Stubborn people

Hi All,

I think the issue with doing these five year ownership evaluations is that the uncertainty of resale is huge compared to the cost differences.

I analyzed over the complete car life, figuring whenever I traded the car in, its value would be based on its useable life left. Similar for alternative vehicle.

Now I am not familiar with the Honda and Toyota Resale values, I have direct experience for the Saturn SL2, my last car. Bought in 2000, a MY 2001, driven for 5 1/2 years - Kelly bluebook was less than 6 K, and the new price was 15K. The actual sale value was 5 K. Tried to sell at 5.5 K , but did not get any serious nibbles until i dropped price to 5 K. Needless to say dealer trade in would have been much less. Why is this so? Well, even though the car is only halfway through its life, it will need allot more than half the the normal ware and tare maintence to keep it going to 140K miles.

So, I say the only ACCURATE way to evaluate is to evaluate over the expected life of the car. The Prius is a 150K mile plus car. Allot of other cars are too, but with allot of extra maintenance. The issue is if you evaluate to 150K miles for both cars, you are going to need an alternator, starter and 3 or 4 front brake jobs and one rear brake job on a standard car, and 3 or 4 batteries. Most likely the standard car is going to need transmission work which coincidentally is similar in cost to a Prius battery. These are the maintenances that are not going to be needed on the Prius.

The basic flaw with ALL these 5 year evaluations, is the period of ownership. YOU do pay for all the stuff that breaks after you own a car, in the RESALE price.