Fit cost to own - nine year anniversary
#1
12-03-2018, 08:07 AM
Fit cost to own - nine year anniversary
Hola, amigos. It's been a long time since I rapped at ya! Just though I’d post this in case anyone else finds it interesting. I just did a nine year anniversary cost analysis on my beloved 2010 Fit. BTW, still love this car.
I’m a low mileage driver (about 6500 per year). It’s cost $33,989 total, $3,769/yr., $314/mo. so far to own the car. This includes purchase price, gas, insurance, repairs, tires, etc. Parking and tolls are not included and neither is depreciation or other fancy calculations like opportunity cost (how much is lost if the money were invested instead). Excluding purchase price, it has cost $131/mo. to own the car.
At the 5 year mark, the car cost $27,330 to own. For a similarly equipped 2018 Fit, Edmunds says true 5 year cost to own is $30,828. That sounds about right when you account for inflation and more normal mileage.
Notable accomplishments. Moved four years ago using the Fit as moving van. Downsized so not a lot of stuff to move but still...
I’m a low mileage driver (about 6500 per year). It’s cost $33,989 total, $3,769/yr., $314/mo. so far to own the car. This includes purchase price, gas, insurance, repairs, tires, etc. Parking and tolls are not included and neither is depreciation or other fancy calculations like opportunity cost (how much is lost if the money were invested instead). Excluding purchase price, it has cost $131/mo. to own the car.
At the 5 year mark, the car cost $27,330 to own. For a similarly equipped 2018 Fit, Edmunds says true 5 year cost to own is $30,828. That sounds about right when you account for inflation and more normal mileage.
Notable accomplishments. Moved four years ago using the Fit as moving van. Downsized so not a lot of stuff to move but still...
Last edited by know-nothin; 03-09-2019 at 05:03 AM.
#3
12-03-2018, 04:16 PM
It would take some digging to get those numbers so I’m going to have to leave you with just the total. I was mainly interested in the total cost of car ownership so that’s how I set up my spreadsheet for tracking throughout the years.
#4
12-03-2018, 06:48 PM
You can probably estimate op gas cost by mpg and historical gas costs. Anyway not sure how much it matters as that, and even more so insurance, will vary a ton by person.
You ideally would look at depreciation as its the largest cost for most people, but, if you're going to keep the car a long time the purchase price divided by years is a reasonable estimate .. Just a little overstated not too much.
I'd have to think about what my own cost is ..
You ideally would look at depreciation as its the largest cost for most people, but, if you're going to keep the car a long time the purchase price divided by years is a reasonable estimate .. Just a little overstated not too much.
I'd have to think about what my own cost is ..
#5
12-03-2018, 07:05 PM
Here's how I'd sum up my own costs ... you'll see in the first line, not quite the same approach vs you, KN, as I still have plenty of value left in the car as far as I can tell from the listings 
Depreciation: $18.5K-12.5K / 6.5 yrs = 1230/yr
Insurance: $850/year* *YMMV
Gas: 1300 gallons @ $3/gal = $600 / year
Oil: $50*7x
Tires about $1300 .. two sets plus twice yearly swaps
Maintenance: $300
Upgrades etc: $500
This is about $20K over the course of 6.5 years and only 39K miles. There's been no real maintenance to speak of and obviously this will change sharply at some point. This is about $0.52/mile, which is pretty good. It's real hard to get under $0.50/mile unless you are buying used cars and doing all your own upkeep. The range for new cars is somewhere between $0.50 and $1.00, or even upwards for posh cars. Don't go around mentioning to people in Jeep Grand Cherokees that they're paying $1/mile to drive around ... they don't like that for some reason.
Of course you could do all sorts of things to adjust this for someone else's situation. Maybe they drive more miles so depreciation is more. Maybe they're real bad drivers in Detroit and have to pay $4500/year for insurance. Maybe the listings for 2012s for $12500 are way optimistic (seems high IMO, even for a low-mileage car). Regardless, this is not a super expensive car to own .. but next I would like to hear from the 2015 crowd
Depreciation: $18.5K-12.5K / 6.5 yrs = 1230/yr
Insurance: $850/year* *YMMV
Gas: 1300 gallons @ $3/gal = $600 / year
Oil: $50*7x
Tires about $1300 .. two sets plus twice yearly swaps
Maintenance: $300
Upgrades etc: $500
This is about $20K over the course of 6.5 years and only 39K miles. There's been no real maintenance to speak of and obviously this will change sharply at some point. This is about $0.52/mile, which is pretty good. It's real hard to get under $0.50/mile unless you are buying used cars and doing all your own upkeep. The range for new cars is somewhere between $0.50 and $1.00, or even upwards for posh cars. Don't go around mentioning to people in Jeep Grand Cherokees that they're paying $1/mile to drive around ... they don't like that for some reason.
Of course you could do all sorts of things to adjust this for someone else's situation. Maybe they drive more miles so depreciation is more. Maybe they're real bad drivers in Detroit and have to pay $4500/year for insurance. Maybe the listings for 2012s for $12500 are way optimistic (seems high IMO, even for a low-mileage car). Regardless, this is not a super expensive car to own .. but next I would like to hear from the 2015 crowd
Last edited by fujisawa; 12-03-2018 at 07:25 PM.
#7
12-05-2018, 09:32 PM
I have someone else do the repairs. Outside of routine maintenance, the repairs have been 3 TMPS sensors replaced, evacuate and recharge A/C (I don’t know if that’s considered regular maintenance but the A/C got really poor at some point and this fixed it), one new tire replaced prematurely due to a screw near the sidewall (could not be patched), and 4 new tires at 50,121 miles.
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