AAA: The average cost of your car per year: $9100

[Deberg_1990]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...costs/2070397/


The average owner of a sedan has to shell out nearly $10,000 a year to own and operate that car, according to auto club AAA.

A new AAA reports shows, on average, the cost of driving 15,000 miles a year rose 1.17 cents to 60.8 cents per mile, or $9,122 per year. Overall, that's a roughly 2% increase on the cost of operating a car last year.

Auto club AAA studies five cost categories – maintenance, fuel, tires, insurance and depreciation – for its annual "Your Driving Costs" study.

The biggest percentage increase this year was in maintenance costs, which grew by 11.26% to 4.97 cents per mile, on average, for sedan owners. Average costs in all categories are lower for smaller vehicles and higher for bigger ones.

The maintenance cost estimates are based on the cost to maintain a vehicle and perform needed repairs for five years and 75,000 miles, including labor expenses, replacement part prices and the purchase of an extended warranty.

"As a vehicle gets older you tend to encounter more significant repair costs," says Michael Calkins, AAA's manager of technical services.

Since last year's study, there were substantial increases in labor and parts costs for some models, and a significant rise in the price of extended warranties. "People are keeping cars longer," Calkins says. "Extended warranties are seeing a bit of an increase in claims. That's where the costs have gone up."

The second biggest increase: Insurance costs, which rose 2.76%, or $28, to an annual average of $1,029. AAA's insurance cost estimates are based on a low-risk driver with a clean driving record.

Fuel costs rose 1.93% to 14.45 cents per mile for the average sedan owner. The actual average cost of regular gas went up 3.84% to $3.49 per gallon; but several of the vehicles in the AAA study had small improvements in fuel efficiency, which partially offset the fuel cost increase.

Depreciation costs, which had dropped in last year's study, ticked upward slightly, by .78% to $3,571 a year. That might be because, as new vehicle sales recover, more used cars are available, which has softened the resale value of clean older models, Calkins says.

"The length of time people keep cars has been going up for the past several years, since the real estate crash," he says. "The average age of the vehicle on the road now is 11.1 years. It's not just for financial reasons that people are keeping cars long. The quality of the cars is also improving."

Tire costs did not change from last year, remaining at about one cent per mile, on average, for sedan owners.

AAA has published "Your Driving Costs" since 1950. That year, gas cost 27 cents a gallon, and it cost about 9 cents a mile to drive 10,000 miles a year


AAA report:


http://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/u...gCosts2013.pdf

[notorious]

Bull Shit

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Just curious - what goes down every year? The tax? Fuel and insurance aren't likely to change (hard to tell with fuel prices) and the chances of repair go up with age.

My taxes and insurance creep down every year since the car decreases in value.

Fuel is the long term unknown.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Let's see here, 4 years ago we bought that Camry for $10,200.

In that time we've paid $2880 for insurance, roughly $3500 for fuel, $600 in repairs, and around $1200 in licensing/taxes for a total of $18,380, which averages out to $4595/yr so far. .

Bull. You aren't spending only $150/year for all your repairs & maintenance. That's impossibly low. You spend that alone going to Jiffy Lube 4-6x per year, unless you don't change your oil. Tires cannot go more than 50K miles and be all that effective, so that's $600 right there every 3-4 years. You never repair a headlight, change air filters, get a new timing belt, or any other work on the car?


I've had Hondas and Acuras so I know foreign rice burners are good cars, but they aren't maintenance free. Not by a mile.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

My taxes and insurance creep down every year since the car decreases in value.

Fuel is the long term unknown.

I've never had my insurance change due to the age of the car (which I think is bullshit). We don't have the property tax on cars here (yet) so I was wondering if that was what he meant.

[Chazno]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Just curious - what goes down every year? The tax? Fuel and insurance aren't likely to change (hard to tell with fuel prices) and the chances of repair go up with age.

The inital cost of the car(10.2k) is included in that total. The longer he drives it, that cost is divided by more years , making it smaller.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Chazno

The inital cost of the car(10.2k) is included in that total. The longer he drives it, that cost is divided by more years , making it smaller.

