Real cost of a car vs fuel economy

Pakitt, remember a lot of you increase in car
ownership is due to "free health care" with
2-4 Euro's tacked on to every gallon of fuel...

So there is more incentive for a car that
get better mpg's, and a sooner pay back

 

You need also to include the cost of the capital that you used to pay all the costs that you have listed.
You either borrowed the money and are paying interest on it, or you used your own money and are forgoing the earnings that the money would have generated. Either sum is a significant part of the cost of the vehicle.
I am not sure whether you intended to deal with depreciation in your item (0). All you other cost are, I think, on an annualised basis and the total amount that the car costs will depend upon how long it lasts so you have to spread the capital cost over its life.

 

I was shocked that the insurance (full coverage) was the same cost as PLPD on the 2001 Voyager that we traded in!

 

Here are my first year costs broken down:

• One-Time Expenses

• $26,770 - Purchase Price
• $871 - Tax (low because I had a trade-in and only pay tax on the balance)
• $399 - Dealer Documentation Service Fee
• $5 - Transfer
• $4 - Title

​

• Yearly Expenses

• $552 - Insurance
• $430 - License
• $84 - XM Radio Subscription
• $25 - Personalized License Plate
• $10 - Registration

​

• Accessories:

• $220 - Window Tinting
• $162 - HID Headlights
• $119 - Premium Euro Mudguards
• $88 - LED Interior Lights
• $72 - Toyota Chrome Wheel Center Caps
• $50 - Silverstar Ultra High-Beam Bulbs
• $50 - Personalized License Plate
• $30 - Front Window Sun Shade

​

• Repair Costs

• $20 - Windshield Chip Repair

​

 

Honestly, I am not sure what you are asking ...

Are you trying to see if you save on the fuel cost operating this or another car??

Are you trying to asses if buying a prius is cheaper on the long run ...?

Even that makes no sense.... how many miles do you drive....

I can tell you (because I already tracking and made spreadsheet) what I save on fuel on my yearly driving.

Knowing my mpg and anything you want ... but I can not compare other's driving patterns.

So you would better off asking a little bit more refined question ...

Also it is not just the saving on fuel but reliability, average fixing cost etc...

So simply put same person same place (this means VAT, tax all other stuff same) how much you NEED the car go could make or brake ... for obvious reason fuel and maintenance ...

Toyota has a very good reputation on low cost of maintenance on their car so combined with fuel saving this COULD be a very good deal .. but as others mentioned how long you keep the car is another MAJOR factor ...

get a little better refined questions

 

I use to own a 2001 BMW 325. I can tell you that without crunching the numbers, I am saving a lot just comparing maint. and gas between the two vehicles. I currently have 56,000 miles and looking to keep it till I hit 200,00+, and I know the cost of keeping the Prius (including the cost of gas) will be a lot lower.

 

All the economic studies come to the same conclusion. For the average driver (12,000 miles a year) the premium paid for the hybrid will break even with fuel cost savings at around 7 years.

After that, there is actual money savings.

Purpose of buying a Prius (or Volt, Leaf, Tesla etc) is to reduce one's oil use and reduce one's overall carbon footprint, promote the technology, generally being good world citizen. I consider it as part of my charity giving.

 

In the US the Prius is very economical compared to traditional cars, so even with the low fuel costs it is still viable.

In Europe the Prius is only slightly more econommical compared to the large array of manual transmission diesel cars, but is just about viable because of high fuel costs.

I guess it all depends on the various markets where it's sold as to whether it'll work or not. The Germans like to sit at 120 mph on their motorways given the chance so a Prius is a no go for example.

 

What rate of fuel cost inflation are they assuming? Many seem to assume price as they are (which we all know is ridiculous). But any guess is just that, no one knows (or they would be making a mint on oil futures). Payback is a terrible way to look at the question.

Actually, if you finance your car, you could see actual money saving from day 1. If you save more than $18 in gas per month for every thousand more you spent on an efficient car, you are ahead right now.

Nice to have 'charity giving' that saves you money rather than costing you money. A really good world citizen simply use less than their share of oil production (which for those who have missed my .sig is 1/2 gallon per day for ALL uses (transportation, heating, cooling, food, etc.)

 

For families struggling with finances it is a very legitimate way to look at the question of a car purchase. Hybrid premium will cost them money on average. They need to be aware of that fact.

The premium one pays for the hybrid vehicle over same non-hybrid vehicle will always have the same economics. You will pay more upfront and not recover that expense on fuel savings for several years.

Buying a Prius, purchasing sustainable electric power are charities that cost money. Worthy causes but they do cost money.

 

While I did a variety of ROI/TCO analysis before I bought the Prius, I bought one because I wanted to learn how to hypermile. That being said -- ROI/TCO studies should be taken with a grain of skepticism because they are biased by what they include and donot include.

