. ANY place with a deep fryer is a potential source, not just fast food. During the holidays I pick up lots of people’s turkey-fryer oil too. High volume restaurants use lots of veggie oil. (BTW: no animal fats, most of our feedstock is canola, soy, & peanut oils.)
How many thirsty cars? Very few. How many Diesel cars can you even find to buy these days? I *wish* I had the problem of too many choices offering a Diesel engine.
–chuck
Ah, well. Did the calculation with the spreadsheet and with my driving through the month (includes to the train parking which includes gas and insurance) I am at .30 mile. Still not bad and I get to have a lot of fun doing it.
I was trying to play Jack Baruth in the smoky mountains and avoid the Aveos the other day, but it rained like heck on 40 and the semi’s were in the way. So, I was hanging on for dear life as I got sprayed by the semi’s while passing them on the left….. But I am driving a car that I like and be darned with being a greenie….
I have a 2003 Jetta TDI that I bought new when I was commuting 110 miles per day. Back in 2003, diesel was cheap, so the car didn’t cost much to run. I filled it up about once a week back then. Now, I live 4 miles from my job, but still have the Jetta. Lately I have been driving enough miles per pay period to pay for a full tank of diesel every 2 weeks. However, I only fill up once a month now even with the work mileage. So in my opinion, the way to have a cheap cost per mile is to drive an efficient car, and get paid mileage at your job. Works out pretty well. :)
How about 40,000 miles in two years for a total cost of $1,400, not including tags, gas, or oil changes? At an average 32mpg?
I purchased a filthy 2002 Saturn SL2 w/manual tranny w/138k miles two years ago from a co-worker for $400. I’ve replaced 4 tires($350), the seats ($70 @DIY yard), water pump ($35), clutch & slave cyl ($350), engine mount ($40), brake pads ($40), radiator ($100), and a few other odds and ends, and done it all myself. It has power everything, sunroof, cruise, etc. I have the original window sticker and it was rated at 27/38 mpg. Even now with 180K miles showing it returns 30 city/35 hwy mpg with the A/C on and driving it fairly spirited. It burns a quart of oil every 1000 miles but doesn’t smoke or leak, Saturns are known for that though.
I bought it so cheap because the owner was going to trade it on a Fit and that’s what the Honda dealer offered for it. Most people would have avoided this car because it was filthy and was going to need work done that would be expensive if done in a shop. Because I’m a self-taught shade tree mechanic and willing to invest some elbow grease I was comfortable taking a chance on what has turned out to be a great little car with lots of miles left in it and has not left me stranded once. It cleaned up very well although it took many hours to do it. I could probably sell it right now for $2,000, but will probably drive it until it dies and then get a junkyard engine, rebuild it myself, and drive it more.
There are bargains like these out there to be had if you are willing to take a chance on them and have learned the basics of auto maintenance.