I missed that he added that in.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Just curious - what goes down every year? The tax? Fuel and insurance aren't likely to change (hard to tell with fuel prices) and the chances of repair go up with age.

We'd be spreading the cost of the car over more years. Taxes go down a bit every year as well.

[007]

Drives me nuts that whenever we are in the market all the 2 year old cars have friggin 50k miles on them. always makes me consider just buyinng brand new so I can put my own miles on it and not be in a massive hole with somebody elses mileage. n We always drive our cars until they drop anyway.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Frosty

I've never had my insurance change due to the age of the car (which I think is bullshit). We don't have the property tax on cars here (yet) so I was wondering if that was what he meant.

If you have full coverage, your comprehensive and collision should be impacted by the increasing age of the car, unless its really old in which case you shouldn't have those coverages anyway.

Its possible that other things are happening in your particular situation which counters the impact of your car's age.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Bull. You aren't spending only $150/year for all your repairs & maintenance. That's impossibly low. You spend that alone going to Jiffy Lube 4-6x per year, unless you don't change your oil. Tires cannot go more than 50K miles and be all that effective, so that's $600 right there every 3-4 years. You never repair a headlight, change air filters, get a new timing belt, or any other work on the car?


I've had Hondas and Acuras so I know foreign rice burners are good cars, but they aren't maintenance free. Not by a mile.

Ok, I forgot oil changes twice a year and air filter once a year. That's another $60/year on both vehicles. And yes, a light bulb here or there, but those are negligible in cost.

So far on the Camry we had the timing belt replaced ($300) and tires replaced (another $300), and that's it. She only puts 6-7,000 miles on it a year.

As far as the Caravan, I replaced the fuel pump ($200), water pump ($50?), and put in a used starter that was $30. There's been spark plugs and some other little bullshit here and there along the way as well, and I drove the shit out of the thing.

I also have a 99 Dakota that I've had for 4 years, so far on it it's been battery ($60), 2 tires ($300), fan clutch (???), water pump ($60?) a couple sensors that were maybe $30 each. I'm not remembering the exact prices but it's still in that same $150/yr range. I've averaged about 5,000/yr on that one so it should be low.

So no bullshit.

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by Guru

Drives me nuts that whenever we are in the market all the 2 year old cars have friggin 50k miles on them. always makes me consider just buyinng brand new so I can put my own miles on it and not be in a massive hole with somebody elses mileage. n We always drive our cars until they drop anyway.

That's the way I go. Buy a new car about every 10-12 years.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by alnorth

If you have full coverage, your comprehensive and collision should be impacted by the increasing age of the car, unless its really old in which case you shouldn't have those coverages anyway.

Its possible that other things are happening in your particular situation which counters the impact of your car's age.

Just curious, at what point would you drop those coverages? Would you carry them on a car worth $5000? $3000?

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Guru

Drives me nuts that whenever we are in the market all the 2 year old cars have friggin 50k miles on them. always makes me consider just buyinng brand new so I can put my own miles on it and not be in a massive hole with somebody elses mileage. n We always drive our cars until they drop anyway.

Yeah I don't think those cars are worth it either. All the new is used up, and they still command a high price. 5-10 years old is where the most value is IMO.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

That's the way I go. Buy a new car about every 10-12 years.

There are some advantages to buying new. You can get the exact car you want with the options you want instead of just settling for what you can find, you get a full warranty, you can drive it a long time before needing repairs or risking breakdowns, and you get the piece of mind that your car hasn't been thoroughly abused or neglected before you got it. If you keep it for a long time, the extra cost isn't prohibitive.

I really lucked out with my current car, though. It was two years old with only 14,500 miles. The main thing I was looking for was that it had a manual and this one did (very rare). It was $16K (down from the new price of $23K). If I had picked up a new one, I would have chosen a different color and probably the next trim level up but I am pretty happy with what I got.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by alnorth

If you have full coverage, your comprehensive and collision should be impacted by the increasing age of the car, unless its really old in which case you shouldn't have those coverages anyway.

Its possible that other things are happening in your particular situation which counters the impact of your car's age.

I think the incremental yearly rate increases negated any drop in rates from age.