In Europe and Japan where fuel is taxed at a premium it is a signficant marketing factor. How can you tell? Europe and Japan have more fuel efficent models than the USA, China, or India. Fuel taxes in the USA, China, and India are not as high. In China and India, the MRSP of a vehicle is more important than the fuel efficiency so that why more costly BEVs and plugin are not making much progress there. ISTM in the USA, long traveling distances and bad roads sometime trump fuel efficiency. TCO analysis only makes sense as a comparative study. In Germany, a TCO study comparing the 2010 Prius with a 2010 VW Polo, a 2010 Polo Bluemotion TDI, and a Ford Focus might makes sense.

When I did my USA TCO/ROI analysis between the 2010 Prius and the 2010 Honda Fit and 2010 Hyundai Elantra Touring. I found out that the Prius car insurance premiums were higherthan the Fit's or the Elantra's so not only was the MRSP higher for the Prius but I would be paying more for car insurance. Most TCO/ROI studies are heavily influenced by the resale value of the vehicle. I tend to keep my vehicles over 10 years (my last car I kept for almost 20 years) - on that time line the resale value of the vehicle is close to zero and is no longer a signficant factor. So when I did my analysis I had weighted the operational cost insurance, fuel cost, repairs and maintenance cost more heavily.

The following numbers below is from an excel spreadsheet I did in 2009. I was looking at the five year cash flow outlay to hold on to the car...

2010 Prius II, 2010 Insight EX, 2009 Rav4 ,2010 Matrix, 2009 Yaris, 2009 Honda Fit, 2009 Accent
cash price 22000 21300 21973 17360 13005 18000 12000
taxes fees 1752 1534 1517 1397 1127 1294 1009
maintenance 4599 3472 4545 4830 4742 3298 3141
repairs 797 797 797 797 797 797 690
fuel 4719 5215 9027 8027 6995 7476 7476

total cost 33867 32318 37859 32411 26666 30865 24316

Insurance for 5 yrs 10345 9671 10606 8613 9757 9084 9954

Only the Yaris and Accent had a signficantly lower TCO for the first
five years ... These number ignore any extra saving from hypermiling

My previous car was a 1990 Honda Accord which was getting about 21 mpg. Its real advantage was that insurance was incredible cheap at $50/month compared to the 2010 Toyota Prius which was $100/month. When hypermiled the Prius is returning about 59 mpg and my fuel savings is about 500 gallons of regular 87 oct of gas per year. The average price of gas for the last two years has about $3.25/gallon so the fuel savings for the last two years has been about $1625/year which is $135/month - which helps justify the extra insurance cost.

If I compared it to a newer cheaper car like a Hyundai Accent, and if we ignore the cost of the insurance . we have two factors fuel cost and MRSP difference. The price of the Accent is about 10K cheaper than the Prius. The Prius fuel cost is half of that of the Accent. hence, you have an algebraic equation.

initial price difference =
number of year * (accent fuel cost-prius fuel cost).

e.g.
suppose the prius fuel cost = 550
then accent fuel cost = 1100
given that the initial price difference between the prius and accent
=10000
then....
10000 = number of year to break even * 550
18.2 = number of years to break even if gasoline stays at $3.24 per gallon
for the next 20 years....
of course one can drive the car twice as much
and half this time to 9 years..
or
one can increase the price of fuel 3x and then
it would axe this time by one third to 6 years...

if the trend for gasoline prices stays the same
the Price of gas will double every ten years.

 

No. If you compare like for like, Camry Hybrid and standard Camry identically equipped the price differential is about $4k. For average driver of 12,000 a year it would take about 7 years to pay off at current $4 gallon prices. If you finance the car, even longer because instead of earning interest on the $4,000 you saved, you are paying interesting on the $4,000 premium you paid for the hybrid.

This is why it is important for government to provide a tax break to encourage the purchase of cars that get high mileage since it is in national interest that US use less oil.

 

It drives me nuts that people say that the delta in initial cost must be repaid in fuel savings. Since the single largest component in TCO is depreciation, any calculation that does not include some kind of analysis of the residual value is completely disingenuous.

Walter Lee does make a good point that other factors such as insurance and maintenance must be included as well. These will improve the accuracy of the estimate, but even a first order approximation must include residual value, or it is meaningless.

 

Camry and Camry Hybrid have same depreciation rate, same relative resale value.

 

Nope. See below.

FINANCING. You can actually pay nothing up front if you like. You can recover the expenses on day 1! If the payback is less than the term of the loan, you are cash positive for your entire ownership of the car, from driving out of the dealer lot, to towing it to the junkyard.

Even if you were right that it took years to recover. We call that an investment, not charity. If I buy Microsoft stock is that a charity? It costs money, I won't see payback in dividends for years. Charity is when you give money with NO expectation of payback (and no valuable good to own).

 

Even the 75 mph freeways here in Arizona have me cringing at my wasted fuel when I travel them. There's no way I'm going to attempt to do 55 when the speed limit is 75, but oh! The awful fuel mileage it returns!

 

Ditto. I had a 2002 audi and I hate maintenance costs. I hope this one is less expensive on total repairs.
I also don't see you guys adjusting for gas prices going up.
The way I looked at it was --what other cars are $25k and then how does the Mpg stack up? Probably not the "right " way to analyze.